Simon Stone
BBC Sport at Old Trafford

Manchester United manager Ralf Rangnick has made a fairly forceful statement in his programme notes for tonight's game.

There has been a lot of talk around vaccinations in football, specifically the number of players who have opted not to be jabbed.

Rangnick has made his feelings clear.

"These are very strange times in which we live," said the German.

"But the most important thing everybody can do is to be sensible and follow medical advice to be vaccinated."

Image source, Getty Images

Manchester United's performance has been described as a "naive interpretation" of Ralf Rangnick's system by Athletic journalist Carl Anka.

United slumped to a draw at Newcastle and look disjointed for much of the game.

"What really stood out was the poor body language. To play in that Ralf Rangnick style, a lot of what you have to do is the work against the ball," Anka told BBC Radio 5 Live's Football Daily podcast.

"Three out of the four central tenets of what Rangnick is trying to do is based around your behaviour out of possession.

"You saw a United team complaining to the ref, shrugging shoulders, looking up to the gods defeated. It seemed it as if they hadn’t quite tuned into the counter-pressing system that Rangnick wants, which is concerning.

"What I saw from Manchester United was a very naive interpretation of what Rangnick wants to do."

Former Scotland winger Pat Nevin was also critical of United's display, calling it "laughable" at times.

"There was one time in the first half where Bruno Fernandes went to close down the goalkeeper and there was not a United player within 40 yards of him," he said.

"You don’t press as one - you either do or you don’t as a group. It was bordering on laughable because they cannot do it that way."

Listen to the full discussion of United's performance from 04'45 on the Football Daily podcast on BBC Sounds

Image source, Getty Images

So Manchester United have a little bit of something to prove tonight after producing a performance that boss Ralf Rangnick said was one he "did not like at all" at Newcastle on Monday.

Let's be frank about it, they were awful. Lucky to snatch a point really.

In a run (admittedly Covid-manufactured) against the Premier League's bottom three, nine points would have been the expected outcome. Seven is the very minimum that will be tolerated and they can only hit that with a win tonight.

United fans will also be hoping to see a bit more of an attacking edge tonight. It has been a bit of a struggle of late for them to really hurt their opponents, many of which have been conceding for fun.

Sid Dodia: Amazes me when you see the top half of the table and you see Man Utd on 7th with 22 points behind Man city its just makes me sad i mean really sad.

Mikey Gear: am guessing the only reason Varane is not starting is because he just came back from a long injury lay off. There is no way Maguire has performed better than him to warrant his inclusion

Jon Walters
Former Burnley and Republic of Ireland midfielder on BBC Radio 5 Live

They have games in hand but they need a result quickly. When you are in the Premier League, a team like Burnley, you always look at the teams that come up and those in trouble and think 'are we better than them?'.

Generally you have a litle bit more quality and think you are safer. As the years go by you want to add a little bit more quality, but it seems to be a difficult year and Sean Dyche has not even filled the bench tonight.

You don't want to disrupt that togetherness and Sean said the biggest strength is the unity in the dressing room, but without a shadow of a doubt they need some help (in January).

Burnley goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey is making his first Premier League start since 24 June 2020 when he was at Crystal Palace. Liverpool beat the Eagles 4-0 in that match.

Hennessey actually kept a clean sheet the last time he played against Manchester United at Old Trafford in November 2018 (0-0 with Crystal Palace).

In the build-up to this game, Sean Dyche has also had some things to say about player welfare. He says the way players are looked after is "off the scale" in response to Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp suggesting Burnley put players at risk by not backing a return to five substitutions.

The Clarets were among the clubs who blocked the move amid rising Covid cases during the festive period.

"The welfare of my players here is absolutely fantastic," Dyche said as Burnley prepare to end an enforced 18-day break when they face Manchester United on Thursday.

"Health and wellbeing is top of the list and we do that well here.

"Add to that the challenge of Covid. The players have got information coming out of their ears over the situation, medical support and the Premier League offering them all the testing programme.

"So it does make me question the idea of player welfare.

"The players have to be careful themselves, because the welfare is off the scale."

Image source, Getty Images

Tonight is Burnley's first game since the 0-0 home draw with West Ham on 12 December. It will take them to 16 played, still three less than the two sides below them and at least one less than all those above them.

Sean Dyche says his players are missing football but he isn't concerned that the Clarets - who have had four matches postponed over the past four weeks - are playing catch-up.

Speaking before the postponement of his side's Boxing Day game with Everton, Dyche said: "Football can be a stressful business, but when it's gone away, trust me, you miss it. The players are ready to play, put it that way.

