Rio Ferdinand couldn’t bring himself to criticise Cristiano Ronaldo after the striker’s Old Trafford strop and instead laboured over a “baffling” mistake by Erik ten Hag.
Ronaldo stormed down the tunnel having failed to come off the bench in Manchester United’s 2-0 win over Tottenham on Wednesday, with Ten Hag insisting he would “deal with” him on Thursday.
The Portugal international has started just two Premier League games this term after he tried to force his way out of the club in the summer.
Asked about Ronaldo’s lack of game time after the game on his YouTube channel, Ferdinand, failing to condemn the “superstar’s” embarrassing behaviour, chose to take issue with Ten Hag’s decision to keep him at the club.
He said: “My only thought could be is that Cristiano Ronaldo is being saved for the weekend against Chelsea.
“That’s the only way that I see it, logically, that he did not play [last night]. I think Ronaldo will be absolutely fuming with that, naturally.
“I wouldn’t expect anything different from him. I think the big problem Erik ten Hag has got is that, coming up to this next window, he has to think very carefully about what he does.
“If he doesn’t see Ronaldo as a starter in his team more often than not, I think he has to release him from his contract.
“He has to let him go. It’s not fair on anybody, on the club, on Ronaldo, on Ten Hag, that the first question after every game is ‘Why didn’t Ronaldo start?’
“That will be a story. United won 2-0 and the leading story will be about Ronaldo. That can’t be right.
“You sit here and think why did Man Utd not just let him go if Ten Hag knew he didn’t want Ronaldo in his plans. That’s the baffling thing for me.
“You think what he’s done in his career… at his level… surely the manager would have known before the season started if he was going to play Ronaldo or not, if he wanted him in his team, if he was someone to build around.
“It looks to me right now that it was a no [he didn’t want Ronaldo]. If that’s the case, he should have let Ronaldo go.
“It’s going to be something that hampers Ten Hag going forward until the day Ronaldo leaves the club, because of how much of an icon and superstar he is.”
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