It has been almost two years since Cristiano Ronaldo left Manchester United. The superstar left United because he had fallen out with coach Erik ten Hag just a few months after his arrival.
In an exclusive interview with the English ‘Telegraph’, the former assistant coach has now commented on why CR7 never really took off at Manchester United.
Steve McClaren, who is now Jamaica’s national coach, supports his former boss in an interview: “I was able to [Ten Hags] approach. He did it really well. I said at the time that he was the right man. That was shown by the way he dealt with [dem Abgang von Cristiano] Ronaldo treated.”
Ten Hag did not give any player special status at the time, everyone had to measure up to the same standards, McClaren continued.[Ten Hag] came with fixed standards. Fixed rules. Set style of play. And if you didn’t run, you didn’t play. He was very strict about that.”
Ronaldo also had to submit to these rules. In McClarens’ opinion, other coaches before ten Hag tried to build their system around Ronaldo – this often didn’t work. The Dutchman, on the other hand, didn’t think this was necessary and instead concentrated on other players.
“He went after Ronaldo, and rightly so… discipline was important, standards were important, behaviour was important.” – Cristiano Ronaldo & Erik ten Hag, these are two worlds that collided at Manchester United and in the end just didn’t seem to fit together.
