Steve McClaren has described a clear split inside the Manchester United dressing room caused by the prolonged dispute between Cristiano Ronaldo and Erik ten Hag.<\/p>\n
McClaren, who worked as Ten Hag\u2019s assistant, said the issue came down to tactical demands and individual willingness to meet them. \u201cErik tried to impose his style and that\u2019s why he had that fight with Ronaldo all the way through,\u201d he said. \u201cI said to Erik, very early, \u2018It\u2019s you or him.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
He outlined the specific responsibilities Ten Hag expected from attackers when the team was out of possession. \u201cRonaldo was generally O.K., but he didn\u2019t want to do the job that Erik wanted him to do. Or didn\u2019t feel he was capable of doing it. The instructions out of possession were, \u2018Get into the middle, as soon as you\u2019re back, you\u2019re the first press, then double run, even a triple run now and again.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
McClaren recalled trying to persuade Ronaldo to accept the programme. \u201cI used to say to Ronnie, \u2018If you want to play, that\u2019s what you\u2019ve got to do.\u2019 He\u2019d argue, \u2018Ah, nobody wants to press.\u2019 I\u2019d say, \u2018Well, they\u2019re all young lads, they can press.\u2019\u201d He added that Ten Hag wanted a collective effort: \u201cIt\u2019s right that 11 players attack, 11 players defend. Not 11 players attack, 10 players defend. So I said, \u2018You have to run, it\u2019s simple, Ronnie. If you don\u2019t, you don\u2019t play.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
On the wider impact, McClaren suggested the balancing act between accommodating an individual and enforcing a system divided opinion inside the squad. \u201cMaybe other managers have tried to adapt and accommodate to get the best out of him. The balance of that was significant. You\u2019ve probably got half the squad going, \u2018We think Ronnie\u2019s right,\u2019 and half going, \u2018We think Erik is right.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
McClaren also reflected on changing attitudes to authority, drawing on his earlier time at Old Trafford. He spent 142 games under Sir Alex Ferguson between 1999 and 2001 and warned that players now ask, \u201cCan that man help us win football matches?\u201d He added, \u201cWith Fergie, he was right or you were out. If you weren\u2019t with him and he knew it, you were gone. And that\u2019s the authority, the power that he had developed over years and years.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
McClaren says Ronaldo’s dispute with Erik ten Hag divided the Manchester United dressing room. squad<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13571,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1083,1348,969],"tags":[1505,1081,1304],"class_list":["post-13572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-man-utd","category-manchester-united-news","category-premier-league","tag-accountability","tag-adaptation","tag-benching"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}