Ralf Rangnick sat stoically in the austere press room for the best part of five minutes, waiting for the sound issue to be addressed on the Zoom call, until he exited to attend other media commitments pitchside.
At just gone 10.30pm, Rangnick strode across the pitch in the swirling rain, shielded only by a navy cap, to collect his belongings from the temporary away dressing room, located in the opposite corner to where the Manchester United team coach was humming.
Sean Dyche was by now on the post-match call, the sound finally repaired, brimming with repartee with the Burnley beat reporters. As soon as Dyche ended his debrief, the meeting ended. The final message from a United official came at 10.50pm: "Press conference has all been dismantled."
A dismantling is required at United, who prolonged the pattern with another 1-1 stalemate with the 20th-placed Premier League side. As Aston Villa discovered last month, United are prone to letting teams off the hook after a dominant first-half.
Supporters are becoming apathetic in a season that, barring a miracle, will end trophyless and, from a journalistic perspective, there is next to nothing to go at.
The officiating United have encountered in their last two games has bordered on the jobsworth but United had ample time to rise above it against lowly-ranked teams. Burnley only equalised in the 47th minute, and with additional time United practically had an entire half to salvage the match. Their supine mentality emerges whenever there is a setback, whatever the time.
As perverse as it is to consider the positives after two poor results, United can extract encouragement from Paul Pogba's impressive return from injury and Jadon Sancho showing up. They were their best players at Turf Moor and though Pogba is caveated with the short time left on his contract, Sancho may be integral to United for the best part of a decade.
In his first matches in charge, Rangnick peculiarly substituted Sancho against Crystal Palace and Norwich before dropping him at Newcastle. Sancho immediately benefited from Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's dismissal, scoring confidently against Villarreal and Chelsea, and tormenting Arsenal under Michael Carrick.
That confidence was lost in a difficult January but has now returned. Burnley was a night of season-highs for Sancho: he touched the ball the most times he ever has in a Premier League game, was involved in seven moves that led to a shot at goal, completed 54 passes, attempted six dribbles and completed five.
Of the front three, Sancho was always certain to stay on. Marcus Rashford was bright, combining with Luke Shaw for Paul Pogba's goal and almost assisting a crafty winner by Raphael Varane, though he ignored a key pass for Diogo Dalot.
It is a reflection of Rangnick's trust in Sancho he has started him on the left and Rashford on the right in the last two matches. United changed the goalposts with Sancho in the summers they tried to sign and then signed him. In 2020, he was the right wing priority and a year later he was a mere winger.
United have had a surplus of left wingers since they signed Memphis Depay in 2015 and Sancho is the latest. He played the majority of last season from the left for Borussia Dortmund and Solskjaer was not entirely oblivious to this, as Sancho started four of his first five United games on the left, but he was still intended for the right.
Those who have worked with Rashford say he 'hates' playing on the right and he has hardly concealed it himself. Solskjaer, Jose Mourinho and Gareth Southgate were in agreement he was at his most effective from the left and it was from there that Rashford embarked on career-best form in October 2019.
Rashford turns 25 in October and it is difficult to envisage him forging a long-term career on the right, unless the next United manager can hot-house him. Nor is Rashford in a position to resent Sancho's privileges after his annus horribilis of 2021.
Sancho's struggles in his first six months since a £72.9million transfer were not remotely surprising. He operated under no pressure in Dortmund and, once thrown into the pressure cooker of United, felt the heat. Last month, Rangnick pointed to his head to demonstrate the mental fragility Sancho encountered in transitioning from the Bundesliga to the Premier League.
"It's a difference: if you come as an 18-year-old, unknown, talented English boy to Borussia Dortmund, from then on you can only improve, you can only make a success out of that," Rangnick said.
"The level of expectation was a lot lower compared to the situation where you come at the age of 21, you come to a club like Manchester United for a high transfer fee, with a high level of expectation. Everyone expected from him that he would be one of the best players in the team. This is psychologically, emotionally a more challenging situation than the one at Borussia Dortmund."
Rangnick also noted Sancho preferred operating from the left. United's attacking balance is threatened again without an available right-footed left winger, but Sancho and Rashford interchanged smoothly at Burnley and the sudden exodus of attacking wide players could benefit both.
At full-time, Sancho gifted his shirt to a supporter. Even in the filthy Lancashire weather, it will have been drenched more with sweat than rain.
