Manchester United have written a remarkable turnaround in their Premier League form after starting the season with back-to-back humiliating defeats against Brighton and Brentford.
Erik ten Hag deserves credit for the improvement in form as he changed personnel and made tactical adjustments that have seen United overtake arch-rivals Liverpool and table leaders Arsenal.
In the four games since the Brentford thrashing, the Red Devils have scored seven and conceded just two goals.
Ronaldo about to leave?
One of the biggest beneficiaries of the new Ten Hag system has been Marcus Rashford. The mancuniano has been deployed as the central axis of the attack and has returned the coach’s faith with three goals and two assists.
Cristiano Ronaldo has only managed one league start so far and has yet to open his account for the season. He has looked off the pace, which was to be expected since he missed the preseason for personal reasons.
Source: ‘The coach went to great lengths to give the team detailed information about what he wanted them to do and how he wanted them to play. Ronaldo is not up to date and it depends on his instinct when he plays, that doesn’t work in the Ten Hag system.” [@TheSun via @MailSport]
— The United Stand (@UnitedStandMUFC) September 12, 2022
The Sun has explosively claimed that “Manchester United’s stars believe Cristiano Ronaldo is still looking for a move, and has his eye on a January exit.”
It is no secret that the Portuguese striker wanted to leave in the summer transfer market for a Champions League club. But despite the best attempts of his agent Jorge Mendes, no club was ahead.
His performance in United’s loss to Real Sociedad in their Europa League opener showed that age might finally be catching up with the 37-year-old.
Too often he dipped in search of the ball and without a focal point, players struggled to penetrate Sociedad’s defence.
And most of the team feel that tactically they are not ready to lead United’s line with players who prefer Rashford in that position.
CR7 does not match ETH’s vision
“The coach went to great lengths to give the team detailed information about what he wanted them to do and how he wanted them to play. Ronaldo is not up to date with that and he relies on instinct when he plays. But that doesn’t work in the Ten Hag system,” the sources told the publication.
And one of the most damning verdicts in the article was the fact that Ten Hag sees it as a shock surrogate rather than a headline.
Ronaldo has always thrived due to his often selfish desire to score goals and that is not going to work with the former Ajax boss as he looks to build a team capable of following his instructions.
“It is likely that Ronaldo will find himself on the bench again in the future. And he will have to get used to scoring a lot less goals because he only comes to him towards the end of games when Ten Hag has already made changes that make United less attacking.
“You need to realize that it will only work if you tune into ten Hag’s plans.”
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