Former Manchester United manager, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, sheds light on Cristiano Ronaldo's challenges upon returning to the club.
Ronaldo's move back to Old Trafford from Juventus in 2021 did not unfold as anticipated, as the Portuguese player transitioned from being United's top scorer in his first season to becoming an outcast under Erik ten Hag during the subsequent campaign.
Facing criticism for his on-field behavior, including prematurely leaving matches and refusing to serve as a substitute, Ronaldo later expressed his feelings of being 'betrayed' by United and lacking respect for Ten Hag in an interview with Piers Morgan.
Discussing the situation on the Stick to Football podcast sponsored by Sky Bet, Solskjaer shared insights, stating, "We started off straight away thinking about how we are going to press and make subtle adjustments."
He elaborated, "Cristiano is different from Antony Martial, who was up front, or whether we would play Mason [Greenwood] or Marcus [Rashford] upfront. Edinson Cavani was the one that suffered the most when Cristiano came in – we had played and got Edinson into a certain way of understanding the way we played."
Solskjaer highlighted the impact on their pressing style, noting, "With the ball, with him in the team, it was no problem. Without him [pressing], we had to change a little bit the different roles we'd gotten used to. We were one of the highest pressing teams before [Ronaldo joined]. We let Dan James go when Cristiano came in, and they're two different types of players."
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