Football fans were affected by the bad period in which Portuguese legend Cristiano Ronaldo is going through, after he missed the Manchester derby in the ninth round of the English Premier League on Sunday.
Manchester United suffered a humiliating loss against rivals Manchester City 6-3 in a meeting where one of its headlines was the non-participation of the five-time Golden Ball winner.
Dutch coach Ten Hag preferred not to use the Portuguese international, justifying this by appreciating his striker’s career, saying after the meeting: Ronaldo did not participate in the second half out of respect for his great career.
Ronaldo’s sitting on the bench at the top did not go unnoticed by the Irishman, Roy Keane, a former Portuguese colleague and sports critic in the British “Talk Sort”, as he denounced keeping him confined to the bench.
Roy Keane, in a discussion with former Manchester City player Micah Richards, criticized not using Ronaldo: Great players are signed and they want to play every week, Ronaldo has not returned to Manchester to be on the bench in the derby.
Jaime Carragher, the former Liverpool player, praised the Manchester United coach’s decision, via his account on Twitter: “Being not to use Ronaldo is a wrong decision. Against Arsenal and Liverpool, a 100% correct decision.
Since the start of the current season, Ronaldo has suffered with his club, Manchester United and his national team, Portugal. After a tug of war, football followers experienced last summer about Ronaldo’s next destination and the lack of desire of a number of clubs with his services. The red team played 7 league matches in which he entered as a substitute except for the team’s big loss against Brentford, which he played. In the second round, the Portuguese did not score any goal.
Ronaldo scored one goal in 9 matches since last August, after the team’s two matches in the European League against Real Sociedad and Sheriff Tiraspol came through a penalty kick.
Ronaldo’s bad attitude overshadowed the meeting of Liverpool and Rangers in the Champions League when he was used as an example by the German coach Jurgen Klopp when defending his club, explaining: Do you think that Cristiano Ronaldo is at the highest levels of confidence at this moment? This happens to all of us. Lionel Messi last season with Paris Saint-Germain was in a similar situation.