Rio Ferdinand believes the criticism aimed at Manchester United forward Cristiano Ronaldo is a “disgrace” which is tantamount to “blasphemy”.
The Portugal international has scored seven goals in ten matches for the club after his return and notched his first assist in the 3-0 victory over Tottenham on Saturday.
But the 4-2 defeat to Leicester City and the 5-0 thrashing at the hands of Liverpool led to criticism over United’s work off the ball, with Ronaldo bearing the brunt of the condemnation. And Ferdinand says it’s direspectful to have a pop at the former Juventus player for his lack of pressing.
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“I’ve heard some talk and the only way I can explain it, is it’s blasphemy, when I heard some people talking about Ronaldo’s the reason why Man United aren’t going to be a success,” he said on his Vibe with FIVE YouTube channel.
“Ronaldo turning up at Man United, and yeah it’s great, but he’s going to be the reason why they don’t do anything. “Listen, I’ve been seeing too much of it, don’t talk like that. Please, it’s a disgrace. Absolute disrespect.
“A player that’s done what he’s done in the game, a superstar of any generation, he’ll be one of the best players in any generation you can think about, and even again he just told people at the weekend what he’s about here… pressure’s on [and] he scores.
“To think that because he doesn’t press, because he doesn’t run as much as other people… that’s not what he’s there for.
“You play to people’s strengths sometimes, you can do that when you’ve got a superstar in your team sometimes for certain clubs.
“When you look at [Romelu] Lukaku, [Robert] Lewandowski, Karim Benzema… are they players, some of the best goalscorers of this generation,” he continued.
“Are they players that you look at and go ‘he doesn’t half work hard, he doesn’t half press the opposition. Harry Kane, he’s a great presser of the opposition isn’t he…’
“But we’re all talking about them like they’re great players. No one is questioning their work rate, their pressing ability.
“Let’s have it right, it’s got to be the same for someone like Ronaldo. It’s the bigger picture at United, the structure of the team, it was other things.”
