Erik Ten Hag on Cristiano Ronaldo: "He let the team down, and he let me down, because we planned with him" "I flew out to Portugal to speak with him about what I was aiming for before I came to United. Obviously, he’s one of the best in football history. I respected him a lot. But at that time, as a manager, I had to make a rational decision and keep the players I admire in.” According to Ten Hag, Ronaldo pulled out of training sessions, did not get his heart rate raised to the required level when he did train, and only completed two of the three scheduled laps of the infamous run Ten Hag made his players do after they lost 4-0 at Brentford in August 2022. "I confronted him with this,” says Ten Hag. “Many times I say, ‘Ronnie, everyone wants to work for you to bring you in the right position, but if you can’t bring yourself in the box, you can’t score’. He was not capable to do this. It’s the wrong idea to put this to me that I expected him to do the pressing, that he’s exhausted. But he couldn’t. He ran neither in possession nor out of possession. The reason was because he didn’t prepare himself. "Every top team has to embrace the top player, but the top player has to work for the team." "He was telling the players, ‘Save your legs at the training’. I understand it when you are top fit; you have sessions, you can save the legs. But first you have to train yourself to get into the right fitness levels." [@lauriewhitwell]