Ole Gunnar Solskjaer claims Cristiano Ronaldo became angry after being benched despite asking to miss games

Former Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has claimed Cristiano Ronaldo asked to be left out and then became furious when he was benched.

He 39 years He made a successful return to the club in August 2021 after leaving a successful first season in 2009.

solskjaer He oversaw the return of his former team-mate, but the Norwegian was sacked three months later despite leading United to a second-place finish in the league the previous campaign.

Ronaldo scored three goals in his first three starts but then became furious after being left out of the line-up against Everton, something Solskjaer insisted he asked for.

Talking about the Stay with football On the podcast, Soolskjaer said: “Cristiano, when you meet him and talk to him, he wanted to play three out of four games, he realized he's getting older too.

“But when you leave him out once, he's not happy!”

He then stated that the addition of Ronaldo changed the way his team played, which had a great impact on striker Edinson Cavani.

Admitting that the signing didn't work out, he commented: “We didn't think Cristiano was available and that he was going to move.

“When it became clear that he was leaving Juventus, obviously there were other clubs that wanted him, but I was excited.

“They (United) asked me: 'Do you want us to try this?' I said yes. Obviously we know that Cristiano has quality and is 37 years old, but we have to manage it: he is the best scorer in the world.

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“It didn't work for me, it didn't work for Cristiano, but it was the right decision at that time.

“We immediately started thinking about how we were going to push and change the small adjustments. Cristiano is different to Anthony Martial, who was up front, or if we would play with Mason (Greenwood) or Marcus (Rashford) up front.

“Edinson Cavani was the one who suffered the most when Cristiano came on. We played and we made Edinson understand a certain way of understanding our way of playing.”

And he added: “With the ball, with him in the team, it was no problem. Without him, we had to change a little bit from the different roles we had become accustomed to.

“We were one of the teams with the most pressure before. We let Dan James go when Cristiano came in, and they are two different types of players.

“It was the right decision for me. It didn't turn out to be the right one.”

More problems arose 12 months after Solskjaer's departure when Ronaldo gave an explosive interview to Piers Morgan, criticizing the club and the manager. Erik ten Hag and Manchester United's generation of young stars.

Ronaldo mutually parted ways with United on the eve of the 2022 World Cup and subsequently signed a two-year deal with Saudi Pro League side Al Nassr.