Brian Kerr believes Erik ten Hag has already won a small battle with Cristiano Ronaldo.
The Portuguese superstar scored his first goal of the season from the penalty spot as Manchester United defeated Sheriff Tiraspol 2-0 in Moldova on Thursday night. The result came one week after the Red Devils lost their opening Europa League game 1-0 at home to Real Sociedad.
And Kerr thinks the new United boss has done a good job of managing Ronaldo after he failed to secure a move to a Champions League club over the summer.
READ MORE: Jadon Sancho refuses to give up on World Cup dream after beating Sheriff
Speaking on Virgin Media's European coverage on Thursday night, the former Ireland manager said: "It seems to me that he is going to have to accept his role and the manager has won a little battle there that 'if you're going to stay, we can't get rid of you, then you're going to have to play your part'."
Kerr added: "This manager doesn't look like he will accept Ronaldo kind of being moody, sitting on the bench, throwing watter bottles and making faces.
"I think he as a manager will say to him 'look I'm not having that, if you don't want to be on the bench I'll leave you out all together'."
Ten Hag praised Ronaldo after the game and said that he has no doubts about the 37-year-old's commitment.
He stated: “We could expect this when you miss pre-season so he has to work really hard and invest to get the right fitness then he will score more goals.
“You can see he is really close when he gets fitter he will finish them. I think (he is) totally committed to this project and totally committed to this team, totally involved.
“You see also connections coming around him and he is constructing connections so I am happy with that.”
He added on MUTV: “He needed that goal. He was close many times. You (could) see he wanted that so much (but) every time a foot was in between or it got a deflection or a misunderstanding.
“We’re happy for him and the team wanted him to bring the goal, so that’s good.”
Jadon Sancho had opened the scoring for United in the 17th minute, just hours after being omitted from the England squad.
Ronaldo then struck with a 39th-minute penalty as United claimed their first points of the group stage with a routine 2-0 victory in Chișinău.
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