Do Man Utd and Portugal's struggles start with Ronaldo?

Nicholas Hughes

• Updated: 15 Nov 2021 11:23 GMT
• 4 min read

Cristiano Ronaldo’s summer switch to Manchester United was met with as much excitement, if not more, than any other transfer in recent years, possibly ever.

The prodigal son returned to Old Trafford and quickly got to work, scoring twice in a demolition of Newcastle United, but it's been a struggle from then on.

United have won just four of the 12 games following that in all competitions, including an embarrassing defeat against Young Boys, a 5-0 home humiliation against Liverpool and an insipid Manchester Derby display.

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While Ronaldo himself has stood up in the big moments, with three goals in the last 10 minutes of matches to earn points in the Champions League, there has been much conjecture surrounding his introduction to the team and about his fit.

There is a significant trade off with his obvious individual ability and his cohesiveness with the rest of the team around him, and it appears those same issues might be creeping into the Portugal national team.

The Selecao captain was left in tears as his side lost 2-1 to Serbia on Sunday night, condemning them to a play-off if they wish to compete in next year’s FIFA World Cup.

And it follows on from a tumultuous summer, one where Portugal approached the European Championship as a favourite to win the whole thing but bombed out in the Round of 16 after winning only one match.

Ronaldo won the Golden Boot at the tournament after scoring five goals, but there were moments where it wasn’t all clicking up front with the likes of Diogo Jota, Bruno Fernandes and Bernardo Silva.

Even in his last season at Juventus, Ronaldo led the Serie A with an outstanding 29 goals scored, but Juventus were a mess, squeaking into the top four by a single point.

In fairness to CR7, he hasn’t been helped out by the coaches in any of these scenarios. Andrea Pirlo was clearly out of his depth at Juventus and duly sacked at the end of the season, while Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has been linked with the sack for what feels like an eternity at United.

And in Fernando Santos, Portugal have a head coach that is 67 years of age, been in the business for over 30 years and is set in an old-fashioned, defensive set up despite the wealth of attacking talent available to him.

Does Cristiano Ronaldo need to do more to help his teams?

But while there is some influence from the sidelines, questions might start to be asked around Ronaldo’s suitability to carry a top team to titles at this stage of his career.

His quality means he will be able to score goals, of course, and his late goals have already been huge for United this season – without them, the Red Devils would essentially be out of contention in their Champions League group.

But his teams’ continued struggles for success can’t be ignored. As prodigious a talent as he has been his entire career, there comes a time for all athletes to step aside.

Perhaps it’s early to suggest Ronaldo passing the baton on at club and international level, but there clearly needs to be a change. If he can’t figure out how to get more from his teammates and how to better help the collective, the issues could only continue to grow.

At 36 years of age, Ronaldo is at serious risk of missing his last opportunity to play in a World Cup with Portugal. The United project is not working yet, and he appears some way short of any Ballon d’Or conversation. The coming months in Ronaldo’s career could be an indication of how his career might end up.