Chris Armas has encouraged Erik ten Hag to “engage with Cristiano Ronaldo” to help get the best out of the Manchester United forward.
Armas was part of Ralf Rangnick’s coaching staff at Manchester United during the 2021/22 campaign.
It was a drama-filled season for the Red Devils, as Ronaldo made his return in the summer before Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was sacked in November.
Manchester United need Ten Hag to roll successive double-sixes for them this season
With the club’s dressing room toxic to its core, Rangnick could not improve their fortunes as they ended up finishing sixth in the Premier League.
They would have finished lower had it now been for the 18 goals Ronaldo scored in the league.
The 37-year-old is clearly unhappy at the club as he has looked to engineer a move elsewhere this summer.
He made his first appearance during pre-season over the weekend as he played for 45 minutes against Rayo Vallecano.
Ronaldo left Old Trafford before the final whistle and Ten Hag has stated that this is “unacceptable”.
The forward is set to be on the bench against Brighton on Sunday. This is hardly surprising given that he has only played a single half of football during pre-season.
Armas has defended Ronaldo, claiming that he still has “so much to give” to Man Utd:
“He’s a big part of the team and he’s still a guy that produced so it would be my job to figure out how to get all that talent and all that fire and experience of winning and challenge him as much as I could,” Armas told Sky Sports.
“I think the most important thing is to engage with Cristiano. He’s got so much to give, again his commitment to winning and scoring.
“Each guy has their different type of leadership – he can certainly be a leader in his way and my goal like everyone else on the roster was ‘how can I get the best out of Cristiano?’
“So I do think that’s a hands-on approach, it’s speaking with him, it’s bringing him into the office, it’s asking him questions. So he’s part of the solutions and part of the success.”
Under Rangnick, United were dumped out of the Champions League by Atletico Madrid in the first knockout round. Armas has admitted that this exit “sucked the air out” of what they were doing:
“After the Champions League exit, not getting the result at home, we let that one go for sure, you could see the air got sucked out a little bit on what we were doing and it got difficult down that stretch.
“It was disappointing in…
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