Cristiano Ronaldo is definitely a world class player that deserves respect at Manchester United. He deserves to start matches and prove his status.
Ten Hag has opted to use Antony on the flanks a position Cristiano Ronaldo fits well. This has led to Cristiano watching from the bench most of the premier league matches. Ten Hag has sometimes played Cristiano as a number nine in the Europa league. However in the premier league the presence of Rashford and Martial who seem to be the options for Ten Hag have hindered Cristiano from getting play time.
In the match against Everton Martial got injured in the 29th minute giving Ten Hag no option but to field in Cristiano Ronaldo. The giant needed only 15 minutes to prove that he deserved to be in the starting team. His goal was gave Manchester United three important points to move to position five on the English premier league table.
Manchester United need to know who is Cristiano Ronaldo and give him the credit he deserves. If Ten Hag could inspire the team to treat Ronaldo has the star he is and depend on him as their key goal scorer, results are going to be seen.
They need to treat Ronaldo just like the way City is treating Halaand. Make him the scorer, provide him with quality passes. In the opponent's box Cristiano remains to be dangerous. He only needs the team to be behind him. Defenders have a very short history of Martial has a scorer but they know Cristiano has a world class finisher. Just give him ten matches to prove he is still on that rank.
Unfortunately that is unlikely to happen mainly because Ten Hag's philosophy is rooted in trusting the young players. This is evident from his past job at Ajax. He used a team made of very young talented players and nurtured them to make big impacts.
During the Manchester derby for example Cristiano and Casemiro were bitterly watching from outside as Manchester City thrashed over Manchester United. It's time Ten Hag learns to blend the young and the experienced players. He also need to choose his winning team as early as possible and stick to it.
If Cristiano was trusted early and treated as the key scorer he could be the only player with the ability to compete against Halaand. In the English premier league actually Halaand is definitely going to win the golden boot not because he is superman or robotic as some refer him to, but because the whole team even fellow strikers like Foden and Mahrez are all playing for Halaand to score. If similar case is transferred to experienced scorer like Cristiano then we could be seeing a competitive goal scoring season rather than a monotonous Halaand show.
The goal scored against Everton was his 144th goal for Manchester United and his 700th for all clubs he has played for. The guy is still strong and his career could end in a style if Ten Hag and teammates could give him the support, trust and respect he deserves.
Content created and supplied by: BrotherSuleiman (via Opera News )
COMMENTS