Erik ten Hag is incoming to Manchester United and he has the challenge of having to work out what to do with the various players in the squad.
One special case is Cristiano Ronaldo, United’s number seven, the club’s top scorer this season with 21 goals and counting.
Ronaldo has another year left on his current contract and is expected to stay at Old Trafford for the first season of the Ten Hag era.
It is good news for Ronaldo then, that Erik ten Hag rates him extremely highly and views him as the perfect role model for players to aspire to.
Ten Hag chose to speak about Cristiano Ronaldo in 2017 when giving a fascinating interview on his coaching philosophy to Dutch Soccer Site.
While manager of Utrecht at the time, Ten Hag said: “Take Cristiano Ronaldo. His heading capabilities, his jump, his timing, that takes 1000s of hours of training and practice.
“Like with his free kicks and kicking technique. He’s so talented but he constantly demands the best out of himself. That is the difference.”
Ronaldo has not stopped with his work rate off the pitch throughout his career, and this is one of the reasons he is still a top level player at the age of 37.
The Premier League is still the most intense in the world and even at his age, Ronaldo is among the top scorers, in a team which is far from being among the best.