Manchester United fans likely were tired of the debate around Cristiano Ronaldo by October last season. Almost every week the legendary attacker would score a dramatic goal to usually bail his team out of trouble.
By logic, a footballer who scores more than he doesn't must be an overwhelmingly positive influence, and that was where part of the debate came in with Ronaldo. How can a player score goals at a team's expense?
However, the argument when factoring in how elite European football is defined by a team's ability to effectively press, the loss without the ball to United when Ronaldo was playing was obvious, on top of a squad that already had flaws within it before the forward's 2021 return.
