Manchester United beat Brentford 3-1 on Wednesday night, but an incident in the 71st minute is making a lot of negative headlines on Thursday morning. That would be the anger that former Real Madrid man Cristiano Ronaldo showed when he was taken off by Ralf Rangnick for Harry Maguire.
The Portuguese seemed to be asking his coach why it was him who was being taken off instead of someone else before throwing his coat to the ground. Rangnick had to approach him and calm him down. The German cooled things down post-match.
“My job is to make decisions for the benefit of the team and I hope he sees it in the same way,” Rangnick said in comments carried by Marca. “It’s normal. He wasn’t happy. But he was coming back from an injury and it was important for me to have him back with us, especially after [Edinson] Cavani couldn’t train.
“I told him that we were winning 2-0 and that we should learn from what happened to us at Villa Park [they were winning 2-0 but then blew their lead to draw the game]. After the game I was very angry with myself for not having changed to a back five.
“We had been in the same situation against Aston Villa and I didn’t want to make that mistake again. I told him: ‘Listen, Cristiano. You’re 36 years old and you’re in a very good way, but when you’re a coach you’ll see it differently.'”
The result was important for United as they had been in rotten form. They’re now seventh in the Premier League, level on points with Arsenal and a point behind Tottenham Hotspur. They’re two points behind fourth-placed West Ham United although they’re admittedly 21 behind league leaders Manchester City.
Cristiano returned to United in the summer after over a decade away. He had left for Madrid in 2009 and played at the Santiago Bernabeu until 2018, when he headed for Juventus. It’s understood the Portuguese is desperate to win another Champions League title before he retires. He has five.
