Man Utd's Game Compromised Due To Ronaldo's Lack Of Pressing: Ralf Rangnick

Manchester United interim manager Ralf Rangnick has revealed he has been forced to "compromise" his tactics and football style because of Cristiano Ronaldo's lack of pressing.

"I am the one who is most disappointed about that and frustrated about that," Rangnick told a press conference. "At one stage we just had to find compromises — attacking a little bit deeper, how can we make sure that we get our offensive players into their positions? Cristiano scored a few goals but, again, Cristiano — and I'm not blaming him at all, he did great in those games - but he's not a pressing monster. He's not a player - even when he was a young player - he was not a young player who was crying, shouting 'Hurray, the other team has got the ball, where can we win balls?" Rangnick said.

"And the same with quite a few other players, so we had to make some compromises at one stage, maybe we made a few too many — that's also possible — but, as I said, we never found the right balance between what do we need with the ball and without the ball."

Rangnick, who is known as a master of the "gegenpressing" approach, was appointed as Old Trafford's interim manager in November. The public was unable to be impressed by his coaching style as Man Utd suffered from several defeats. Rangnick will move into a two-year consultancy role from 2022-23, with Erik ten Hag replacing him as the Red Devil's manager.

While discussing the football season, the outgoing interim manager also conceded that he never found the right balance between attack and defense. He accepted part of the blame, stating, "I'm more than self-critical. I expected that me and my coaching staff could have developed this team in a more sustainable kind of way... it's not only the players who should be blamed, it should be ourselves."

Meanwhile, Ronaldo has performed impressively with Man Utd since making a dramatic comeback from Juventus last summer, scoring 24 goals in 39 appearances across all competitions. However, despite his outstanding goal-scoring, the Red Devils have unfortunately fallen out of the Premier League's top four, suffering early exits in all major cup competitions.