Cristiano Ronaldo gave his shocked Manchester United team-mates the hairdryer treatment after they went 2-0 down against Atalanta.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was trying to calm down feuding United players in the dressing room after their poor first half display on Wednesday.
Ronaldo took charge by taking a leaf out of Sir Alex Ferguson’s playbook to inspire the win. A United source told SunSport: “Cristiano addressed the whole team and told them that the performance was unacceptable.
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“He asked if they were not ashamed and said this was not how Manchester United perform in front of their own fans. He told them they needed to win the game and, if they didn’t, they might not qualify for the next stage of the Champions League.”
It was then that Solskjaer took over and said the match was still to be won if they played as a team and got the first goal in the second half of the clash.
Bruno Fernandes also reportedly told the Norwegian coach that there needed to be a change in tactics and that he had to drop deeper on the pitch to get the ball more.
The Red devils went on to produce an outstanding second-half performance and scored three times to go top of Group F — with Ronaldo getting the winning goal in the 81st minute.
But the half-time shake-up showed the huge influence both Ronaldo and Fernandes are starting to have as United’s season threatens to be derailed.
They face Liverpool at Old Trafford on Sunday having taken just a point from their last three Premier League matches. And Fernandes knows they have to improve — but he has also admitted there needs to be improvement from the manager and coaching staff, too.
Fernandes said: “We have a lot to improve on and the coach also knows there has to be some improvement at their end but that is part of football.
“We fully support him. He’s our manager, we follow his ideas and believe in them. “Of course, players start to get suspicious when they don’t play or when things don’t go well.
“But, honestly, footballers are annoying. We think we’re always right! “His ideas might be right or wrong — but we are sticking with it until the end.”
