Man Utd: Ten Hag ‘right’ with Ronaldo as McClaren reveals feud verdict – ‘some people didn’t like that’

Former Manchester United assistant Steve McClaren has revealed his verdict on Erik ten Hag’s treatment of club legend Cristiano Ronaldo.

Ten Hag’s appointment negatively impacted Ronaldo as he slipped in the pecking order under the Dutch head coach.

The Man Utd opted to select up-and-coming talents instead of Ronaldo, who was outspoken in his anger at being an impact player for the Premier League giants.

Ten Hag held his nerve as he refused to budge on Ronaldo, who had his contract terminated at the end of 2022. This decision was made after the Portugal international hit out at the Dutchman, the Glazer family and several club legends.

Ronaldo was also unhappy following Man Utd’s failure to qualify for the Champions League, but he opted to join Saudi Pro League side Al Nassr on a free transfer.

McClaren was Ten Hag’s assistant when Ronaldo was ushered out of the door and he is insistent that he “can’t fault” the head coach’s “approach”.

“I couldn’t fault [Ten Hag’s] approach,” McClaren said in an interview with The Telegraph .

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“He really handled it very well. I said at the time he was the right man to go in. That was shown in the way he handled [the departure of Cristiano] Ronaldo.

“He [Ten Hag] came in with set standards. Set rules. Set way of playing. And if you didn’t run, you didn’t play. He was rigid on that. Which the Dutch are. He knew that was what was needed. There could be no flexibility, no way the players could manoeuvre [out of that responsibility].

“This is what you had to do – or you didn’t play. And he took on Ronaldo, and quite rightly.

“Other managers have tried to adapt. Erik didn’t feel it was necessary to do that. [Ralf] Rangnick had tried and it hadn’t quite worked out and Ole [Gunnar Solskjaer] the same. So he [Ten Hag] stuck to his guns and developed other players.”

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McClaren also offered his thoughts on Ten Hag dropping Marcus Rashford to the bench for being late to a matchday meeting.

“On instances like lateness for meetings [that] was well documented, the Wolves one, [when Marcus Rashford] was a minute or two late for a meeting on game day,” McClaren began.

“He [Ten Hag] put him on the bench. Granted he put him [Rashford] on and he scored the winner. Things like that were important. Discipline was important. Standards were important. Behaviour was important. Everybody knows that about United.

“That’s what he [Ten Hag] brought. Some people didn’t like that – that’s normal – but he never swayed from it. That’s his strength.”