Rio Ferdinand says Erik Ten Hag is right to bench Cristiano Ronaldo – but believes the Manchester United legend will ultimately win back his place.
Ronaldo, who returned to United in 2021 after 12 years at Real Madrid and Juventus, has not started any of the club's last four Premier League games. The five-time Ballon d'Or winner has been forced to play a role from the bench, with former United defender Ferdinand claiming Ten Hag made the right call in dropping Ronaldo.
But Ferdinand reckons his former United team-mate Ronaldo will re-establish himself as an automatic starter – alongside his former Real Madrid team-mate Casemiro. “He'll be p***** , he won't be happy,” Ferdinand told William Hill.
“You don't get to do what he's done over that period of time and be happy and content to be on the bench, or not to be getting the numbers you want to be getting. But he'll be professional, he'll be focused, because he'll know his time's going to come.
“He hasn't had a pre-season, so I understand why he's not playing, and Marcus Rashford is scoring and assisting goals at the moment, so I understand why he's staying in the team.
“The team is the overriding factor at the moment. The way United started the season, they're making sure the team is doing the right things and forget about individuals.
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“Obviously, Casemiro is a big signing, but isn't playing. Ronaldo isn't playing, but their time will come. And, when their time comes, I think they'll both stay in the team. I just think that will be the case and the manager will shift it about.”
Ferdinand, who won six Premier league titles and one Champions League at United, said Ronaldo had evolved from a showman into a player who knows the value of delivering an end product.
“The Ronaldo that people have seen the last four, five or six years is not the Ronaldo who came to United,” Ferdinand added. “He was a showman. People would come to the stadium going 'I have come to see Ronaldo get me off my seat today'. That's what it was like.
“Now, at the back end of his career, it's like 'I'm coming to see a moment in the game, where he decides the game'. Whereas before, he could give you five, six, seven, eight, nine or 10 moments in the game, because he was just pure skill.
“He might score, he might set one up, but it was just about making someone look stupid, he wanted to embarrass people, he was a joke, man, an unbelievable player.
“But he got kicked enough in training and drilled enough in training by us, that got him to a place where he understood that, actually, end product overrides everything. You can entertain to a certain extent, but you need an end product - and he left us as the best player in the world.”
