Man Utd fans turn on "rusty" Raphael Varane for mistake that led to Newcastle goal

Raphael Varane lost the ball to Newcastle midfielder Sean Longstaff, who set up Magpies winger Allan Saint-Maximin to open the scoring at St James' Park

Manchester United fans have turned on Raphael Varane after his mistake led to Newcastle opening the scoring in their Premier League clash.

The Red Devils travelled to St James’ Park needing to win to close the gap on fourth-placed Arsenal as they battle for qualification for next season’s Champions League.

Interim manager Ralf Rangnick made two changes from the side that narrowly defeated Norwich, bringing Varane back into the starting line-up after his recovery from injury.

It was his first start in the Premier League since October, but it was a disastrous opening to the game for the Frenchman, who joined United for £40million in the summer transfer window.

As the match entered the seventh minute, Varane attempted to bring down the ball after it had been flicked on by Magpies midfielder Sean Longstaff.

But under pressure from Longstaff and striker Callum Wilson, Varane lost the ball allowing the former to play in Allan Saint-Maximin.

The winger cut inside before stretching to shoot from outside the box, sending the ball flying past David de Gea to put Newcastle a goal up.

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The Sky Sports commentary team of Martin Tyler and Don Goodman described Varane as being “rusty” following his long absence from action.

And United fans turned on the World Cup winner after his catastrophic error left United with much work to do so early into the game.

“Maguire is the scapegoat after Varane messed up,” one fan wrote with two laughing face emojis.

“Varane 50M,” another added with several laughing face emojis.

“Ramos made Varane look good. Man is average now. God go punish Madrid for making us sign him,” a third tweeted.

“Varane and Maguire already dropping stinkers,” a fourth fan observed.

“Varane had a big part to play in that goal. Whether you idolize him or you hate him. That's a fact,” a fifth wrote.