What Should Manchester United Do With Cristiano Ronaldo After He Walked Down The Tunnel Against Tottenham?

While Manchester United emphatically came away with the three points against Tottenham Hotspur during the midweek fixtures, the attention quickly turned to the antics and fallout with Cristiano Ronaldo.

After reportedly refusing to come on as a substitute, the Portuguese superstar decided to leave the dugout early and head down the tunnel in what was blatant disrespect to his teammates and club. Ronaldo also left Old Trafford swiftly afterwards and did not join in the post-match celebrations.

Erik Ten Hag subsequently came out to the media to downplay any ramifications and focus on the important result that they had just recorded, but it was among everyone’s lips – selfishly taking away what was the team’s best performance in years.

A day later and Manchester United released a statement to state that Ronaldo would not be in the match-day squad for Chelsea on the weekend. It was reported shortly afterwards that Ronaldo would also be removed from the first-team training sessions and placed in the reserves.

There is no debating among Manchester United fans the adoration they have for Ronaldo, and how important he was last season in terms of his goal-scoring efforts, but there is an acceptance that the Red Devils are now better without.

When Ronaldo is shoe-horned into the team, the overall play worsens. Less presses, less distance covered, less authority given to individuals just by Ronaldo’s presence of being in the line-up. There is, instead, an over compensation of trying to work the ball to the centre forward to appease him.

Erik Ten Hag has come in this summer and stamped his authority on the team from the off. The Dutchman has put together his idea of a pressing system that relies on the sum of all parts to be greater than one.

Ronaldo, at his age and natural physical decline, clearly cannot operate from the front with the type of energy that Ten Hag needs from his side. And with the antics in the summer over wanting to leave the club, there was no need for the manager to shoe-horn Ronaldo into the side from the off.

After the first two disastrous results, Ten Hag has seen an uprising in his team’s performances and results have followed. Manchester United look a better outfit for it and are covering far more ground, well over 100km per-game, than they had earlier on in the campaign.

Ten Hag has stated that Ronaldo is firmly in his plans for the rest of the season and will be recalled to first team training, but needed to make a statement that carries weight throughout the whole squad.

However, privately, what has happened this week has only aided Ten Hag behind the scenes in being strong on his belief that Manchester United need a new centre forward that is full of energy and age on his side.

Ronaldo provides a headache both on and off the pitch for Manchester United. He might be profitable from a commercial standpoint, but if he is on the pitch, the team play worse for it, and if he is on the bench and away from it, there are major distractions and tantrums that is prohibiting the club’s progress.

For all parties, a split in January works well providing Manchester United can bring someone in for the rest of the campaign. The distractions cannot continue and Ronaldo does not get away with it as much given his limiting performances this season.