Ralf Rangnick has called on Manchester United’s underperforming stars to use Anthony Elanga as an example to follow after the young winger’s heroics in the Champions League.
United delivered another uninspiring performance for the most part in their last-16 first-leg tie against Atletico Madrid at the Wanda Metropolitano Stadium in Spain on Wednesday night, deservedly trailing as a result of Joao Felix’s early header.
However, they managed to level the tie and take a useful 1-1 draw back to Old Trafford for the second leg on March 15 courtesy of Elanga, who came on for the subdued Marcus Rashford to net with his very first touch 10 minutes from time.
It was another huge highlight in the young career of United’s popular academy graduate, who has impressed with his senior performances this season and also put the seal on a thrilling 4-2 win over fierce rivals Leeds in the Premier League at Elland Road on Sunday.
And interim boss Rangnick evidently wishes more of his players would follow the Swedish teenager’s lead when it comes to expressing themselves on the pitch.
"He is playing as if a dream comes true, it is just joy and fun to watch him play and I wish a few other players would take him as a role model," Rangnick told BT Sport.
"He is enjoying himself on the pitch and that it is what is all about. This is what I would wish in the future when we play them in a couple of weeks."
Waxing lyrical about Elanga - now United’s youngest ever goalscorer in the Champions League knockout stages - again in his post-match press conference in Madrid, Rangnick said: “Anthony, in all the games that he has played so far, just shows that he’s playing with all the passion, all the fun and all the joy.
“He’s just enjoying himself on the pitch and he’s fully aware of his strengths, his assets, his weapons. He’s always trying to play and show those weapons. This is what he did again today.
“Not only the goal he scored, he had two or three great runs and whenever he did that you could all of a sudden see that Atletico had problems with this kind of approach. But we have to show that on other positions as well, so not only with Anthony Elanga or one or two other players.
“We just have to play like that on every single position and if we want to proceed to the quarter-finals in a couple of weeks at Old Trafford we have to play exactly like that.”
Rangnick also spoke of Elanga shining in his very first training session after succeeding Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in December and revealed that he managed to convince the youngster to remain at Old Trafford after he had been looking to leave on loan during the January transfer window.
"Of course I had heard about his name before (I joined) but I didn't know him as a player because he didn't play for Manchester United," Rangnick said.
"On the first training session, the night before the Crystal Palace game, he was the player with the best training performance, so I asked my colleagues and my staff members about him and then found out he had almost already decided to leave the club on loan.
"He came on against Palace as we all know and the week after I said, 'listen, I want you stay and see how you do, how you are doing in training and the games until the closure of the transfer window'.
"I think right now he has just shown what is possible in football with the right mentality, the right approach to go into games. This is exactly what he did and what he always does in every training session."
