Cristiano Ronaldo became a superstar at Manchester United, but boss Sir Alex Ferguson was forced to compromise on his tactics to accommodate the Portuguese attacker
Cristiano Ronaldo refused to track back to help out the defence when playing for Manchester United, forcing Sir Alex Ferguson into a tactical switch.
Ronaldo became a superstar during his first spell at United, winning three Premier League titles, the FA Cup and the Champions League. He was also named the top-flight’s Player of the Year twice and won his first Ballon d’Or while at Old Trafford.
But while the Portuguese attacker was the star of United’s all-conquering side, Ferguson also had to work around him. Ronaldo would refuse to track back with his marker while playing for the Red Devils.
That is according to Ryan Giggs, who was one of Ferguson’s most trusted lieutenants. Giggs did not see Ronaldo’s reluctance to defend as a weakness though, instead highlighting it as one of the qualities that made him a “match-winner”.
“The players who get away with it are the ones who are match winners, who will win you more games so you let them get away with it. Cristiano was like that,” Giggs told beIN Sports in 2020.
“So what Sir Alex would do, he would play an extra man in midfield, against the likes of Arsenal who were just as good as us. But he would put Darren Fletcher against Ashley Cole because he knew Ronaldo wasn’t going to [track back].
“I first witnessed it playing against Barcelona and it was [Luis] Figo and I said to Sir Alex because Figo kept getting on the ball, it was Dennis Irwin kept bombing forward playing our normal game – I said ‘Gaffer he’s cheating’.
“He’s not cheating, he’s clever, he’s intelligent because when the ball breaks down and the full backs have gone forward, Figo’s free and he didn’t track back and the other players didn’t expect him to track back.
“Whereas if we didn’t track the players would be going crazy so there are players like Hazard, Messi, there’s Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar they’re all match winners.
If you are a top player, you can get away with it, but you have to be special and you have to win more games than you lose.”
While Ferguson would relax his approach to Ronaldo in terms of match tactics, the legendary manager also encouraged his coaching staff to turn a blind eye any time the attacker was fouled during training.
“Members of the coaching staff were encouraged to turn a blind eye if they saw Ronaldo being fouled in practice matches and small-sided games,” former United coach Tony Coton told the Daily Mail.
“These games were intense and no prisoners were taken. Poor Ronaldo didn’t know what hit him as team-mates he’d been sharing a joke with him gave him the kind of treatment that was no laughing matter.”
“When a free-kick was not forthcoming, he’d throw his hands up in outrage. Toughened pros like Roy Keane, Rio Ferdinand would lambast him for being soft. It was tough love and slowly but surely, the message began to seep into our winger’s consciousness.”
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