It was one of the few occasions that Cristiano Ronaldo talked about the football during his sit-down with Piers Morgan and although it didn’t create the headlines, it was still particularly revealing. Football in 2022 is about the collective rather than the individual, but Ronaldo has not been able to adjust. He was asked by Morgan about the idea people at United were briefing against him a few weeks after Rangnick had taken over, saying he couldn’t press as the German wanted to, that he took aim at new coaches. It might not have been aimed at Ten Hag, but the Dutchman’s methods aren’t that far removed from Rangnick’s and many of the other coaches he has influenced.
Cristiano Ronaldo said: “To be honest, Piers, it’s something that I don’t understand. It’s the new coaches that are coming around, they think they find the last Coca Cola in the desert, which is I don’t understand the football that invents many, many years. But I respect any coach, every different approach, different opinions, different mentality, but kind of some points that you’re, you’re not agree. So I’m always like that in my life. I’ve always been, besides the best coaches in the world: Zidane and Ancelloti, Mourinho, Fernando Santos, Allegri… So I have kind of, some experience because I learn from them. And when you see some coaches that are coming, that they want the revolution [in] the football, I don’t agree, I have my opinion. They agree or they don’t, they disagree, but it’s part of the business because at the end of the day, I’m in a club to win, and with my experience, I want to help. Like always, and some coaches that don’t accept and, you know, it’s part of the job.”
Ronaldo is right that he’s worked with some of the best coaches in the world, but you wouldn’t compare any of them with Ten Hag. They are more old-fashioned, less focused on pressing, and happier to focus on star names.
