Erik ten Hag, the manager of Manchester United, spoke to the media on Friday at noon in preparation for Sunday’s Premier League opening at Old Trafford against Brighton & Hove Albion.
United will be motivated to start the season on a positive note and earn three points after finishing their preseason activities with a 1-1 draw against Rayo Vallecano last weekend. In their six friendly, the Reds had a mixed preseason, winning three, tying two, and losing one.
Despite the mixed results they had, there were many encouraging signs. In particular, the victories over Liverpool, Melbourne Victory, and Crystal Palace included some extremely impressive individual performances as well as good team efforts. However, attention now shifts to the Premier League’s main event and a matchup with Graham Potter’s Seagulls.
Erik ten Hag first expressed his annoyance with the continuing controversy surrounding Cristiano Ronaldo’s future at Manchester United.
Ronaldo has made it known that he wants to leave Old Trafford, so the Dutch manager has had to deal with constant rumors about his whereabouts throughout his first preseason in charge. The 37-year-old is trying to stage an exit to a club featuring in the Champions League despite having a year left in his contract with the Red Devils.
The Red Devils have been insistent that he is not for sale and will be in their lineup for the Premier League season’s opening this weekend. Another question is whether he will be well enough to start after missing United’s summer tour of Asia and Australia owing to personal matters.
Last week, Ronaldo did make an appearance for Ten Hag’s team for 45 minutes against Rayo Vallecano. The Portuguese made headlines nonetheless when he was photographed leaving the stadium while the game was still in progress.
Afterwards, Ten Hag bashed players who chose to leave the team too soon, though he avoided mentioning Ronaldo by name. He told Dutch reporters midweek, “I don’t condone this. This must change. for all people. Since we work as a team, you must stick around until the conclusion.”
In his pre-game press conference, Ten Hag retaliated angrily when a reporter pressed him about the incident, saying it was unjust to keep focusing on Ronaldo on an individual basis.
He said that many players had quit. “But Cristiano is getting all the attention; that is wrong. I advised you to do your investigation and determine how many players were still in the game. His involvement in it baffles me. Again, there were a lot of players that left.”
Ten Hag continued, “I’ve told you previously, I’m incredibly satisfied in my relationship with Ronaldo. We have a talented striker, and I’m glad that he is part of the team and that we keep to the game plan.
“We’ve covered it enough, in my opinion [players departing early]. It’s not correct, I said. I’m happy with the squad as a whole; we work well together, and Cristiano puts in a lot of effort. When something is said or done that is inappropriate, you reprimand them and move on.”
🗣 “The spotlight is on Cristiano [Ronaldo] and that’s not right.”
— Football Daily (@footballdaily) August 5, 2022
Erik ten Hag gave a spicy response to a reporter regarding it not only being Cristiano Ronaldo who left Manchester United’s game against Rayo Vallecano early. pic.twitter.com/EHVzMMSsLM
Given that Anthony Martial was expected to start Sunday’s season-opening match against Brighton, it seemed quite likely that the Portuguese would have started from the bench. Unfortunately, the Frenchman sustained an injury that will prevent him from playing at least this weekend, foiling that strategy.
Erik Ten Hag said, “It is never easy to determine with injuries [how long he will be out for]. “I hope not for too long,” you say. Ten Hag waggled that Ronaldo might take his place, saying, “We’ll see on Sunday.”
