Manchester United's Ralf Rangnick believes it would have been unreasonable of the club to ban players from taking international breaks during the March internationals.

In the wake of United's Champions League defeat against Atletico Madrid, the Red Devils had an 18-day gap between games as they failed to move to the FA Cup quarter-finals and Liverpool faced Nottingham Forest in the last eight.

In the meantime, Rangnick travelled to Barbados and was spotted at the second Test match between the West Indies and England, while Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho were spotted in Dubai, and Jesse Lingard shared photos from his trip to Milan on social media. Avram Glazer, the company's co-chairman, attended the Formula One Grand Prix in Bahrain.

Former Manchester United captain Gary Neville has accused the club's players and staff of being 'tone deaf' in their public appearances, but Rangnick has remained unfazed by the accusations.

As Rangnick put it: "I can see where you're coming from, but it leads us right back to where we are now." "Our team's lack of competitive games for two-and-a-half weeks is something that can be fixed, and hopefully we'll never find ourselves in that scenario again

"Former athletes and TV experts have a natural tendency to have a strong opinion. The circumstance, on the other hand, was unique in nature. With two and a half weeks having passed since our last game against Atletico Madrid, as well as an international break, we only had six or seven players available for training.

"I don't think that would have made sense, though it would have made sense for public perception, to show 'listen, we're training every day with five or six on-field guys,'" says the coach. However, I don't believe it would have made any sense. The six players will not be in a better frame of mind if you do this since they will be physically exhausted.

"As a result, we decided to give them a couple of days off, as well as players who were on international duty, and then have them return for a week, while we prepare for the game." "Since the majority of our players were away on international duty only returned yesterday, we only had one day to prepare for the match."