Erik ten Hag criticized Cristiano Ronaldo again and compared him to Messi: “He's not able to collaborate for the team”

the same performance.”

His tense relationship at Manchester United In

another part of the conversation, Ten Hag reconstructed the conversations he had with the forward when he took office at Old Trafford in mid-2022. “When I arrived at Manchester United, I explained to him how we were going to play, what his role would be, what I expected from him and what I could expect from the team. But ultimately, he also had to perform on his own,” he recalled

.

The coach said he tried to change his attitude, but that the final decision was up to the player himself. “I did everything I could to make it change, but it was up to him to make that effort or not. And if I didn't, I had to make decisions for the good of the team,” he explained, referring to Ronaldo's repeated substitutions during his

The relationship between Erik ten Hag and Cristiano Ronaldo in Manchester United ended up marked by conflicts and differences over the role of the striker within the team. Although almost four years have passed since the Portuguese left Old Trafford, the Dutch coach referred to that stage again and launched new criticisms against the five-time winner of the Ballon d'Or, whom he also compared to Lionel Messi

.

In an interview with the program Goedemorgen Eredivisie, on ESPN Netherlands, the current technical director of Twente questioned the attacker's ability to adapt to collective needs and argued that his performance began to decline several years ago. “He hasn't been able to collaborate for the team for seven or eight years. Since Juventus, it's over,” he said

.

Ten Hag recognized Cristiano's soccer dimension, but he made a difference between individual talent and commitment to the functioning of the team. “Every great team has to give their best player a place, but that player must also work for the team. That was precisely the problem with Ronaldo,” he explained

.

In that sense, he recalled that his teammates admired him and were willing to play for him, although he felt that the Portuguese didn't respond in the same way. “The players wanted to work for him and they admired him. Let there be no misunderstanding: he's an extraordinary soccer player, one of the best of all time,”

he added.

One of the strongest statements was linked to Ronaldo's departure from Real Madrid in 2018. After nine seasons, four Champions League seasons and a historic stint with the Spanish club, the striker was transferred to Juventus. For Ten Hag, that decision responded to one of the main virtues of the Madrid institution. “That's one of Real Madrid's great virtues: it always knows when to say goodbye to its players at the right time,” he said. And he went deeper: “They recognize when a soccer player's level starts to fall and they let go of him when, from the outside, he still seems to be at his best, even though he can no longer offer

tenure.

In addition, he questioned his ability to sustain the intensity of training and respond to the physical demands of the Premier League. “He could no longer push himself to overcome the pain, give it his all every day and train himself to the maximum to achieve his best form. And if you're not physically ready for the Premier League, the Champions League or the Portuguese national team, you just don't have a chance,” he

said.

The comparison with Messi

The coach also used Lionel Messi as an example to explain what he expects from a figure within a team. When referring to the difference between the two during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, he stressed that the Argentine captain received the support of his teammates, but he also returned that commitment to his performance and his collective participation

.

“No one is above a club or country, not even Messi. And that is precisely the extraordinary thing about Messi and how things worked in Argentina. It was fantastic to see, but that also required a commitment from Messi himself. Everyone worked for him, but he also gave them a lot in return,”

he said.

Ronaldo's numbers on his return to United

The Portuguese's second cycle at Old Trafford lasted just over a year, from his return in August 2021 to his abrupt departure in late 2022.

During that period, he played 54 games, in which he scored 27 goals and gave 5 assists, before terminating his contract and continuing his career with Al-Nassr in Saudi Arabia.