“Welcome back to Manchester!”
On Friday morning, Cristiano Ronaldo appeared to be closing in on a sensational move from Juventus to Manchester City. By lunchtime, Manchester United had emerged as not only rivals to secure his signature, but the outright favourites.
“Ronaldo is a legend of the club, and the greatest player of all time, if you ask me,” said Ole Gunnar Solskjaer during a press conference that had originally been intended to preview Sunday’s match against Wolves, but quickly transitioned into The Ronaldo Show.
“I didn’t think he’d leave Juventus. We’ve always had good communication and I know Bruno [Fernandes] has been talking to him. He knows what we feel about him. If he was ever going to move away from Juventus, he knows we’re here.”
He added: “I was fortunate to play with him and coach him. Let’s see what happens with Cristiano. Everyone who has played with him as a soft spot for him.”
While Solskjaer was busy stoking up United’s interest, Pep Guardiola was dampening expectations that he could join City. “Cristiano will decide where he wants to play, not Manchester City, not myself,” he said. “There are many things that are far away.”
Ronaldo has been tipped to make a romantic return to United on countless occasions since leaving the club to sign for Real Madrid in 2009. But as was the case with Gareth Bale’s temporary return to Tottenham last summer, this time it actually looks as though it is going to happen.
There will no doubt be plenty of United supporters excited at the prospect of seeing Ronaldo strut his stuff on the Old Trafford once more, but what does his homecoming actually mean for the rest of the squad and Solskjaer’s plan?
Where will he fit in?
The more pertinent question, perhaps, is where will everybody else fit in?
Unsurprisingly, seeing as he has been away for over a decade, Ronaldo is a completely different footballer now from the stepover king, and later counter-attacking menace, that first graced the Premier League. In fact, he’s a pretty different footballer now even from the one he was during his final season with Real Madrid three years ago.
During the latter years of his career, Ronaldo has gravitated away from the left wing role he tended to occupy at the Bernabeu. The era of Ronaldo the wide forward has gone and been replaced by the era of Ronaldo the penalty box poacher. Ronaldo played almost exclusively as a No 9 during his three seasons with Juventus.
It seems likely that he will reprise that role at United and that Solskjaer will surround him with the pace of Greenwood, Rashford and Sancho on the flanks, to not only create space and consequently, chances for him inside the box, but to do the bulk of his off-the-ball work too.
Pogba could retreat into a more natural central midfield role than the target man-playmaker hybrid on the left as a result, and he and Fernandes will be tasked with providing United’s creativity from the middle of the pitch.
Is signing Ronaldo a good idea?
On the one hand, signing one of the greatest footballers of all time, who just scored 36 goals in 44 games for a fundamentally flawed Juventus team last season and happens to already be a legend from his first spell at the club, seems like a no-brainer.
On the other, Zinedine Zidane’s quote about Real Madrid selling Claude Makelele to make room for David Beckham in 2003 springs to mind. “Why put another layer of gold paint on the Bentley when you are losing the entire engine?” Zidane quipped. Incidentally, Real went on to endure three trophyless seasons after that piece of business.
There are legitimate questions to be asked over whether United actually need Ronaldo and whether signing him should have been a priority. Bizarrely, given the amount of money that they have spent, United have never addressed the glaring hole in their defensive midfield. Fred is a box-to-box midfielder masquerading as a ball-winner, as is Scott McTominay, while Nemanja Matic is a long way past his best.
Ronaldo will obviously enhance an attack that already has Bruno Fernandes, Paul Pogba, Jadon Sancho and Mason Greenwood in it, Edinson Cavani, Anthony Martial and Jesse Lingard in reserve and Marcus Rashford to return from shoulder surgery.
But United were the second top-scorers in the Premier League last season and had added the exceptionally talented Sancho into the mix. And, as effective as Ronaldo still is, it would be a shame if his arrival resulted in a reduction of minutes – and therefore, development – for the prodigious Greenwood, who has made a promising start to the campaign.
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3ymWVOL
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