Ronaldo wasn’t the problem….

Ronaldo wasn't good enough in terms of his performances but Manchester United have fallen several standards as a club. I think fans become numb to it because it happens over the process of time but if you consider United during Ronald's time under Sir Alex compared to the team now, it's like comparing a prime elite european team and a club like Tottenham (no disrespect).

Ronaldo didn't handle whatever objections he was met with astutely and it feels like realistically ETH made him no promises during pre season and Cristiano didn't take it will overall. That feels like the fundamental issue at play and everything else that happened was a domino effect of that initial situation.
 
Nah. Did anyone forget he struggled against farmers from Moldova or Macedonia ? I still vividly remember he got outran and outpaced by a random defender after he went through on goal. He's washed out for top football.
 
He wasn’t much of the problem during his first season here, as he still delivered while the whole squad just went off and played disjointed football regardless of having him on or off the pitch, thanks to tactics of Ole and Ragnick and the poor form from all of our other key players. Bottom line he was our player of the season and 3rd top scorer in the league, so he did play his role alright. Arguably the only problem with him is that we out crying out to changing our approach to press more in final third and he contributed almost nothing in terms of leading our front in pressing. But then we were never a pressing team before he arrived and he was definitely not bought to play such role for us, so it’s not fair to blame everything on him for that.

His second season though, with his lack of fitness/form due to poor pre season preparation and the fact he is aging badly, plus his fall out with ETH and the interview, was such a distraction/drag to the team, that he just has to leave in order for us to move forward with our rebuild.

But end of the day our problems are still there, even after he was long gone. There are multiple levels which lies deep in the root of our problems, and I think it may take years and several major changes to resolve all that.
 
What does it matter if he was the problem initially? When we went and gave an interview disrespecting the club and the manager, he became the problem.
 
He was the problem in both seasons.
We completely changed our style of play to accommodate him in the first season. This was to the detriment of the team as a whole and a fluid young developing front 3.

Second season he was not up to it and he was undermining the new manager. Its great when a player has standards but he couldn’t live up to then himself.
 
RedRonaldo said:
He wasn’t much of the problem during his first season here, as he still delivered while the whole squad just went off and played disjointed football regardless of having him on or off the pitch, thanks to tactics of Ole and Rangnick and the poor form from all of our other key players. Bottom line he was our player of the season and 3rd top scorer in the league, so he did play his role alright. Arguably the only problem with him is that we out crying out to changing our approach to press more in final third and he contributed almost nothing in terms of leading our front in pressing. But then we were never a pressing team before he arrived and he was definitely not bought to play such role for us, so it’s not fair to blame everything on him for that.
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But isn't this part of the problem? Even in that first season back when he was "at his best" but still in diminished form relative to his earlier career, having "high standards" meant tailoring the entire team play to optimize his performance and cover his deficiencies. Teammates, the coaching, the system would only have been of a high standard in his eyes insofar as they sufficiently performed in a way to bring out the best in Ronaldo. Setting things up like that around a diminishing star is putting a ceiling on the team's potential and ability to progress and be tactically flexible.

The very act of bringing Ronaldo back itself was demonstrative of lowered standards because it fell into the same pattern of short-termism and bringing in diminishing stars to save the day and bring back the glory days. It was never sustainable and it was never something that would allow the team to properly adapt to the tactical sea change focused on pressing and hard work. Ronaldo would never view it this way though. Nothing involving him could ever be viewed as lowered standards, and to be fair to him, this is the type of mentality that brought him all of his success.

All of this standards talk would have much more credibility if he were willing to sit on the bench, be a mentor figure, and take his opportunities when presented, hold younger players to account from the bench and in the locker room and not be a disruptive force.
 
Taribo's Gap said:
But isn't this part of the problem? Even in that first season back when he was "at his best" but still in diminished form relative to his earlier career, having "high standards" meant tailoring the entire team play to optimize his performance and cover his deficiencies. Teammates, the coaching, the system would only have been of a high standard in his eyes insofar as they sufficiently performed in a way to bring out the best in Ronaldo. Setting things up like that around a diminishing star is putting a ceiling on the team's potential and ability to progress and be tactically flexible.

