Erik ten Hag Reacts to Cristiano Ronaldo’s Man Utd Criticism

Erik ten Hag has hit back at Cristiano Ronaldo’s claims that Manchester United have to rebuild everything in order to challenge for Premier League titles again. The Portuguese icon made headlines in an interview with Rio Ferdinand where he slammed his former manager for suggesting that the Red Devils were not ready to compete for the biggest honours.

The pair shared a fractured relationship during the first half of Ten Hag’s debut campaign at the club, leading to the forward being released from his contract ahead of the 2022 World Cup. Having been asked about the comments ahead United’s trip to Southampton this weekend, the Dutch coach has fired his return shot at the former Old Trafford hero.

Ten Hag Claims Ronaldo Has No Idea About United’s Situation

The Dutchman disagreed with the 39-year-old’s statement

Speaking in his pre-match press conference, Ten Hag held nothing back when asked about his former players’ comments, suggesting that he never said that United couldn’t compete for the top trophies:

“He said that, that Manchester United can’t win the Premier League. [I didn’t say it] he said this if you read the article very well. He is far away in Saudi, far away from Manchester, so everyone can have an opinion and is entitled to have an opinion, it is okay.”

This was followed up by the former Ajax coach being asked if he remained confident that the club were on the right track after a challenging start to the season, to which the 54-year-old gave a bullish answer:

“We will see where we are in May next year. It is very early in the season and it is about winning trophies, being as high as possible in the league, doing everything to win every game. It doesn’t impact me, I know in the process where we are and what we have to do. I have said before we are still in a transition period and we have to integrate a lot of young players in the team. We still have to deal with injuries and bring players back into the team.”

Ronaldo Believes Ten Hag Must Learn From Van Nistelrooy

The former United striker returned to the club as the new assistant manager

Despite his scathing criticism of his former boss, Ronaldo did admit that the arrival of Ruud van Nistelrooy as assistant manager could help Ten Hag. The former striker joined the club alongside Rene Hake in the summer, and his former teammate believes that his knowledge of the club could be crucial:

“If Ten Hag istens to Ruud van Nistelrooy, maybe he can help. He knows the club and the club should listen to the guys who were there.”

This notion completely contradicts the beliefs of another one of Van Nistelrooy’s former teammates, Dwight Yorke, who thinks the former PSV coach is in line to replace his colleague should he lose his job. Ten Hag is under growing scrutiny after losses to Brighton and Liverpool, so a change in the dugout remains a possibility if he can’t turn the team’s fortunes around.