Former Manchester United captain Patrice Evra has claimed that his old club need to prove they don't need Cristiano Ronaldo when they return to the Premier League next week.
United progressed to the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup this week with a 2-0 victory over Burnley, their first match since Ronaldo's dramatic departure in November. However, the real test will come on Tuesday when Nottingham Forest travel to the Theatre of Dreams for the Premier League restart.
The Reds are on the lookout for a new striker to replace Ronaldo in January but Evra feels that his old club need to lay down a marker against Forest during their first league match back. Writing in his Betfair column, the Frenchman explained: "This is a big game.
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"Jesse Lingard will be coming back to Old Trafford, even if he loves them he will want to hurt them in this one. It’s highly unlikely that Lisandro Martinez and [Raphael] Varane will be playing, they won’t be ready, so we will miss them in defence, but it’s a chance for Harry Maguire.
"It’s a difficult one to predict. I’m happy that [Anthony] Martial is back and getting some minutes. It will also be the first time that United will play without all the Cristiano Ronaldo saga, so there will be a release of pressure there for Ten Hag. I loved it when they asked him about it and he said that he is focused on the future.
"We need to stop talking about him now because he’s not a United player. The manager won’t have that pressure now and it’s up to the players now to show us how good they are.
"They can say, ‘okay, we don’t need the GOAT’ but now it’s time for them to prove it. Sometimes, it’s not as easy as that, with Cristiano in your team you still have that fear factor.
"It’s a big responsibility now for the players. There’s no negativity anymore and let's not create a new one.
"United are good at creating a new negativity about a player - Maguire if he has a bad performance, for example. So, let’s stay positive. I’m going to stay positive and say that United will win."
Ten Hag's Reds sit three points behind fourth-place Tottenham Hotspur at Christmas with a game in hand over Antonio Conte's men.
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