Details regarding the fractured relationship between Cristiano Ronaldo and Ralf Rangnick during their time at Manchester United have been revealed. Rangnick replaced Ole Gunnar Solskjaer as the head coach after he was sacked by Manchester United in November 2021. Ronaldo, who had just returned to the Old Trafford after his three-year stint at Juventus in Italy, was in great form under Solskjaer but did not reportedly have a great relationship with Rangnick, who was eventually sacked upon the conclusion of the season. During his short stay at the club, he was subject to a lot of criticism and suffered a complete breakdown of his relationship with the Portuguese star.
German outlet BILD reported that Ronaldo demanded that he start in four out of five games. The Portuguese forward also wanted that he be allowed to stay at home for the game he is rested, refusing to be on the bench. Those demands did not sit well with Ralf Rangnick.
Ralf Rangnick was not hesitant to speak about the flaws in Cristiano Ronaldo’s game, singling him out for his non-existent work-rate. While he did not blame Ronaldo directly, he did hint that he had to tweak the playing style that he wanted to implement in order to compensate for Ronaldo. “I am the one who is most disappointed about that and frustrated about that,” the German coach had admitted in a press conference in May 2022.
“At one stage we just had to find compromises — attacking a little bit deeper, how can we make sure that we get our offensive players into their positions? Cristiano scored a few goals but, again, Cristiano — and I’m not blaming him at all, he did great in those games – but he’s not a pressing monster. He’s not a player – even when he was a young player – he was not a young player who was crying, shouting ‘Hurray, the other team has got the ball, where can we win balls,’” he added.
Rangnick, meanwhile, was appointed as the head coach of the Austrian national team on a two-year deal in 2022. He has helped Austria qualify for UEFA Euro 2024. In recent weeks, there has been strong speculation in the German media that Bayern Munich are close to signing him as the head coach for the 2024-25 season, after it was announced that current coach Thomas Tuchel would be leaving Allianz Arena on mutual consent at the end of this season.
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