During his sit-down with Piers Morgan, it was one of the few times that Cristiano Ronaldo talked about the football, and despite the fact that it did not make headlines, it was still particularly revealing.
We were already aware that Ronaldo believes Manchester United have made "zero progress" since Sir Alex Ferguson stepped down as the club's manager, that he does not respect Erik ten Hag, and that he believes the club has betrayed him, in addition to a number of other accusations that have grabbed headlines recently.
But it was when Morgan asked him about the criticism of his failure to press under Ralf Rangnick that we got an insight into why Ronaldo's stature at the club has shrunk and why his relationship with Ten Hag is proving to be a clash of styles as well as personalities, and so it is proving to be that. We got an insight into why Ronaldo's stature at the club has shrunk and why his relationship with Ten Hag is proving to be a clash of styles as much as personalities
Ten Hag's pressing-oriented, high-energy, and dynamic game plan always appeared to be an awkward fit for Ronaldo's style of play. It is unlikely that a 37-year-old who has displayed a consistent unwillingness to press throughout his career will respond positively to being taught new tricks at this point in time. Ronaldo, in the course of his vicious attack on Rangnick, which was, for the most part, probably justified, provided some insight into the reason why he is not being selected by his current manager.
This season, Manchester United have appeared to be a stronger and more fluid team when Ronaldo has not been a part of it. It is for this reason that Ronaldo has essentially been playing the role of a high-grade backup, with the majority of his appearances coming as a result of Anthony Martial's injury woes.
Ronaldo has only succeeded in confirming what we had all anticipated by criticizing the practices of those he referred to as "the new coaches," as well as the way that Ten Hag has handled him. he is falling further and further behind in today's modern football.
Yes, he has the potential to be a goalscorer of the highest caliber, but the game has progressed well beyond that point in time. During the previous campaign, he led United in scoring with 24 goals, but to what end? Their worst season ever in the Premier League, with absolutely no chance of winning anything.
Ronaldo has not been able to adapt to the new nature of football in 2022, which places more emphasis on teamwork than on the performance of an individual player. Morgan questioned him about the notion that people at United were briefing against him a few weeks after Rangnick had taken over, claiming that he couldn't press as hard as the German wanted to, and that he attacked new coaches.
It's possible that it wasn't meant to be directed at Ten Hag, but Rangnick's practices and those of many of the other coaches he's influenced aren't all that dissimilar to those used by the Dutchman.
"If I'm being completely honest with you, Piers, this is something that I just don't get. It is the new coaches that are coming around; they believe they have discovered the last can of Coca-Cola in the wasteland. This is something that I don't understand about football; it has been around for a very long time "During an appearance on Piers Uncensored, Ronaldo stated.
"Nevertheless, I have the utmost respect for every coach, every different strategy, every different opinion, and every different mentality; however, there are a few points on which we disagree. Consequently, I am always the same way in my life. I've always been, in addition to the best coaches in the world, such as Zidane and Ancelloti, Mourinho, Fernando Santos, and Allegri... So I guess you could say that I have some experience because I learn from them.
"And when you see some coaches that are coming, that they want the revolution [in] the football, I don't agree, I have my opinion. They agree or they don't, they disagree, but it's part of the business because at the end of the day, I'm in a club to win, and with my experience, I want to help. Like always, and some coaches that don't accept and, you know, it's part of the job." [And] "And when you see some
Ronaldo is absolutely correct in stating that he has worked with some of the best coaches in the world; however, you wouldn't even begin to compare any of them to Ten Hag. They are more traditional, less concerned with pressing issues, and are content to concentrate on celebrity names.
Morgan didn't press Ronaldo on pressing any more and instead continued to talk about Rangnick (and United deserve criticism for that appointment), but reading between the lines, it certainly seems that modern coaching methods and styles of play don't appeal to the 37-year-old player. Ronaldo has won five Ballon d'Or awards during his career.
After Ten Hag was hired, this is the piece of evidence that makes it most clear that he was never going to be able to blend in at Old Trafford. The 21st of April of this year marked the day that United confirmed he would be leaving Ajax for United. That day marked the beginning of the end for Ronaldo.
But with these comments, Ronaldo hasn't exactly paved the way for his next move in the right direction. Will Graham Potter, the new head coach at Chelsea, read that and believe that the Portuguese forward will be a good fit for the system he employs? Or the position of Julian Nagelsmann at Bayern Munich? Or even Ruben Amorim at Sporting?
These are all modern coaches who, to paraphrase Ronaldo, are searching for "Coca-Cola in the desert" while attempting to revolutionize the game of football. We can only speculate as to how Ronaldo and Pep Guardiola would have gotten along had the former actually signed with the latter, given that Guardiola is widely regarded as the foremost authority on strategies of this kind.
The challenge for Ronaldo is that these strategies are not passing fads; rather, they are the way things will be in the future. The vast majority of football supporters believe that the game has been vastly improved by the introduction of pressing, by the complexity that is now taught on training grounds, and by the patterns of play that are conceived of by managers.
This indicates that the people who are in the dugout can sometimes steal the show just as much as the players themselves do. At this point in time, Ten Hag is most likely the most important employee working for United. And Ronaldo has had a hard time wrapping his head around that particular concept; he is still clinging to the idea that yesterday's game happened.
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