Erik ten Hag has been criticised for "disrespecting" Cristiano Ronaldo since taking charge at Manchester United.
The Dutchman arrived in the summer, just as the Portuguese star made it clear he wanted to leave the club. He was unable to find a suitor as the Red Devils made it clear he would not be sold. Ronaldo missed out on pre-season and Ten Hag, despite retaining the player, has only used Ronaldo sporadically.
Of the nine Premier League games so far Ronaldo has only started twice, coming off the bench on six occasions and was an unused substitute in the Manchester derby. Ten Hag's treatment of Ronaldo is again under the spotlight after he hauled him off in the draw with Newcastle.
Seeking a goal, the United boss opted to bring off the No7, who was visibly frustrated by the decision. Louis Saha, a former teammate of Ronaldo's, maintains that the 37-year-old was the best man to find a winner at Old Trafford and took aim at the man in the dugout.
He told Boyle Sports : "Ronaldo has been disrespected. I have not fully agreed with the management of Ten Hag. I can understand why Ronaldo was upset after the Newcastle game because he trusts himself to score, lately, he has not been as lucky and efficient, it happens, and people need to realise he is not a robot.
"When people are tired, Ronaldo is a killer, there is no one better than him when you are under pressure to score important goals, he did it last year and there is no reason for him not to continue that this season. I have not seen any indication physically that shows he’s slowing down."
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Ten Hag defending his decision to take off Ronaldo, stating: "We have to recover four games in 10 days and especially for the strikers, I want to keep them fresh. I want to keep them all fresh, we have to rotate because of some problems we have. [Anthony] Martial is not available in this moment, then Rashy [Marcus Rashford] was not well, so he did not have energy for the whole game. We had to plan to cover for the four games because we want to win or at least get a result in all four games."
After Ronaldo, who has only scored once in the league, was taken off the Red Devils missed two clear-cut chances. First Fred was unable to convert and then Rashford saw his stoppage time header go wide of the post. It left Ten Hag bemoaning his side's inaccuracy in front of goal.
He said: "We beat them in the midfield and we created chances. They gave everything they had, individually and team-wise and deserved winning because we created the chances. We missed two huge chances - we could, and should, have scored the winning goal."
