Former Manchester United midfielder Ander Herrera has defended Cristiano Ronaldo and sent a word of warning to Erik ten Hag.
Ronaldo has only started one Premier League game for United this season, with Ten Hag opting to use the 37-year-old to lead the line for the Reds in the Europa League instead. Injury concerns over Anthony Martial have now opened the door for a potential second league start against Newcastle on Sunday.
Martial came off after half an hour against Everton with a back issue as Ronaldo replaced the Frenchman. The five-time Ballon d'Or winner made an instant impact, scoring the game's winning goal with the 700th club strike of his career at Goodison Park.
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The early weeks of the season have not been smooth sailing for the former Real Madrid man, as he has come under a barrage of criticism for his antics both on and off the pitch. However, Herrera has now leapt to Ronaldo's defence, while the former United man also sent a warning to Ten Hag that he needs to carefully manage his forward's game-time.
Herrera told ESPN: "When you have a player who scores 24/25 goals last season, how can you say this player is not for the team? Top scorer of the team, one of the top scorers in Europe. Probably not going to score 50 goals every season, of course, but he's still fighting, scoring, taking care of himself every day, every single training [session], so respect.
"Now, probably, you have to control the charge of him in terms of training and games, you can't make him play every single game of the season, in the big moments he will be there. There is one thing you cannot lie [about], the stats. And Ronaldo...always putting the face to fight, to score, to run, to take the responsibility of the team - for me there is no space for criticism with Cristiano or with Leo [Messi].
"Of course everyone's going to talk about them because they're probably the two best players in the history of football.
"And Cristiano, for all of us as United lovers it was perfect that he came back to the club. He's scoring goals, he's back at Manchester where everything started.
"Sometimes I see some papers or journalist disrespect these two legends of football, we have to thank them for all they've given to football to us as fans. Those Clasicos, they used to play against each other. We have to thank them for what they've done and what they're still doing."
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