‘Your Job’—Real Cause of Cristiano Ronaldo, Erik ten Hag’s Man Utd Feud Revealed

Ronaldo has repeatedly criticised the Dutchman since his departure from Old Trafford.

Cristiano Ronaldo (right) left Man Utd after clashing with Erik ten Hag (left). | ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP/Getty Images

Steve McClaren, Erik ten Hag’s assistant at Manchester United, has explained how the Dutch boss’s insistence that it was Cristiano Ronaldo’s job to press ultimately led to his acrimonious exit from Old Trafford in 2022.

Having been benched by the hard-lined coach, Ronaldo went public with his dislike towards Ten Hag, who won the battle as United reached an agreement to terminate the Portugal superstar’s contract before a switch to Al Nassr.

“There was a lot of battles on that training field,” McClaren told The Good, The Bad and The Football. “There was a lot of, ‘All I want you to do is this, this, this and this.’ That was Erik’s coaching: ‘Ronnie, this is your job.’

“I used to say to Ronnie, ‘All [Ten Hag] wants you to do is ... you’re the first press, make one run, make two runs, and maybe make a third one, if you feel like it. And then, recover back into the middle, in case we win the ball, and then we can play to you. That’s all he wants you to do. If you can’t do that, you won’t be playing. Or if you won’t do that, you can’t be playing, or he won’t pick you. I’m telling you, he won’t pick you.’

“I think other people would [have picked Ronaldo], and that’s the difference, other people would. But Erik was, ‘No, I’m doing that, and [Ronaldo] has got to do it, otherwise he doesn’t play.’

“It was a little bit of a fight—not a fight, but a standoff, and who is going to win? Erik stuck to his guns. I think most managers would accommodate to that. Some managers are like that. But he stuck to his guns.”

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Ronaldo Felt ‘Misunderstood’ by Ten Hag

Ronaldo did not see eye-to-eye with Ten Hag. | GEOFF CADDICK/AFP/Getty Images

McClaren is not the only member of Ten Hag’s backroom staff to reflect on his feud with Ronaldo. Striker coach Benni McCarthy, currently the manager of Kenya after departing Old Trafford in 2024, previously claimed Ronaldo simply did not agree with Ten Hag’s tactical approach.

“I think Manchester United wasted a great opportunity to use Cristiano in the right way,” the former Blackburn Rovers and West Ham United striker told Zero Zero. “But I was not the head coach and I could not be the one to make those decisions.

"It wasn’t easy because Cristiano is a huge character. He has his own personality, his own maturity, and he wants a coach who understands him too. At a certain point, it’s true, things started not working out between them.

“Erik had his philosophy, his ideas and he didn’t see Cristiano being part of them. And that’s when problems started. Cristiano wasn’t happy when he wasn’t playing because he gave everything he could in training. He trains like I’ve never seen anyone train before. He’s an elite player in every way, even in his behaviour.

“He would arrive at training very early, maybe two hours before everyone else started arriving. He was the most impressive athlete I have ever met in my life. Not all athletes have what it takes to be like that. Unfortunately, the coach’s philosophy was different from what he had envisioned.

“[Ten Hag] wanted a forward who could press up front. And Cristiano believed that this work should be done by the team as a whole. With him, in some areas, the best thing to do was to give him the ball and let him do his thing.”

Four years later and Ronaldo has found himself clashing heads with another club. The striker refused to play for Al Nassr in protest of the club’s underwhelming transfer business which even manager Jorge Jesus confessed could not compare to their rivals in the Saudi Pro League.

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