The very act of bringing Ronaldo back itself was demonstrative of lowered standards because it fell into the same pattern of short-termism and bringing in diminishing stars to save the day and bring back the glory days. It was never sustainable and it was never something that would allow the team to properly adapt to the tactical sea change focused on pressing and hard work. Ronaldo would never view it this way though. Nothing involving him could ever be viewed as lowered standards, and to be fair to him, this is the type of mentality that brought him all of his success.

All of this standards talk would have much more credibility if he were willing to sit on the bench, be a mentor figure, and take his opportunities when presented, hold younger players to account from the bench and in the locker room and not be a disruptive force.
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I think it’s rather the decision of bringing him back was the problem, as he wasn’t what we needed at that time. It doesn’t take any scouting work to understand his game is more on goalscoring and providing us match winning clutch moment, rather than pressing high, sweating blood or helping the team to defend as a unit. So on that reasons alone I thought he has done alright during his first season here, having the most matching winning goals in the league, and among top 3 goalscorer in the league too, despite playing for largely disjointed side.

But then his 2nd year was indeed quite a disaster. So in the end we’re right to move him on.
 
Who knew that "high standards" meant complaining all of the time and being shit at your job.
 
Wednesday at Stoke said:
Is this even surprising when you hear that the likes of Sancho couldn’t be arsed in training?

Imagine being Ronaldo, a multi time ballon dor and champions league winner who’s used to training with the likes of Scholes and Giggs seeing this CoD addicted wimp walk in, clearly sleep deprived and fumbling around at rondos.
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So why did he play so poorly then?
 
Ronaldo's all for himself and thought he was bigger than the club. He had to go, as does Sancho.
 
Ronaldo was a problem, but not the problem. There were and still are most definitely a number of problems with the club..

Imagine if we had a proper owner. Imagine that! I'm not talking about a sovereign fund owner, but your basic wealthy owner whose highest priority is hauling in trophies, after which showers of cash will follow. Such an owner would never have sanctioned a banker to run the club, would never have allowed Moyes, Van Gaal, Mourinho or Ole anywhere near the helm and would never have sanctioned moves for players like Sanchez and Ronaldo. We'd be in a much better place now than where are at the moment.
 
What high standards?
He came to training a month late and that too with his agent.
This was a new season.

Few months before that, in April and May, he had made statements about how committed he was to making this team a success in the next season. What lower standards did he observe during the off season?
 
Ronaldo was the problem. We had arguably our worst season in the past 30 years when he was top earner and main player at the club. He then made life hell for the new manager by creating controversy every week.

Ronaldo couldn't even match his own standards. He wasn't anywhere near good enough, which is why he briefed the media in the summer that he was ready to move to a Champions League club yet not a single one wanted him so he had to stay.
 
Asger said:
United is as well too big club for ETH.
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I don't believe that's the case. Ten Haag is trying to bring standards and discipline back to a squad that hasn't had any since SAF left over a decade ago.
 
There can be more than one problem.
 
It makes me laugh to see Man Utd fans slate Ronaldo after he was arguably the best player in the squad in his penultimate season. The standards are so ridiculously low that players like Rashford get a free pass every single year while being hailed as something that they're not or never will be. Ronaldo is a club legend and a player who saved the team's skin in several matches in his first season back, scoring some incredible goals. Rashford and company are incapable of that even in their twenties. Ronaldo was never the problem; the squad needs a rehall from top to bottom with players who have purpose and integrity. When players walk through the door and see "senior players" like Rashford and Martial as examples of what it takes to be a longstanding Man Utd player, the club is fecked. Shaw is another one. People seem to have this affinity for Shaw for some reason. David de Gea was another player who was oddly criticised by fans when he's literally been the best player the club has had for a decade, playing behind a crap squad and everchanging defence right in front of him. Now it seems that the club has a goalkeeper who likes to pick out a pass and come out recklessly but isn't that great at saving shots. It's ludicrous.
 
