Marina Izidro: Cristiano Ronaldo’s hectic week had fights and marks in his career

Indispensable or a problem for Manchester United? Depends on the day. It’s only been two months since Cristiano Ronaldo arrived at the club in the Premier League’s hottest signing of the European summer, but here in England the player is not unanimous.

In recent days, he has gone from villain to hero for what he has done on and off the field and will now be coached by a German who can take him out of his comfort zone.

CR7 is always in the news, but the last few days have been especially intense. The most talked about scene in the 1-1 draw with Chelsea on Sunday (28) was not the goals of Jadon Sancho and Jorginho, but the fact that Ronaldo rushed to the locker room right after the final whistle, apparently dissatisfied. With the resignation of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, interim Michael Carrick left him on the bench and he only entered halfway through the second half. Confusion formed.

The discussion of former players and now TV commentators Roy Keane and Jamie Carragher about Ronaldo’s role on the team has gone viral. What to do with an almost 37-year-old player who scores goals but doesn’t put pressure on his opponent? What can happen if a star like him is on the bench, especially in important games? Debating whether or not CR7 is an issue has become relatively common.

The next day, another controversy. An hour before the France Football magazine ceremony that gave his biggest rival the seventh Golden Ball, the Portuguese, who did not attend the awards, posted a response to the publication’s editor-in-chief, Pascal Ferré, to the 372 million followers on Instagram. He wrote that Ferré’s claim that the ace had confided in him that his only ambition was to finish his career with more Golden Balls than Lionel Messi was a lie. In this edition, CR7 finished “only” in sixth place.

Carrick said the decision not to cast Ronaldo as a starter against Chelsea had nothing to do with Ralf Rangnick, who this week signed a contract to coach United until the end of the season and then become a consultant. But the relationship between the new coach and the attacker is cause for curiosity and questioning.

Rangnick is considered the godfather of “gegenpressing”. The idea is to put pressure on the opponent as soon as the ball is lost and regain possession quickly, a style that influenced coaches like Jürgen Klopp. Among the feats at German clubs, he took Hoffenheim from the third division to the Bundesliga. He likes young players who put pressure on the opposing defense – the Portuguese are the worst in this regard among the forwards of the English League. And I’ve already said that I wouldn’t sign Ronaldo or Messi because they were “too old”. At the time, CR7 was 31 years old.

The German coach will lead United on Sunday and saw Ronaldo score the 800th goal of his career from the stands against Arsenal on Thursday (2). He even had a penalty kick in the 3-2 victory. The headlines, of course, were back to positive.

It’s too early to know the outcome of the story of the star who returned to the club he loves willing to win titles. The Premier League is halfway through, the team plays in the Champions League, it can win other national competitions.

Despite his age, Ronaldo is United’s top scorer this season so far –12 goals in 16 games–, he is still fast and decisive. How is Rangnick going to adjust his philosophy to managing the five times the best in the world? We’ll see in the next few days. CR7 has just left a beautiful reminder of what it can offer.