Cristiano Ronaldo didn’t get his wish to leave Manchester United this summer, and while that could change in January, things have gone pretty badly for the forward so far this season.
The 37-year-old was forced into his first Europa League game since 2002 (with Sporting) on Thursday, where he started against Real Sociedad but looked far from his best.
During the 90 minutes, Ronaldo had only four shots on goal, barely won 38 percent of the duels and was caught offside on four occasions.
With no goals in his first seven games, only two of which he has started, Erik ten Hag has been hesitant to include him in the starting XI.
Before Sociedad, Ronaldo’s only starting game was in the 4-0 debacle against Brentford.
With him on the bench, United scored four consecutive victories against Liverpool, Southampton, Leicester City and Arsenal.
“I can’t keep every player happy in every match, but everyone will have a chance to play if they work hard,” said Ten Hag.
A warning to his team that no place is guaranteed, not even for Ronaldo.
However, it was Ten Hag who said Ronaldo was still part of his plans at the end of August.
Last season the Portuguese star scored 24 goals and was United’s best player.
Now, he needs to regain that form and earn the coach’s trust if he wants to be a player in the starting line-up.
A summer of despair
After leaving Turin at the last minute in 2021, there was almost a repeat of that in 2022.
With Manchester United not in the Champions League this season, Jorge Mendes did everything he could to find Ronaldo a new club.
Be it Spain (Atletico Madrid above all), Portugal (Sporting CP), Germany (Borussia Dortmund), or Italy (AC Milan and Napoli), the efforts were endless.
Chelsea also looked like a possible place, only Thomas Tuchel rejected the idea.
‘No’ was the answer they got everywhere, either because of a lack of funds, from the coaches, or even because of the directors.
The best example of the latter was at Bayern Munich, where the Board of Directors rejected the move.
As a result, the Portuguese star will have to deal with the Europa League (at least for now).