Does Cristiano Ronaldo fit Erik Ten Hag's style of play?

Karan Tejwani

• 3 May 2022 16:25 BST
• 3 min read

Erik ten Hag is set to take over as manager of Manchester United this summer, and one of the biggest questions even before his tenure has begun is how he is going to fit in top scorer Cristiano Ronaldo.

There has been plenty of debate over where Ronaldo will be accommodated, or whether he will be at the club at all – the Portuguese forward’s lack of desire off the ball has been in question many times over the course of the season.

A manager as astute as Ten Hag can make do with a goalscorer like Ronaldo, and he has proven in the past that he can change his squad and tactics to make it work for the team.

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Will Ronaldo fit in Ten Hag's system?

Ronaldo has changed his game slightly over the last few months under Ralf Rangnick, and that has been shown in the goals he has scored recently.

Although Manchester United aren’t doing very well in terms of results, Ronaldo has undoubtedly been their biggest goal threat and is one of the league’s top scorers.

He’s been playing as a pure number nine as of late and has linked up well with those behind him, something that has worked with Dusan Tadic at Ajax under Ten Hag.

The best example of that was in the Champions League in the 2018-19 season, when the “Tadic-variant” swept across Europe, carrying Ajax all the way to the semi-finals of the competition.

That system involved Tadic playing as the number nine (despite playing on the left wing in domestic competitions) with Hakim Ziyech and David Neres on either wing and Donny van de Beek just behind him.

Ronaldo’s goalscoring record is already superb, so it’s hard to imagine it not continuing under any manager, but Ten Hag’s challenge would be to get the personnel and set-up behind the Portuguese perfectly.

There has been a belief that Ten Hag wants a more youthful approach to his attacking line – and that has encouraged the likes of Jadon Sancho, Anthony Elanga and Marcus Rashford, while other forwards such as Darwin Nunez and Jonathan David have been linked to the club in recent times.

Managing Ronaldo will be one of Ten Hag’s earliest and biggest challenges – he’s too influential to drop, and based on cost, too complicated to sell, and he still has another year on his contract.

How Ten Hag does so could determine his first season – it’s a big risk, but it could have big rewards.