Cristiano Ronaldo’s second spell at Manchester United was not the fairytale return that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Erik ten Hag hoped it would be.
Manchester United believed they were gearing up for a Premier League title push under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in 2021 when Cristiano Ronaldo was signed from Juventus.
But it quickly turned sour and Solskjaer was sacked in November of that year following a poor start to the season.
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Ronaldo ended up making an explosive exit from United just a year later after falling out with newly-appointed manager Erik ten Hag.
Ten Hag’s former assistant Steve McClaren has now opened up on the clashes that Cristiano Ronaldo had on the training ground, and it also explains why Solskjaer failed.
Cristiano Ronaldo refuted pressing instructions at Man United
Solskjaer’s United was focused on quick transitions, pressing on the front foot and hurting teams with quick, incisive counter-attacks. When Ten Hag came in, he too tried to introduce a high press and a physically intense style of play.
Signing Ronaldo went against Solskjaer’s own philosophy, and he certainly didn’t fit into Ten Hag’s plans. While the Portuguese icon scored plenty of goals, the team as a whole was not functioning as intended.
Speaking on The Good, The Bad and The Football podcast, McClaren revealed that Ronaldo would often clash with Ten Hag on the training pitch about pressing from the front.
“There were a lot of battles on that training field,” McClaren said. “There was a lot of ‘all I want you to do is this, this, this and this.’ That was Erik’s coaching – Ronnie this is your job.
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“I used to say to Ronnie, ‘all he wants you to do is, you’re the first press, make one run, make two runs, and maybe make a third one, if you feel like it. And then, recover back into the middle, in case we win the ball, and then we can play to you. That’s all he wants you to do.’
“If you can’t do that, you won’t be playing. Or if you won’t do that, you can’t be playing. Okay, or he won’t pick you. I’m telling you, he won’t pick you.
“It was a little bit of a fight. Not a fight, but a standoff, and who is going to win? Erik stuck to his guns. I think most managers would accommodate to that. Some managers are like that. But he stuck to his guns.”
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In hindsight, Solskjaer admitted he was wrong about Ronaldo and the decision to bring him back to Manchester.
“It was a decision that was very difficult to turn down and I felt we had to take it, but it turned out wrong,” Solskjaer admitted.
But ultimately, it derailed a promising, young, exciting United side.
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McClaren has given a sneak peak into what life was like at United with Ronaldo and Ten Hag, but clearly the Portuguese forward didn’t want to press high, and that will have damaged Solskjaer’s plans too.
Solskjaer had United finishing second and reaching cup finals and he was looking to make that final step for the Red Devils to become champions, but signing Ronaldo proved to be a backwards step.
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