Jamie Carragher has underlined that he was not bothered by Cristiano Ronaldo’s snub of him before Manchester United’s win over Liverpool last month in a Twitter exchange with Rio Ferdinand.
Ronaldo was left on the bench by Erik ten Hag during Sunday’s 6-3 derby defeat to Manchester City. The superstar, who netted 24 goals for the Reds last season, appears to be the new manager’s third choice striker behind Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial.
Both featured in the loss, Rashford starting the defeat and Martial bagging two consolation goals following his substitution. Criticism has been fired at Ten Hag for deciding to leave out Ronaldo.
READ MORE: Cristiano Ronaldo and Sir Alex Ferguson react to Man United chaos
Defending his decision after full-time, the Dutchman said he left him on the bench “out of respect for his big career”. Writing on Twitter on Monday, Carragher said he didn't understand the criticism around Ronaldo’s non-inclusion.
“The idea that Erik ten Hag got it wrong yesterday by not playing Ronaldo is laughable!” he said. “Ronaldo played at Brentford when it was 4-0 at half-time!
“It’s not a dig at Cristiano Ronaldo, but Rashford’s pace on the counter attack as we saw v Arsenal/Liverpool was [100 per cent] the best option.”
Responding to his tweet, Ferdinand reacted by saying: “Carra you still upset he didn’t shake ur hand at Old Trafford? [laughing emojis]. The hardest thing to do in football is score goals…”
He then attached a clip of him talking about Ronaldo on his FIVE YouTube show. In it, he says: “You can’t have your top goalscorer, who gets 24/25 goals a season, on the bench, I’m sorry.
“I’ve seen Roy Keane talk about it and I totally agree - why are we so concerned with what people don’t do all the time?
“The hardest thing to do in football is score goals. And this guy does it as good if not better than anybody.” Carragher then hit back by insisting he was “delighted” Ronaldo’s snub of him went “viral”.
He added: “Rio I know how it works, he’s your mate and you/Evra [Patrice, former teammate and United left-back] and the rest are on the group WhatsApp and he asks you to come out and defend him, don’t be his fan boy you’re Rio Ferdinand for ***!!”
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