"I've never really bothered about all that sort of stuff because at the end of the day the games are waiting for us.

"Whatever comes our way, we have to manage it, deal with it and prepare for it - and that's what we'll do."

Image source, Getty Images

Has it gone as well as Manchester United fans hoped? Well, interim boss Ralf Rangnick says disruptions caused by Covid-19 have impacted his progress since taking over at the club.

The German, 63, is unbeaten in four games since replacing Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at the end of November.

But he says the Covid outbreak that led to the closure of the club's Carrington training base and the postponement of two games has complicated his work.

"Of course not," Rangnick said when asked if he had achieved his targets.

"Every coach, every ambitious coach - and there's no difference between other coaches and myself in that area - wants to take faster steps and larger steps forward.

"But in order to do that, you need to be able to train."

After beating Crystal Palace and Norwich either side of a Champions League draw with Young Boys in Rangnick's first three matches, games at Brentford and at home to Brighton were postponed because of a number of Covid cases at United.

They returned to action at Newcastle on Monday, with Rangnick admitting that he "did not like the performance at all" as his side escaped St James' Park with a 1-1 draw.

Sho: If you wanna get Varane back to up to speed keep starting him. Yes he was poor against Newcastle but it was first game back. Maguire has been atrocious all season.

Merrion Strategy: An entertaining score draw at Old Trafford will do Everton nicely. Pegs Burnley back below us and Man U above us in time for Rafa’s New Year assault on the European places. In other news, hell freezes over.

Joe Wedgwood: I'm utterly perplexed as to what Donny VDB needs to do to get in this side? The boy needs to leave immediately in Jan, enormous waste of his young career.

Image source, Getty Images

We should have had two matches tonight. It was meant to be a bit of a relegation battle two-hander with Newcastle travelling to Everton.

However, in another of those covid-related postponements, the game at Goodison Park has been knocked on the head at the request of the visitors due to a mixture of the illness and injury (including Callum Wilkson, above).

It means Burnley now have a chance to put some genuine distance between themselves and the Magpies, who coincidentally closed the gap on Monday by drawing at home with the Clarets' opponents tonight.

Those last two that Simon mentions really do need to get out of there and find a gig somewhere. Both of them are too good to be sat doing nothing week in, week out.

Just two days until the madness of the January window gets under way.

Simon Stone
BBC Sport at Old Trafford

Manchester United interim boss Ralf Rangnick pulled Eric Bailly back from taking a flight to join up with the Ivory Coast squad for the African Cup of Nations to play tonight.

Rangnick clearly felt Raphael Varane was not fit enough to play twice in four days - Victor Lindelof is isolating - but it will be interesting to hear from the German about the rest of his changes - and whether they were tactical or triggered by the dismal performance at Newcastle on Monday.

Either way, Donny van de Beek and Jesse Lingard still don't get a start.

I'm confused now. Remember when Michael Owen said he'd only seen eight films ever, adding #hatefilms to his tweets?

He then listed the ones he had been "forced to watch". They were: Rocky, Heat, Ghost, Jurassic Park, Cool Runnings, Seabiscuit, Karate Kid and Forrest Gump.

No Goal! on that list. But there he is in that photo in the previous entry, at the premiere. So did he have a photos taken and then slink off? Or has he forgotten that he saw Goal! Maybe he was so angry that he ended up part of the exchange deal that saw Santiago Munez join Real Madrid in the sequel that he's blocked it all out.

Image source, Getty Images

Want to know why players might be interested in joining Newcastle this January?

'Is it because they're apparently the richest club in the world?' I hear you cry. Nope. It's actually because of that film 'Goal!'. You know the one - young undocumented Mexican immigrant signs up for the Magpies, struggles and then becomes a huge star after scoring against Liverpool to help them qualify for the Champions League. It's full of football superstars like Zinedine Zidane, David Beckham, Cristiano Ronaldo and Titus Bramble.

It genuinely influenced Callum Wilson to join the club and could have a similar effect on others next month, as it says in the piece on our website.

I'm now assuming Sander Berge joined Sheffield United because he saw When Saturday Comes.

Harry Maguire certainly had a shocker of a game at Newcastle. We've all seen him play better, though, so we know he's capable.

Looking glass half full, this is a big chance to start putting things right by getting on top of a tricky, physical striker like Chris Wood.

Sho: I think at this point Maguire is undroppable. Seems as though he can do whatever he wants and he won't be dropped or lose the captaincy. Unbelievable.