Jordi Cruyff 99 said:
It makes me laugh to see Man Utd fans slate Ronaldo after he was arguably the best player in the squad in his penultimate season. The standards are so ridiculously low that players like Rashford get a free pass every single year while being hailed as something that they're not or never will be. Ronaldo is a club legend and a player who saved the team's skin in several matches in his first season back, scoring some incredible goals. Rashford and company are incapable of that even in their twenties. Ronaldo was never the problem; the squad needs a rehall from top to bottom with players who have purpose and integrity. When players walk through the door and see "senior players" like Rashford and Martial as examples of what it takes to be a longstanding Man Utd player, the club is fecked. Shaw is another one. People seem to have this affinity for Shaw for some reason. David de Gea was another player who was oddly criticised by fans when he's literally been the best player the club has had for a decade, playing behind a crap squad and everchanging defence right in front of him. Now it seems that the club has a goalkeeper who likes to pick out a pass and come out recklessly but isn't that great at saving shots. It's ludicrous.
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Rashford was far better last season than Ronaldo ever was the previous season.
 
Jordi Cruyff 99 said:
It makes me laugh to see Man Utd fans slate Ronaldo after he was arguably the best player in the squad in his penultimate season. The standards are so ridiculously low that players like Rashford get a free pass every single year while being hailed as something that they're not or never will be. Ronaldo is a club legend and a player who saved the team's skin in several matches in his first season back, scoring some incredible goals. Rashford and company are incapable of that even in their twenties. Ronaldo was never the problem; the squad needs a rehall from top to bottom with players who have purpose and integrity. When players walk through the door and see "senior players" like Rashford and Martial as examples of what it takes to be a longstanding Man Utd player, the club is fecked. Shaw is another one. People seem to have this affinity for Shaw for some reason. David de Gea was another player who was oddly criticised by fans when he's literally been the best player the club has had for a decade, playing behind a crap squad and everchanging defence right in front of him. Now it seems that the club has a goalkeeper who likes to pick out a pass and come out recklessly but isn't that great at saving shots. It's ludicrous.
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Lets hope the "rehall" helps to get rid of some of the more unproductive supporters as well...
 
He was shit and did the most unprofessional thing I can remember seeing from a top level player.

He was a problem, that doesn't mean there are not other problems within the club.
 
Ronaldo fan boys trying to now claim he wasn't a problem is pretty rich. Anyone who argues we should have kept him doesn't understand football.

UnitedSofa said:
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"Reveals Mike Phelan" should read "Claims Mike Phelan"
 
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Look, if Ronaldo was willing to accept the limitations of his aging body and accept that he wouldn't start every big game, or play every minute, or there'd even be games he wouldn't play at all, he'd have been a hell of a squad player to have had last season, especially with our paucity of options at centre forward.

But his ego wouldn't allow him to be a mere squad player and so he went crying to Piers Morgan instead.
 
Mike Phelan can feck off. One of a few "club legends" that can't seem to help himself from taking potshots at the club unless he has a do-nothing job.
 
Ronaldo was not the solution either. We had a pretty young upcoming team and the arrival of Ronaldo represented too much change in dressing room or group dynamic. When that’s said I don’t blame Ronaldo himself. He didn’t do anything out of bad purpose.

Wish we didn’t buy Ronaldo and had the opportunity to buy Rice and Kane. Then we definitely would’ve been up there today.
 
Not saying that he was upto the level to start every week. But he wasn't the problem and everything thing he said about the club during that interview was true.
 
Pointless bump. It's painfully obvious now that there has never been just one problem at the club. He was still an idiotic signing.
 
Ronaldo was always a prick, but the evidence seems to be mounting that ETH is also difficult character to work with.

Unfortunately he doesn't have the coaching pedigree or the record to get away with it.
 
Let’s not kid ourselves that he wasn’t A problem that needed dealing with. He was the opposite of a team player and his legs have gone for that level
 
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