Portuguese legend Cristiano Ronaldo did not work out at Manchester United under manager Erik Ten Hag.
The versatile attacker was always benched with Ten Hag going for England international Marcus Rashford. Ronaldo eventually fell out with his manager and left the Red Devils for the Middle East where he has been playing for Saudi Pro League club Al Nassr.
South Africa legend Benni McCarthy, who served the Red Devils for two years, has revealed why Ten Hag did not start Ronaldo Regularly.
‘Ronaldo was varying a lot'
“Erik wanted pressing from the start,” the former Orlando Pirates forward stated as quoted by the Manchester Evening News.
“And I think Ronaldo, when he came to United, in his early years at Real Madrid, he was able to do what Erik expected him to do like high press and then still have enough in the tank to get himself into positions to score.
“So, Ronaldo was varying his game a lot, but it wasn’t how Erik wanted to play. So, he felt that it just couldn’t work. Having Cris in the starting XI wouldn’t work with the way we wanted to play, and that’s why Erik preferred Anthony Martial.”
I loved every minute of working with him – McCarthy
McCarthy has revealed how it felt working with the legendary attacker, “That’s why it’s just a real, real shame that it didn’t work out because I thought he still would have been great. He was great. And he was great for the players just for his mentality because that’s what you have to have when you play at United,” he continued.
“You have to have the toughest mentality around because the amount of pressure, the amount of scrutiny that comes with being a United player. You need mettle, you know, and yeah, unfortunately, it just didn’t work out the way we wanted it to because of Ronaldo’s age.
“He wasn’t capable of lasting in the way the manager wanted and expected from his No. 9, and because of what happened, he had to move on. But I loved every minute of working with him,” McCarthy concluded.
The former striker is expected to take over as Kenya's coach with the unveiling scheduled for Monday.
