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Erik ten Hag explains why he substituted Cristiano Ronaldo during Manchester United’s draw with Newcastle United.
Manchester United head coach, Erik ten Hag has explained why he substituted Cristiano Ronaldo during the Red Devils’ draw with Newcastle United.
Ten Hag claims that Cristiano Ronaldo’s substitution during his team’s 0-0 draw with Newcastle United was motivated by his desire to keep Manchester United’s strikers “fresh.”
Eddie Howe’s team kept the Red Devils to a scoreless draw at Old Trafford, and as a result, the Red Devils lost two points at home.
While Marcus Rashford was only able to sit on the bench due to illness, Ten Hag was missing Anthony Martial and Christian Eriksen against the Magpies.
That meant a front three of Ronaldo, Jadon Sancho and Antony but the trio failed to find a breakthrough against Newcastle in the opening 70 minutes.
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When Ten Hag turned to his bench to introduce Rashford, he chose to remove Ronaldo ahead of his other attackers. The 37-year-old was far from happy as he made his way to the touchline and he could be seen shaking his head furiously as he made his way to the bench.
To make matters worse, United began to produce chances in the area that Ronaldo probably would have converted, including a headed opportunity for Rashford in the 96th minute.
Ten Hag argued that he needed to keep his strikeforce “fresh” and supported his choice to oust Ronaldo.
‘We have to cover four games in 10 days, and especially for the strikers I want to keep them fresh,’ said Ten Hag.
‘I want to keep them all fresh, so we have to rotate there. We have some problems there, Martial is not available in this moment, so we have a player less.
‘Rashy was under the weather so he didn’t have the energy for a whole game so we have to plan that, we have to plan that to cover the four games because we want to win all the four games – or, at least, get a result in all four games.’