{"id":20585,"date":"2021-11-01T13:02:47","date_gmt":"2021-11-01T13:02:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/?p=20585"},"modified":"2021-11-01T12:54:56","modified_gmt":"2021-11-01T12:54:56","slug":"ronaldo-help-or-hindrance-for-man-utd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/ronaldo-help-or-hindrance-for-man-utd","title":{"rendered":"Ronaldo: Help or hindrance for Man Utd?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Uganda. <\/strong><\/span>Manchester United’s re-signing of Cristiano Ronaldo appeared to be a no-brainer — the galvanising return of a club great with the swagger of a proven winner and guaranteed goals.<\/p>\n

But is it more complicated than that? Is the presence of the Portuguese superstar at the fulcrum of the attack helping or hindering the team, who have made a stuttering start to the season?<\/p>\n

United are preparing for Tuesday’s Champions League encounter against Atalanta after a morale-boosting 3-0 win against Tottenham that helped ease the pressure on manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer after their 5-0 hammering by Liverpool.<\/p>\n

Ronaldo will go into the match on a high after ending a mini-drought in the league, scoring a superb volley and setting up Edinson Cavani for United’s second.<\/p>\n

His Premier League return so far has been solid rather than spectacular by his own standards — four goals in seven Premier League matches — less than half of Mohamed Salah’s haul of 10 for Liverpool.<\/p>\n

But he has made the difference in the Champions League, twice scoring dramatic late winners, against Villarreal and Atalanta, to haul United to the top of Group F.<\/p>\n

Despite his goals, Ronaldo has been criticised for his lack of defensive work in a team that has kept just two clean sheets all season.<\/p>\n

There have been hints that some of his teammates at previous club Juventus felt the same way but the former Real Madrid player says he will silence his accusers.<\/p>\n

“I know when the team needs my help defensively,” he told Sky Sports. “But my role in the club is to win, help the team to win and to score goals — (the defensive side) is part of my job.<\/p>\n

“The people who don’t want to see that is because they don’t like me but to be honest I’m 36, I win everything so am I going to be worried about the people who say bad things about me?<\/p>\n

“I sleep good at night. I go to my bed with my conscience very good. Keep going with that because I will still close mouths and win things.”<\/p>\n

Attacking blueprint<\/p>\n

Ronaldo’s return to United after he appeared to be on he brink of joining rivals Manchester City forced Solskjaer to rewrite his attacking blueprint.<\/p>\n

The arrival of the five-time Ballon d’Or winner has limited chances for fellow veteran striker Cavani, who impressed in his first season at Old Trafford last year.<\/p>\n

Jadon Sancho, who sealed a highly anticipated big-money switch from Borussia Dortmund in July, has barely made an impact, still without an assist or goal.<\/p>\n

And attackers Marcus Rashford and Mason Greenwood, 20, were forced to sit out Saturday’s match at Tottenham to accommodate a front two of Ronaldo and Cavani — paired together from the start for the first time.<\/p>\n

Solskjaer spoke of the value of experience after the win at Tottenham and he certainly needs his big players to step up for the sake of his own position.<\/p>\n

Ronaldo is a serial winner but it remains to be seen whether he can prove the difference in a United team that lacks identity and cohesion.<\/p>\n

The Portuguese superstar won the Champions League and three Premier League titles in his first spell at Old Trafford under Alex Ferguson.<\/p>\n

He followed up with silverware at Real Madrid including four more Champions League titles and collected two Serie A titles with Juventus.<\/p>\n

But even Ronaldo does not guarantee success.<\/p>\n

In his three seasons in Turin, Juve never made it beyond the Champions League quarter-finals and Inter Milan also ended Juventus’ nine-year grip on Serie A last season.<\/p>\n

Ronaldo is not the tricky winger he was in his earlier years, becoming more of an out-and-out striker, but he still has the ability to conjure up moments of magic.<\/p>\n

One thing has not changed in his two decades at the top — it is impossible to ignore him.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Uganda<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Uganda. Manchester United’s re-signing of Cristiano Ronaldo appeared to be a no-brainer — the galvanising return of a club great with the swagger of a proven winner and guaranteed goals. But is it more complicated than that? Is the presence of the Portuguese superstar at the fulcrum of the attack helping or hindering […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":20584,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,17],"tags":[233,240,234],"class_list":["post-20585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-sport","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-uganda","tag-uganda"],"yoast_head":"\nRonaldo: Help or hindrance for Man Utd? - Uganda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Manchester United's re-signing of Cristiano Ronaldo appeared to be a no-brainer -- the galvanising return of a club grea ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/ronaldo-help-or-hindrance-for-man-utd\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ronaldo: Help or hindrance for Man Utd?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Manchester United's re-signing of Cristiano Ronaldo appeared to be a no-brainer -- the galvanising return of a club grea ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/ronaldo-help-or-hindrance-for-man-utd\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Uganda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-11-01T13:02:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2021\/11\/img-617fe38cf38e0.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/ronaldo-help-or-hindrance-for-man-utd#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/ronaldo-help-or-hindrance-for-man-utd\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Ronaldo: Help or hindrance for Man Utd?\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-11-01T13:02:47+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/ronaldo-help-or-hindrance-for-man-utd\"},\"wordCount\":672,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/ronaldo-help-or-hindrance-for-man-utd#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2021\/11\/img-617fe38cf38e0.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Uganda\",\"uganda\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/ronaldo-help-or-hindrance-for-man-utd#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/ronaldo-help-or-hindrance-for-man-utd\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/ronaldo-help-or-hindrance-for-man-utd\",\"name\":\"Ronaldo: Help or hindrance for Man Utd? 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