Ten Hag takes aim at Cristiano Ronaldo: "He just couldn't perform anymore since Juventus"

Some lines just stick with you. Here's one: according to Erik ten Hag, Cristiano Ronaldo, one of the greatest footballers in history, "just couldn't perform anymore" since his days at Juventus. That's what the Dutch coach said in an interview with ESPN, months after sharing a dugout and locker room with the Portuguese star at Manchester United.

The basic facts were already known: Ronaldo returned to Old Trafford from Juventus in 2021 and played 54 matches spanning the Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Ten Hag eras, scoring 27 goals. On paper, those numbers don't look bad at all. But Ten Hag himself goes beyond the stats and points straight to the forward's body and attitude.

"The challenge is to get the team working, like always. Every player matters for that and you need top players to be able to win. Every big club has to embrace the top player, but the top player has to work for the team. And that was simply the problem with Ronaldo," explained the man who is now technical director at FC Twente, speaking on the program Goedemorgen Eredivisie.

Ten Hag doesn't hold back on Ronaldo's footballing level in his final years in the Premier League. In his view, the forward simply "could no longer perform" from the moment he left Juventus, though he acknowledges the respect his teammates had for him: "The players wanted to work for him and admired him, let there be no misunderstanding about that. He is, of course, a tremendous player, one of the greatest of all time. But that's also the reality of the last seven or eight years: he simply can't deliver the same anymore."

"He couldn't push himself to the limit"

The most striking part comes when Ten Hag casts doubt on one of the most repeated images of Cristiano: his obsession with physical conditioning. Asked directly about it, the coach didn't mince words: "It's not entirely true, but that's the image. And that is, of course, how he got to be so good. But in the end he just couldn't do it anymore."

Ten Hag said that before they started working together, he explained to Ronaldo how he wanted the team to play, what his role would be and what he expected from him. But, in his telling, the commitment never came: "He could no longer demand of himself that he push through the pain, give everything every day and train at maximum intensity to stay in shape. And if you're not in shape in the Premier League, in the Champions League or with the Portuguese national team, then you don't stand a chance."

Asked whether he ever saw Ronaldo score and came away satisfied with his performance, Ten Hag was blunt: that never happened, because the Portuguese joined preseason very late for personal reasons and "things went wrong from the start." "He wasn't in shape and he couldn't perform," he summed up.

The comparison with Messi and memories of United

The backdrop to these comments also ties into Ronaldo's current situation: he was suspended for 30 days by the Portuguese Football Federation after leaving the national team's training camp during the October break, on top of being fined $285.90. Despite all that, the player himself has said he remains available to wear the Portugal jersey again.

"Nobody is bigger than a club or a country. Not even Cristiano Ronaldo, not even Messi. In the end, the team always comes first."Erik ten Hag

Ten Hag took the chance to praise how Lionel Messi committed himself to the Argentina national team, holding him up as a counterexample: "That was fantastic to see. But it also required a huge investment from Messi himself. In the end everyone backed him and everyone worked for him, but he, of course, gave back so much in return."

On his own exit from Old Trafford, where he was sacked just nine matchdays into the 2023-24 season with United sitting in 14th place in the Premier League, Ten Hag showed no bitterness: "United gave me so much and I worked there with great pleasure, with the people. We had a fantastic relationship, we built fantastic connections. And the fans, such fantastic moments in those FA Cup finals, League Cup finals, always supporting. So there's no bitterness."