Manchester United coach Eric Ten Hag hinted that Cristiano Ronaldo is regarding to return to participating in the formation with the first team, a few days following calls were issued once morest the Portuguese star to remove him from his country’s squad, before he was on the bench of the Red Devils to face Manchester City.
Manchester City will meet Manchester United in the face of the “Manchester Derby”, as part of the ninth round of the English Football League “Premier League”, which will be played at three in the followingnoon.
Ronaldo struggled at the start of the current season following he failed to leave Manchester United during the last summer transfer window, and spent the first weeks of Tin Hag’s reign on the bench.
The 37-year-old failed to make any significant impact during the times the Dutchman gave him, although he opened his account for the season in a 2-0 win over Sherif Tiraspor ahead of the international break.
Unfortunately, a shameful performance in the international break followed. After ineffective performances once morest the Czech Republic and Spain, the Portuguese press called for Fernando Santos to drop the striker ahead of next month’s World Cup.
Ten Hag supports Ronaldo during the Manchester derby
But Ten Hag has backed Ronaldo to silence his critics and get back to his level in the coming weeks – despite the fact that he used the veteran sparingly following missing Manchester United’s pre-season tour in Thailand and Australia.
The secret of Cristiano Ronaldo’s absence from the Manchester derby
Tin Hag told Sky Sports: “If anyone can handle that it’s Cristiano Ronaldo because his whole career is looking at him, the whole world is looking at him and the whole world has high expectations of him.
He added, “I’m sure he’ll come back because he’s spent his entire career scoring, and he’ll do it this year as well, and then I think everyone will be silent.”
Ten Hag later suggested that Ronaldo might return to the starting first-team lineup soon – although Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial were deemed fit enough to feature in the Tour squad for Sunday’s Manchester derby.
But he stuck to his regular guns lately and pushed Ronaldo off the bench to be one of the trumps at a certain point in the match.
Rashford has overtaken Ronaldo in the Old Trafford standings this season, while Martial has been playing a more important role for United following impressing Ten Hag in pre-season.