Ronaldo’s effect did not meet expectations after his return, but Manchester United’s problems can’t let him take the whole blame? 

Cristiano Ronaldo didn’t perform as expected after his return, but Manchester United’s problems can’t make him take all the blame?

In April of this year, Ronaldo scored 5 goals (including a hat-trick) in 4 games and was awarded the Premier League Player of the Month.

But that month, Manchester United only won 1 of 6 games, and the victory was achieved by Ronaldo wearing a hat and beating Norwich 3-2 at home. They lost the Double Reds away and were easily beaten by Arsenal.

After the season, Cristiano Ronaldo was selected into the Premier League’s best team, and the league’s top scorer Sun Xingmin was not selected. The Tottenham striker scored 5 more goals than Ronaldo, but the latter’s 18 goals scored 14 points for the team, ranking first in the Premier League. Cristiano Ronaldo has scored 24 goals in all competitions and is Manchester United’s top scorer, more than twice as much as the second-ranked B’s fee (10 goals).

Manchester United lost to Brighton and Crystal Palace in the last two rounds of the season, and ended up finishing sixth in the Premier League – their worst league performance in nearly 32 years – without a trophy.

Although the team’s record is not good, the 37-year-old Ronaldo still finds a way to play some highlight moments. When these moments come, United are basically at a critical juncture.

In the Champions League group stage between Villarreal and Atalanta, he scored two key goals in the final moments to pull the team back from the brink of elimination. After losing 5-0 at home to Liverpool, he arranged 3 goals and led the team to win 4-1 against Tottenham by himself. In the 3-1 away loss to Arsenal, he scored 100 personal Premier League goals, and his teammates wasted the penalty he created.

Individuals, teams, whether the two are unrelated or directly related, this is the current dilemma facing Ronaldo. He asked to leave the team to chase the Champions League dream, making his situation even more embarrassing.

Critics will say: Manchester United were runners-up in the Premier League in the 2020-21 season, and their performance fell last season because of the extra Cristiano Ronaldo. On his return, the Manchester United camp celebrated wildly and shirt sales hit a new high, which turned out to be all trouble.

Manchester United’s attack has slowed down seriously, and the team’s young stars have become marginal. Solskjaer originally created a system that can produce results. With the addition of Cristiano Ronaldo, a player who does not like to press and cannot adapt to the requirements of modern games, the system is messed up.

In addition to technical limitations, a player who complains constantly sets a negative tone for the team.

Just as a coin has both sides, Ronaldo also delivered on his promise and scored a lot of goals. He was the team’s top scorer for 16 consecutive seasons.

His style of play has long been no secret, and Manchester United knew it when they recalled him last summer. So, to maximize Cristiano Ronaldo’s talents and benefit the team a lot, isn’t this what the Manchester United coach should do? Is one of the historical players that hard to use?

Ronaldo’s return to Manchester United is not to lose the youngsters away in the Champions League, nor to be beaten by Premier League opponents. Manchester United had a disastrous season, but it was too much to blame Ronaldo. As Rangnick said, this Manchester United team has too many problems to solve. Their line of defense is like paper, and if it wasn’t for De Gea’s continued bravery, the situation could have been worse.

With Ronaldo on the field, Manchester United scored more goals and scored more points. After Cristiano Ronaldo returned, he missed 8 games in the league, and Manchester United only won 2.

In the 2021-22 season, Juventus ranked 4th in the league, with poor performance on all fronts. This is more because of the club’s own problems, not just “the team has Ronaldo playing worse.” Cristiano Ronaldo played for Juventus in the first two seasons, they were league champions.

During Ronaldo’s tenure with the team, Juventus scored an average of 74 goals per season in the league. That’s 12 fewer than the season before he joined and 17 more than the previous season without him.

Who is to blame? Individual or team? Undoubtedly, as with all similar issues, both parties are to blame. The key is how much responsibility each side has.

The current predicament of Manchester United and Juventus stems from years of ineffective signings, frequent coaching changes, and squandering their wealth. They changed the original plan and style of play for Ronaldo, and they also received some rewards – of course, on the Manchester United side, the investment and the return are completely disproportionate.

In September, Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice in his debut at the Theatre of Dreams and led his team to defeat Newcastle, which made fans very excited. Unfortunately, this did not become an important node in the revival of Manchester United. His goals, charisma and global attention didn’t translate into real trophies.

Manchester United will continue to move forward under Ten Hag in the new season, and their performance may help us better judge the role of Ronaldo in the previous year.