Manchester United great Cristiano Ronaldo has encouraged Erik ten Hag to seek advice from his assistant coach, Ruud van Nistelrooy, who also represented the Red Devils during his playing days, Soccernet.football reports.
Ronaldo’s advice comes at a time when United find themselves struggling at the early stages of the season, yet again. Ten Hag’s charges have only managed one win from their first three Premier League games, suffering consecutive losses just before the international break.
This marks the second time under the Dutchman that the Red Devils have lost two of their first three league games in a season, the same occurring in 2022/2023 when they lost their opening two matches against Brighton and Brentford respectively.
United added former striker Van Nistelrooy to their coaching staff this summer, a move that impressed Ronaldo as he believes the Red Devils can gain from the insights of individuals who have prior experience and knowledge of the club.
“[As the] Man United manager; you cannot say that you’re not going to fight to win the Premier League or Champions League,” he told former team-mate Rio Ferdinand on FiveUK.
“You’ve to say: ‘maybe we’ve not got the potential, but we’re going to try’. You have to try!
“If Ten Hag listens to Ruud van Nistelrooy, maybe he can help. He knows the club and the club should listen to the guys who were there [like] Rio, Roy Keane, [Paul] Scholes, Gary Neville, Alex Ferguson. You cannot rebuild a club without knowledge.”
Ronaldo, now on the books at Saudi Pro League side Al-Nassr, scored 145 goals in 319 appearances across two spells at Old Trafford. At 39 years old, the Portuguese is still firing on all cylinders, recently reaching 901 career goals while representing Portugal in the UEFA Nations League.