Ole Gunnar Solskjaer believes that, in hindsight, Manchester United's re-signing of Cristiano Ronaldo was a mistake.
Ronaldo returned from Juventus in 2021 for his second spell at Old Trafford but when the club missed out on Champions League football and he failed to integrate with Erik ten Hag’s tactical approach, his contract was terminated before the Qatar World Cup ahead of a move to Al-Nassr in the Saudi Pro League.
Questions had been asked about how Ronaldo would fit into a high-tempo pressing game under Solskjaer and, speaking to Sky Bet, the Norwegian acknowledged it had led to a tactical overhaul within the team.
He said: “[On re-signing Cristiano Ronaldo] It was a very quick decision. We didn’t think Cristiano was available and that he was going to move. When it became apparent that he was leaving Juventus, obviously there were other clubs that wanted him – but I was excited.
"They [United] asked me, ‘Would you want us to try this?’. I said yes – obviously we know Cristiano is quality, and he’s 37, but we have to manage – he’s the best goal scorer in the world. It didn’t work out for me, it didn’t work out for Cristiano, but it was the right decision at the time.
“We started off straight away thinking how we are going to press and change the little tweaks. Cristiano is different to Antony Martial who was up front, or whether we would play Mason [Greenwood] or Marcus [Rashford] up front. Edinson Cavani was the one that suffered the most when Cristiano came in – we’d played and got Edinson into a certain way of understanding the way we played.
“Cristiano – when you know him and speak to him, he wanted to play three out of four games, he realised he’s getting older as well. But when you leave him out once, he’s not happy!”
Solskjaer also said that ultimately it had not been the right decision in retrospect.
He continued: “With the ball, with him 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. We were one of the highest pressing teams before [Ronaldo joined].
"We let Dan James go when Cristiano came in, and they’re two different types of players. It was the right decision to make for me – it didn’t turn out to be the right one.”
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