Cristiano Ronaldo has been defended after the “superstar” reacted angrily to being substituted off during Manchester United’s win over Brentford on Wednesday night.
The Portuguese attacker had started up-front for the Red Devils for their Premier League clash with the Bees, having missed United’s last two games through injury.
The decision to bring him straight back into the line-up as soon as he was fit proved to be a good one for United’s interim manager Ralf Rangnick, as Ronaldo played a crucial role in the 3-1 win.
As well as being a major threat for the visitors, Ronaldo had a key hand in the Mason Greenwood goal that sealed the three points for Rangnick’s men, with United now just two points off a top four place.
HAVE YOUR SAY! Was Cristiano Ronaldo right to react to his substitution in the way he did? Comment below.
The 36-year-old chested the ball down brilliantly into Bruno Fernandes ’ path, with the midfielder racing clear of Brentford’s defence.
With only keeper Jonas Lossl to beat, Fernandes squared the ball to Greenwood to set the youngster up for a crucial tap-in.
But nine minutes after that wonderful goal, Rangnick opted to bring centre-back Harry Maguire on in Ronaldo’s place.
United were two goals up at the time and Ronaldo was far from pleased with his manager’s decision to haul him off.
When the fourth official’s board went up showing his number, Ronaldo walked slowly off the pitch, threw his coat to the ground and continued to remonstrate while sat down.
But Ronaldo has been defended for that reaction by former United star Alan Brazil and former Rangers boss Ally McCoist.
Brazil believes that Ronaldo’s frustration is merely a sign that he is a good player and he would have been far more worried had the Portuguese shown no emotion.
“I see Cristiano’s got the hump, sitting on the bench whinging. Look, look, sometimes I don’t mind that,” Brazil told talkSPORT.
“You see some players getting hauled off and they’re ‘oh well, fine, ok no problem’, whereas some of the real good players just hate it. They hate it.”
McCoist meanwhile, hailed Ronaldo as a “superstar” and agreed with Brazil that his anger was a positive sign.
“Absolutely. I don’t know about you, but I don’t really have a problem with harping at being taken off,” he added.
“If he had come off and was laughing and joking, giving out high fives, we’re the very people that would be saying ‘look, it doesn’t matter to him’.
“So, you can’t have it both ways. Listen, that’s why he’s a superstar, because he’s the best and he wants to be the best.”
Rangnick himself defended his decision to bring Ronaldo off, insisting that it was necessary to secure the three points.
“That is normal - a striker wants to score,” Rangnick told BT Sport.
“Also, after what happened at Villa Park, we had to defend the lead this time and it was important that we went back to a back five. While we didn't keep the clean sheet it was important to make sure nothing else happened.”
