Manchester United supporters made their feelings on Cristiano Ronaldo abundantly clear this weekend with their response to the Portuguese’s withdrawal against Newcastle United.
The veteran forward was selected to start against the Magpies at Old Trafford due to the absence of Anthony Martial, whilst Red Devils academy graduate Marcus Rashford had to make do with a place on the bench due to illness. Ronaldo however could not inspire Erik ten Hag ’s men as they stumbled to a miserable 0-0 draw against Newcastle - a result that leaves the side fifth in the current Premier League standings.
Whilst the result left members of the United squad furious, Ronaldo himself was left upset with Ten Hag’s decision in particular to substitute him with his side chasing a winner.
The Portuguese was taken off in the 72nd minute of the game having endured a miserable afternoon with two disallowed goals and a yellow card. Indeed, Ronaldo was not happy having been substituted - particularly having scored the winner last time out against Everton in the Premier League.
Intriguingly, it appeared that the supporters inside Old Trafford did not agree with the five-time Ballon d’Or winner. The crowd loudly cheered as Rashford was introduced in his place and the England forward certainly had a better time of things than his attacking colleague.
Despite missing an excellent chance to open the scoring, he looked far more threatening than Ronaldo had been throughout the majority of the clash. With the crowd’s reaction, it certainly appears to seem that fans are now on-side with Ten Hag’s decision that Ronaldo is not his first choice at Old Trafford any longer.
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His start against Newcastle was only the 37-year-old’s second Premier League start of the campaign and with Rashford set to be back to full fitness, it is unlikely that he will manage to retain his current starting berth for very long at all.
Ten Hag claimed that the reason he substituted Ronaldo during the game was in an effort to keep the Portuguese fit ahead of a busy run of fixtures ahead of the World Cup in Qatar.
Speaking after the full-time whistle, the Dutchman said: “We have to cover four games in 10 days, and especially for the strikers I want to keep them fresh.
“I want to keep them all fresh, so we have to rotate there. We have some problems there, Martial is not available in this moment, so we have a player less.
"Rashy [Rashford] was under the weather so he didn’t have the energy for a whole game so we have to plan that, we have to plan that to cover the four games because we want to win all the four games – or, at least, get a result in all four games.”
