Cristiano Ronaldo’s return to Manchester United in 2021 muddled the team’s approach and proved to be the wrong decision, admits former Red Devils boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
Ronaldo returned to Old Trafford upon leaving Juventus in August 2021, when senior figures at United were targeting a Premier League title push after Solskjaer led them to a second-place finish in 2020-21.
While the Portugal great scored 24 goals across all competitions that season, United slumped to sixth in the table, with Solskjaer sacked in November and interim boss Ralf Rangnick failing to arrest their slide.
Ronaldo then fell out of favour when Erik ten Hag took charge in 2022, being released by the club after he hit out at the Dutchman in an explosive interview with Piers Morgan.
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Reflecting on his final few months in charge of United, Solskjaer insisted the decision to re-sign Ronaldo was the right one to take at the time, though he admits the move was rushed.
“It was a very quick decision,” Solskjaer said on the Stick to Football show for The Overlap. “We didn’t think Cristiano was available and that he was going to move.
“When it became apparent that he was leaving Juventus, obviously there were other clubs that wanted him, but I was excited.
“They asked me, ‘would you want us to try this?’ I said yes. We know Cristiano is quality, he’s 37, but he’s the best goalscorer in the world. It didn’t work out for me, it didn’t work out for Cristiano, but it was the right decision at the time.”
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Solskjaer claims Ronaldo had agreed to sit out a quarter of United’s games, only to express his frustration on the rare occasions where he was left out of the starting lineup.
The biggest challenge presented by Ronaldo’s return, however, was the disruption it caused to United’s out-of-possession approach, which Solskjaer accepts was difficult to overcome.
“Cristiano, when you know him and speak to him, he wanted to play three out of four games, he realised he’s getting older as well,” Solskjaer said.
“But then when you leave him out once, he’s not happy, or Sir Alex [Ferguson] isn’t happy.
“With the ball, with him in the team, it was no problem. Without the ball, we had to change the different roles we’d gotten used to. We were one of the highest pressing teams before.
“We let Dan James go when Cristiano came in, and they’re two different types of players. It was the right decision to make for me, but it didn’t turn out to be the right one.”
