Despite uncertainty still taking hold over Cristiano Ronaldo‘s future, the five-time Ballon d’Or winner has to start against Brentford on the weekend.
In his absence, Erik ten Hag experiemented with a shifting attacking trident of Christian Eriksen, Bruno Fernandes and Marcus Rashford.
The trio didn’t work as United’s main attacker against Brighton, with the side improving once Eriksen dropped deeper in the second-half.
With both Eriksen and Fernandes in the side, they can feed Ronaldo, who will be looking to kickstart his season despite the rumors over his future.
The Portuguese star has a year left on his current deal with the club and the current signs point to the veteran forward staying at Old Trafford.
Former Liverpool defender Jose Enrique has trolled Manchester United duo Cristiano Ronaldo and Raphael Varane following the side’s shock 2-1 defeat to Brighton & Hove Albion.
Former Real Madrid duo Ronaldo and Varane started the game on August 7 at Old Trafford against Brighton on the bench.
With United staring down the barrel of defeat after a torrid first-half performance, both came on in the second-half but couldn’t help the side turn things around.
With the Red Devils trailing 2-0 in the first-half and performing woefully, Ronaldo was pictured deep in conversation with Varane.
Enrique has comically captioned the picture on his Instagram account with the quote:
“Why we left real Madrid amigo?”
It’s a fair question for the two world class players to be asking themselves, with both having enjoyed huge success at Real Madrid.
Ronaldo is a five-time UEFA Champions League winner whilst Varane holds four winners medals.
At Madrid they would enter each season contending for trophies and be frontrunners for the UEFA Champions League.
That is simply not the case at Old Trafford currently with Manchester United some way off competing at the top of European football.
The Red Devils will spend this season in the UEFA Europa League.
It is this reason that many believe Ronaldo is looking for a way out of United so that he can continue playing in Europe’s elite club competition.
Manchester United next head to Brentford in the Premier League on August 13 with many of their fans hoping to see Ronaldo and Varane start that game.