Former Tottenham striker, Darren Bent, has claimed Manchester United manager, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, is scared to drop Cristiano Ronaldo.
Ronaldo has started five of United’s six Premier League fixtures so far.
The 36-year-old was however left on the bench against Everton and came on in the second half of the 1-1 draw.
After that game, Manchester United legend Sir Alex Ferguson criticized Solskjaer’s team selection, saying “you should always start your best players”.
Bent believes Solskjaer is now too worried about the backlash to drop Ronaldo, even if his presence is detrimental to the team.
“[Pep] Guardiola, [Thomas] Tuchel and [Jurgen] Klopp have earned the right to make big decisions.
“That’s no disrespect to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer but coming from Tuchel or Guardiola or Klopp, there’s a bit more weight behind it.
“There’s a method to their madness. If they make big decisions, they’ve been there and done it at the elite level so the players buy into it.
“They’ve made those big decisions before, I remember Tuchel taking off Neymar at PSG. He is big enough to do that.
“With Solskjaer, I’m not quite sure he’s a big enough character or manager to make decisions like that.
“It almost seems like since Fergie’s comments and the backlash after the Everton game, he doesn’t want that again so for the sake of the conversation he’s leaving Ronaldo in there.
“However much that’s going against what Manchester United are trying to do, it’s like he doesn’t want to upset the apple cart so is leaving it as it is.
“When you get to the elite level, you can’t do that. You need to be strong-minded and think about the team, I don’t think he’ll do that,” Bent said on The Kelly and Wrighty Show.
Comments
Post a Comment