Cristiano Ronaldo was substituted for Marcus Rashford after 72 minutes of Manchester United’s 0-0 draw with Newcastle United on Sunday. The Portugal international had mustered one shot and 19 passes, of which only a shade over 57% had found their intended target. His replacement is enjoying a solid campaign, having netted five goals in ten games going into Sunday’s clash.
Rashford would be afforded an opportunity in the last minute when a cross found him on the edge of the six-yard box. He glanced his header wide when it would have been easier to put it on target. It was a glaring miss. Then it started. Commentators and pundits lambasting Rashford for the miss and manager Erik ten Hag for bringing him on. Jonathan Woodgate, co-commentating for BBC Radio Five Live, was the first of many to insist Ronaldo would have scored. This then mushroomed into a debate about the wisdom of taking off a player of Ronaldo’s quality.
READ MORE:
The strangest justification for keeping him on was said on the same broadcast. It was alleged that United should have kept the 37-year-old on the field because he’d been given an award for 700 club goals before the game. This is the crux of the issue with media perceptions of Ronaldo. Despite an overwhelming abundance of evidence to the contrary, a large chunk of the British footballing press are convinced he is still the same player that scored the vast majority of those record-busting strikes. The reality is far different.
Would Ronaldo have dispatched that header that Rashford spurned? Most likely. But, conversely, would Rashford have sunk the open goal that Ronaldo conspired to miss away to Omonia Nicosia? Yes, he probably would. This is where the divide takes place in the minds of many of the UK’s top pundits.
The imaginary Ronaldo scores every opportunity. His abilities increase particularly when he’s not on the pitch. If a United player misses even a half-chance then “Ronaldo would have scored that”. This while being ignorant of the fact that Ronaldo has two goals from thirteen appearances this season and has missed a litany of these same chances he supposedly always scores from.
Ronaldo seems to be unique in the regard that he is not allowed to grow old. While Wayne Rooney was not expected to summon his world class best at Derby County, nor John Terry to perform as the defensive maestro he was at Chelsea while turning out for Aston Villa, Ronaldo is considered eternal. Pundits, many of whom played with the Portuguese forward, seem certain that he is the same man that beguiled Old Trafford and the Bernabeu a decade ago.
Last season Ronaldo was still a strong performer. His 18 goals in 30 Premier League games were valuable to a struggling United outfit, but below his former goal-a-game glory. The blame for this was primarily aimed at United’s other players, rather than the waning powers of a man playing past football’s usual retirement age. Those goals were scored by a player who wanted to wear the red of Manchester United. This season’s two-goal haul was notched by a man who does not want to be at Old Trafford and it shows.
Ronaldo publicly agitated for a move over the summer and has looked a different player once one was not forthcoming. Nobody can accuse Ronaldo of downing tools. For a 37-year-old man he still puts in the hard yards both in training and on the pitch. But that burning desire to excel for United has been lost. Ronaldo now wants to score goals to meet his own targets. To fortify his own records. He’s always been selfish, it’s what has made him such a singular talent over the years. But Cristiano has gone from wanting to score goals for himself and his team to wanting to score goals for himself.
His reasons for leaving in the summer surrounded personal milestones he wanted to achieve. Ronaldo insisted on only moving to a Champions League club because he does not want to give rival Lionel Messi a free hit at the tournament goal record. The Paris Saint-Germain star is second on the all-time Champions League scorers list with 127 goals, just 13 behind Ronaldo’s current record of 140. Ronaldo is not motivated by improving United’s standing. He is motivated by his own place in the history books.
This shifting desire coupled with his physical decline has made for a toxic mix. But rather than applauding Ten Hag for dropping or substituting a player who views himself as bigger than the club, pundits lambast him. The Dutchman is mocked as if he’s chosen to replace the Ronaldo of 2014/15, who scored 61 goals in 55 games. But this is the Ronaldo of 2022. The Ronaldo that doesn’t want to be here. The Ronaldo that has scored just twice all season. The old Ronaldo is gone and it’s about time behind-the-times pundits accepted that fact.
*18+ | BeGambleAware | Odds Subject To Change
