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Ralf Rangnick has defended his decision not to hand Jesse Lingard a final Old Trafford goodbye on Monday

MANCHESTER UNITED manager Ralf Rangnick has defended his decision not to play Jesse Lingard against Brentford on Monday.

Lingard has become a bit part player at Manchester United and is a free agent at the end of the season.

The 3-0 win over Brentford would have been the Englishman's last appearance at the club and that never came to fruition.

Rangnick brought on Edinson Cavani, Juan Mata, and Nemanja Matic instead prompting a strong response from Lingard's representees.

🗣: “20 years of blood, sweat and tears, 4 domestic trophies, 3 cup final goals. Not even a farewell.”

Jesse Lingards brother on Instagram #MUFC pic.twitter.com/FrbhGENJmw

— United Zone (@ManUnitedZone_) May 3, 2022

Louie Scott, a brother and agent of Lingard's slammed the German on Instagram by saying: "20 years of blood sweat and tears, 4 domestic trophies, 3 cup final goals," the post began.

"Not even a farewell. No wonder it's Conference League next year.

"Attacking players for celebrations when the club's being sold to the Super League OK.

"Class of 92, Busby Babes - you're ran by people who don't even know the offside trap.

"Classless and the fans need to realise."

Now the United boss has defended his subs by claiming he has played more times under him than under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and caretaker Michael Carrick, the previous two coaches

"To start with, in the last couple of weeks under my tenure he has played far more games than he used to," said Rangnick.

"Number two, on game day against Chelsea, he asked me to release him from the game and training the following day for personal family reasons.

"This was the reason with only three substitutes I had to take a decision between Edinson Cavani and Jesse Lingard, or the young Alejandro Garnacho, who I would have loved to have brought on and given a chance to play.

"I took the decision to bring on Edinson. Had I not brought him on, someone might have asked if it's classless not to bring on Cavani or Garnacho. After two substitutes, you have to take a decision, and this will not be to the liking of everybody. This is part of the game."

Adding further to the Instagram attack by Scott, he added "To be honest, I'm not reading a lot. I've not had the time in the last six months to read. I'm not on Instagram, I'm not on Facebook, and I'm not engaged in those areas.

"My focus has been to develop the team. In these days with social media, there is always somebody posting something and it's important not to take too much notice of that."

United play Brighton at 5.30 tomorrow in a game that mean's very little for their season.

🗣 "This will not be to the liking of everybody, but it's also part of the game."

Ralf Rangnick responds to the comments made by Jesse Lingard's brother calling it "classless" not to give the player a proper farewell at Old Trafford pic.twitter.com/GDICSHFjqX

— Football Daily (@footballdaily) May 6, 2022