“It didn’t work out for me, didn’t work out for Cristiano, but it was the right decision at the time”. That’s how the 2nd tenure of Cristiano Ronaldo was summed up by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at Manchester United. Despite the number of goals he brought to the team, Solskjaer still needed some flexibility with CR7. However, the legendary coach, Sir Alex Ferguson’s reaction to the club icon being benched, is now being slammed by an Ex-Premier League star.

Darren Bent, who played for Tottenham Hotspur, argued on a talkSPORT podcast that Sir Alex Ferguson casting a shadow on the then-manager’s decision was unwarranted. “I don’t think it’s great because listen, Solskjaer is a manager and we all know, every single football fan on the planet, past and present, knows exactly what Alex Ferguson did for Manchester United Football Club. There’s nowhere on the planet he should be getting involved in that decision,” explained Bent. But what was the comment that sparked such a reaction?

Solskjaer revealed that his decision to bench Ronaldo did not go well with Sir Alex, as well as the Portuguese star. He earlier said, “Cristiano when you played with him, you know him, you speak to him, he wanted to play three out of four games cuz, he realized he’s getting older as well. But then when you leave him out once, he’s not happy, is he? Or the gaffer is not happy, or Sir Alex is not happy,” which baffled Bent.

Cristiano Ronaldo always had the backing of Sir Alex Ferguson, who was seemingly disappointed to see CR7 on the bench. Solskjaer had dropped Ronaldo for a game against Everton, a few days after scoring a winner against Valencia in the UCL citing overload. This led Sir Alex to express his dissent, saying, “I know but you should always start with your best players,” because of Ronaldo coming on in the 2nd half.

Cristiano Ronaldo prompted an uncomfortable change in tactics for Solskjær

Cristiano Ronaldo getting annoyed wasn’t the only problem for the Norwegian manager. Few of the players had to train, keeping in mind, a tactical modification after his arrival. Speaking about it, Solskjaer said on The Overlap, “Cristiano is different to Martial who was upfront, or if you’re going to play Mason or Marcus up front so we had to change a little bit obviously,” citing the forced adaption.

Solskjaer further explained, “With the ball, with him (Ronaldo) in the team, it was no problem. Without him [pressing], we had to change a little bit the different roles we’d gotten used to”. With all the complexities involved in having the 5x Ballon d’Or winner, Manchester United still failed to win a trophy. Nevertheless, the club and its loyal fans could expect Sir Alex’s help to bring changes under Sir Jim Ratcliffe.

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