Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag has been criticised for the strange way he’s handling the current situation with Cristiano Ronaldo at Old Trafford.
It’s an open secret that the Portugal international seemed to do his bit to get away from Man Utd this summer, failing to report for much of pre-season and doing little to calm the speculation over his future.
It seems that Ten Hag may now be punishing Ronaldo slightly by failing to include him in his plans more, with the 37-year-old surprisingly left on the bench for the entire 90 minutes against Manchester City at the weekend.
Speaking exclusively to CaughtOffside, former Red Devils ace Luke Chadwick admitted he couldn’t quite get his head around Ten Hag’s approach, particularly with the Dutchman also suggesting in his post-match interview that he left Ronaldo on the bench out of respect due to the difficult nature of the game.
“It was surprising that we didn’t see him come on at half time, when the team as 4-0 down,” Chadwick said. “Obviously Martial came on and the manager said he needed minutes, though it’s a bit of a strange place to be getting minutes, when you’re losing heavily in a Manchester Derby. In hindsight it was a good decision as he came on and scored two goals. He had a really strong pre-season and does look like someone who could improve a lot under Erik ten Hag.
“Still, it was quite strange that Ronaldo didn’t come on at the Etihad. It was quite strange to see the manager saying he was being respectful to him by not bringing him on, as I’m sure Ronaldo would’ve wanted to come on and tried to make an impact in a big game like this.
“It’ll be interesting to see what happens on Thursday evening, as that looks to be where Ronaldo’s getting the majority of his minutes at the moment in time. It is strange to see and I’m sure Ronaldo’s not happy with it. He’s one of the best to have ever played the game, and he’s going to be wanting to play football, especially with the World Cup in a couple of months’ time.
“And of course after the World Cup we’ll be coming towards the transfer window, so we’ll see if he will leave in that period, but it seems strange really that United didn’t let him go in the summer because he doesn’t seem to be getting much playing time at all. It seems a bit of a waste to have him there just sitting on the bench, I can’t imagine he’s going to want to do that for much longer.”
It’s sad to see things ending this way between Ronaldo and United, with the veteran forward undoubtedly set to go down as one of their best ever players after a memorable first spell under Sir Alex Ferguson, even if his second stint at the club hasn’t exactly gone to plan.