Erik ten Hag believes that Cristiano Ronaldo is “totally committed” to the team as the veteran scored his first goal of the season against Sheriff Tiraspol tonight.
Manchester United recorded a comfortable 2-0 win in the Europa League ahead of the international break.
A few minutes before half-time, Ronaldo scored via the penalty that Diogo Dalot won after being fouled inside the opposition’s box.
Ten Hag believes that the veteran forward will score more goals as he gets fitter.
Ronaldo missed United’s pre-season tour of Thailand and Australia due to family reasons.
He started just in one Premier League match but the manager was full of praise for the forward.
He said, via The Athletic: “We could expect this (a slow start) when you miss pre-season, he has to work really hard and invest to get the right fitness.
“He will score more goals. He’s really close, when he gets more fitness he will score more.
“He’s committed to this project, totally committed to this team, totally involved, he also has connections that are coming around him and he is constructing connections so I’m happy with that.”
Apart from the goal he scored, Ronaldo looked out of sync.
He tried playing some deft passes to his teammates but many of those failed to come off.
He dropped too deep to collect the ball at times which left no one at the front to make runs between the centre-backs to create space.
When the ball was played in his path, he was too slow to react and was easily kept at bay by Sheriff’s centre-back.
Scoring this goal will help him find his feet in Ten Hag’s team.
This goal has even more significance as this was his first in a Europa League campaign.
This was his 699th club goal across his career and United supporters will be hoping to see his 700th very soon.
