JAKARTA - Erik ten Hag indicated that he would again declare Cristiano Ronaldo when Manchester United host Arsenal in the Premier League continued at Old Trafford Stadium on Sunday, September 4.
The Portuguese superstar has only started once from five matches that Manchester United have played in the Premier League this season. He even only played from the bench in three matches.
Ten Hag insisted Ronaldo still had to adapt to the squad after missing the team's pre-season. This indicates Ronaldo's chances of starting from the early minutes are still small.
"As we said, Ronaldo is here. And, as we all know, he doesn't have pre-season. You can't miss pre-season," Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag said.
Ten Hag doesn't seem to want to make Ronaldo the main choice for the central striker position. The Dutch coach has so far preferred Marcus Rashford to spearhead the attack.
The England international has been fielded as an striker in the last four games, including playing in the left wing in the season opener against Brighton & Hove Albion.
In addition, the return of Anthony Martial from injury makes it increasingly difficult for Ronaldo's chances to return to starting XI.
"This is a base. Especially with the games we play, the way we want to play. We don't play the same way we did last year, there are no comparisons," said Ten Hag.
"It demands cooperation and demands certain positions in and out of possession. Another thing is his fitness. But it's still early in the season. We have a squad. We have more than 11 players and that's what you see now," he added.
Ronaldo has only played from the bench in the last three matches.
For this reason, he must work very hard to get a position in the Red Devils attack line.
With the lack of playing hours, this former Real Madrid player has yet to score his first goal of the season.
The English, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and French versions are automatically generated by the AI. So there may still be inaccuracies in translating, please always see Indonesian as our main language. (system supported by DigitalSiber.id)
