C
ristiano Ronaldo delivered a sour note on an otherwise good night for Manchester United during Wednesday’s win over Brentford.
After 70 minutes and with the Red Devils 2-0 up in West London, Ralf Rangnick substituted the 36-year-old.
Ronaldo shook his manager’s hand but was picked up by BT Sport’s cameras gesticulating from his perch by the touchline, looking clearly unhappy at his circumstances before receiving a word in his ear from his manager.
The Portuguese striker had started the game despite sitting out the weekend’s fixture due a hip injury and Rangnick insisted after the match that his decision was the right one.
The German stated post-match: “It’s normal, as a striker he wants to score goals and he’d come back from a little injury so for me it was important to bear in mind that we had another game in three days’ time.
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“We were 2-0 up, I decided to just make sure that we defended better and I think it was the right decision to switch to a back five. We scored the third goal and wanted to keep a clean sheet, unfortunately we didn’t manage it, but at least we made sure nothing happened.”
Former teammate Rio Ferdinand understood Ronaldo’s disappointment but praised Rangnick for his management of the situation.
“They’re 2-0 up and he sees a chance to get a couple more [goals] to move up the goalscoring charts,” the ex-defender told BT Sport.
“You see the disappointment but I thought the manager handled it well, he spoke to him and he’s talking about the bigger picture, ‘We’ve got a game in the next three days, you’re going to play – get your goals there’.”
Goals from Anthony Elanga, Mason Greenwood and Marcus Rashford secured a 3-1 win for United, with Ivan Toney netting a late consolation.
https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/cristiano-ronaldo-man-united-brentford-substitue-ralf-rangnick-rio-ferdinand-b977705.html
