Ronaldo tells Man Utd boss to change attitude in brutal Ten Hag slam; advises him to ‘listen to’ RvN

Cristiano Ronaldo insists that Man Utd need a manager that believes in winning the Premier League and Champions League, unlike Erik ten Hag.

The Red Devils had an encouraging first season under Ten Hag with the Dutchman guiding them to an FA Cup final, League Cup silverware and a top-four finish in the Premier League.

But Man Utd were not as convincing last term with Ten Hag’s side only managing an eighth-placed finish in the Premier League with an FA Cup final victory over Man City saving the former Ajax’s boss’ job.

New co-owners INEOS decided to put faith in Ten Hag this term after failing to identify any convincing candidates to replace him – but their start to the season has not gone to plan.

Man Utd have lost their last two Premier League matches against Brighton and Liverpool after winning their opening weekend fixture against Fulham.

And now Ronaldo has hit out at Ten Hag for not believing the club can win Premier League and Champions League with the coach’s attitude in need of change.

Ronaldo told Rio Ferdinand in an interview set to be released tomorrow: “As I told you, Manchester, they need to rebuild everything, in my opinion.

“The coach, they say they cannot compete to win the league and Champions League.

“(As) Manchester United coach, you cannot say that you’re not going to fight to win the league or Champions League.

“‘You have to be, to mentally say, listen, maybe we don’t have that potential, but I cannot say that. We’re going to try. You have to try.”

That is at odds with what Ten Hag actually said last month, when he unveiled new signings and was bullish in saying: “ We are confident, we have a good team, we have a good squad. We have to be more consistent and we want to win every competition in which we are taking part, definitely also the Premier League.”

Man Utd legend Ruud van Nistelrooy was brought in as Ten Hag’s new assistant over the summer and Ronaldo thinks “they can improve a little bit” if the Red Devils boss listens to his compatriot.

Ronaldo added: “If Ten Hag listen to Ruud, maybe he can (help himself). I think it can help a lot because he knows the club and the club should listen (to) the guys who were there.

“You [Rio] or Roy Keane or Paul Scholes or Gary Neville, whatever, Sir Alex Ferguson. You cannot, you cannot rebuild a club without knowledge. Not guys who work in office. They understand.

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“The people who understand the football, it was, 99 per cent is the people who were there in the dressing room. They know how to deal with the players. It’s the people who understand these things.

“So I believe that Ruud is going to help because he was inside the club. He knows the club. He knows the fans. If the coach listens to him, I think they can improve a little bit the club.”

Ronaldo continued: “This club needs time to rebuild because it’s still one of the best clubs in the world, but they need to change. They understand that. This is the only way.

“This is why they show, they start to change again, the structure of the club, the president, the infrastructures and everything. The owners of the club.

“They’re investing in the training ground…So I’m happy because [things are changing]. I’m not happy the way it all happened, but in the same way, we cannot control some points of our life sometimes, but it’s done, already done.”