Former Manchester United supervisor Ole Gunnar Solskjaer says the choice to deliver Cristiano Ronaldo again to Old Trafford proved to be a mistake for all events because it required him to vary how he requested his group to play.
Ronaldo made a sensational return to Manchester United in August 2021, together with his former team-mate Solskjaer answerable for the membership. But after a second positioned end the earlier season, Solskjaer was sacked inside three months of signing the 37-year-old Ronaldo from Juventus and following a run of heavy defeats.
There could be additional issues after Solskjaer’s exit, with Ronaldo’s second-spell on the membership ending in dramatic and acrimonious trend after giving an explosive interview to Piers Morgan by which he hit out at new boss Erik ten Hag.
Speaking to former United team-mates Gary Neville and Roy Keane on Stick to Football, Solskjaer revealed that he was unable to play the identical urgent model with Ronaldo within the group. He additionally stated the Portuguese introduced “complications”, comparable to when he reacted negatively to dropping to the bench regardless of asking Solskjaer to relaxation him each fourth recreation.
Solskjaer stated United obtained caught up with the choice to signal Ronaldo and, though he believed it was the correct choice on the time, he rapidly realised that it meant his group had been unable to play in the identical approach with the five-time Ballon d’Or winner within the group.
“It was a very quick decision [to sign Ronaldo],” Solskjaer stated on the Stick to Football present. “We didn’t think Cristiano was available and that he was going to move. When it became apparent that he was leaving Juventus, obviously there were other clubs that wanted him – but I was excited.
“They [United] asked me, ‘Would you want us to try this?’. I said yes. Obviously we know Cristiano is quality, and he’s 37, but we have to manage – he’s the best goal scorer in the world. It didn’t work out for me, it didn’t work out for Cristiano, but it was the right decision at the time.
“We started off straight away thinking how we are going to press and change the little tweaks. Cristiano is different to Antony Martial who was up front, or whether we would play Mason [Greenwood] or Marcus [Rashford] up front. Edinson Cavani was the one that suffered the most when Cristiano came in – we’d played and got Edinson into a certain way of understanding the way we played.
“Cristiano, when you know him and speak to him, he wanted to play three out of four games, he realised he’s getting older as well. But when you leave him out once, he’s not happy!
“With the ball, with him in the team, it was no problem. Without him, we had to change a little bit the different roles we’d gotten used to. We were one of the highest pressing teams before. We let Dan James go when Cristiano came in, and they’re two different types of players. It was the right decision to make for me. It didn’t turn out to be the right one.”
Solskjaer dropped Ronaldo for the primary time within the Premier League forward of a house fixture in opposition to Everton at Old Trafford, with the ahead approaching as an alternative within the 1-1 draw. Ronaldo was livid after the ultimate whistle and stormed down the tunnel, however Solskjaer stated many of the issues together with his behaviour got here after he was sacked.
Ronaldo successfully burned his bridges with United when he gave an explosive interview to Piers Morgan earlier than the World Cup in November 2022, hitting out at supervisor Ten Hag and the membership’s homeowners. He left United by mutual settlement simply days later and accomplished a transfer to Al-Nassr in Saudi Arabia the next month.
Ole Gunnar Solskjær was talking on the Stick to Football podcast, dropped at you by Sky Bet
Source: www.impartial.co.uk