Steve McClaren praised Erik ten Hag’s handling of Cristiano Ronaldo during their time together at Manchester United, saying the Dutch manager upheld standards that Ronaldo failed to meet.
Ronaldo’s second stint at Old Trafford began with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, briefly continued under Ralf Rangnick, and ended with Ten Hag in charge.
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The relationship between Ronaldo and Ten Hag was strained, with the star player being sidelined more than he was used to, a situation he disliked.
Despite the Portuguese icon’s frustrations, Ten Hag didn’t give in to his demands. Ultimately, Ronaldo left for Saudi Arabia, publicly criticizing both the manager and the club on his departure.
McClaren, who was part of United’s coaching staff during that period and is now managing Jamaica, believes Ten Hag made the right decision in how he handled Ronaldo.
‘I couldn’t fault his approach,’ McClaren told The Telegraph of Ten Hag. ‘He really handled it very well. I said at the time he was the right man to go in. That was shown in the way he handled Ronaldo.
‘He came in with set standards. Set rules. Set way of playing. And if you didn’t run, you didn’t play. He was rigid on that. Which the Dutch are. He knew that was what was needed. There could be no flexibility.
‘This is what you had to do – or you didn’t play. And he took on Ronaldo, and quite rightly. Other managers have tried to adapt. Erik didn’t feel it was necessary to do that. Rangnick had tried and it hadn’t quite worked out and Ole the same. So he [Ten Hag] stuck to his guns and developed other players.’
McClaren claims the level of discipline and the high standards that Ten Hag demanded from his players is what you would expect at Manchester United, but did not go well with some.
‘Instances like lateness for meetings was well documented, the Wolves one, [when Marcus Rashford] was a minute or two late for a meeting on game day. He [Ten Hag] put him on the bench,’ recalled McClaren. ‘Granted he put him [Rashford] on and he scored the winner.
‘Things like that were important. Discipline was important. Standards were important. Behaviour was important. Everybody knows that about United. That’s what he [Ten Hag] brought. Some people didn’t like that – that’s normal – but he never swayed from it. That’s his strength.’
