Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has made it clear that he currently views Cristiano Ronaldo as more of a centre-forward than a wide player.
When asked about what kind of role Ronaldo could play for Man Utd, Solskjaer suggested that he wants the Portuguese superstar in the box scoring goals, though he also wouldn’t rule out using him in a variety of systems up front.
Red Devils supporters will be excited to see Ronaldo coming back to Old Trafford for a second spell, even if he is returning at the age of 36 and perhaps without that much longer left at the very highest level.
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Still, Ronaldo put in some world class performances in his three years at Juventus, finishing last season with 36 goals in 44 games in all competitions.
Even if the former Real Madrid man scored a lot more than that at his peak, MUFC would surely benefit from having a player capable of scoring 25-30 goals a season, which they’ve lacked for some time.
It’s therefore unsurprising that that seems to be Solskjaer’s plan for his new signing.
Reporter?"We started the day talking about Cristiano Ronaldo…"
Ole?"And we finished talking about him." ? pic.twitter.com/t9QE35S5x7
— Football Daily (@footballdaily) August 29, 2021
Pictures courtesy of Sky Sports
“Cristiano has evolved as a player. He used to play wide right, wide left, up front. He’s more of a centre forward for me at the moment, definitely,” the Norwegian tactician told Sky Sports after the Wolves game, as quoted by the Metro.
“But there will be games where we play with two up front, three up front. I want him in the box, I want him scoring goals.
“That’s football for you, sometimes it happens. We’ve always been watching Cristiano thinking one day he’s going to move and we’d be interested. We never thought he was going to leave Juventus this season. When he did we had to speak to him of course.
“Everyone that cares for Man Utd wanted this to happen and everyone played a part but the biggest thing was that Cristiano wanted to come here.”