I never lost my head in the Man United dressing room - but Ralf Rangnick decision left me raging

Former Man United man Phil Jones has lifted the lid on the time he lost his cool with Ralf Rangnick during the latter's time at Old Trafford.

Former defender Phil Jones has recalled the moment he lost his cool with former Manchester United interim manager Ralf Rangnick during a 4-0 defeat to Liverpool at Anfield in April 2022.

Jones, who officially announced his retirement from his playing career last month, made five appearances for United during Rangnick's relatively short time in charge at Old Trafford.

After making his long-awaited comeback from injury against Wolves in January 2022, making his first appearance for the club in more than 700 days, he made his second Premier League start of the season at Anfield three months later, joining forces with Victor Lindelof and Harry Maguire in a three-man defence.

READ MORE: United player is splitting opinion but the evidence cannot be ignored

READ MORE: Lisandro Martinez was right about two of United's summer signings

Following goals from Luis Diaz and Mohamed Salah, United found themselves 2-0 down by half-time, resulting in Rangnick making a tactical change, taking Jones off in exchange for Jadon Sancho.

Jones felt he was an easy choice to be hooked at the halfway stage, so much so he has revealed he was "raging" with the now-Austria boss. United conceded two more goals after the break, with Salah scoring his second after Sadio Mane had earlier made it 3-0.

Speaking on the High Performance Podcast, Jones said: "I've never lost my head in a dressing room and I've never been emotional enough to lose myself in the dressing room, and I think that's the only time in my career that I completely lost it.

"I was absolutely raging. Raging. That he humiliated me. Humiliated me in front of an Anfield crowd first and foremost, fearsome rivals, and the fans and my family and the players.

"We were 2-0 down at half-time, weren't great, I don't think we had a shot on target first half. Nothing was coming off. And I'd actually done alright in the game.

"Considering where I'd been, what I'd been going through, knee and injury-wise. I'll look back at the game and I'll highlight anything, I didn't give the ball away, I was calm under pressure.

"I'm not saying I was exceptional but I definitely didn't deserve to come off at half-time. There were far worse players on the pitch that day, I was the easy one to come off. You're an easy scapegoat."

Outlining how Rangnick made the decision to take him off, Jones continued: "At half-time I remember Ralf came in and said 'I'm going to make a change, Phil's going to come off'.

"I remember the whole dressing room went like [eyes open] as if to say, 'is he bringing Phil off here?' I took my boots off and I slammed them on the floor and I said, 'You're taking the **** out of me'.

"Everyone said, 'calm down, calm down'. I get irate now, it really got to me."

Despite his frustrations, Jones later apologised to Rangnick for his outburst.

"I just couldn't get my head around it," he added. "I apologised afterwards, 'said it was out of character for me, I shouldn't have done that, at that moment that was not what was needed in the dressing room', but you can understand I was pretty peeved off."