Former Manchester United captain Roy Keane has supported Erik ten Hag's decision to leave Cristiano Ronaldo out of his starting line-up for this afternoon's Premier League opener against Brighton & Hove Albion.
The Portugal captain, who wants to leave United this summer in pursuit of Champions League football, earned just 45 minutes worth of football during pre-season, starting last Sunday's 1-1 draw with Rayo Vallecano. He missed the pre-season tour of Thailand and Australia due to "family issues."
Despite that, there was a feeling that Ronaldo could have bagged himself a starting berth this afternoon because of an injury to Anthony Martial. The latter established himself as United's leading marksman during pre-season, scoring three times.
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However, Ten Hag, who criticised Ronaldo's decision to leave Old Trafford early last week, leaving the stadium before the clash with Vallecano had finished, has refused to award him a starting berth, seemingly deploying Bruno Fernandes as a false-nine instead. Regardless of Ronaldo's status and immaculate body condition, Keane has welcomed Ten Hag's decision.
"I think it was a straight forward call for the manager," Keane told Sky Sports. "As brilliant as Ronaldo is, he only got 45 minutes in pre-season.
"I don't care how well you look after yourself, you need more than that over the course of pre-season. He's looking at the players he's got. Brighton at home, they fancy their chances to beat Brighton."
With less than a month to go until the window closes, speculation concerning Ronaldo's future continues to rumble on. He wants to leave Old Trafford, but a departure risks leaving United light on options at the top end of the pitch.
Keane added: " You can't let Ronaldo go out the door and think Martial's the answer. Martial isn’t the answer, he's proven that.
"He's had a good pre-season... big deal. They haven't got enough options, but that might change. From a footballing point of view you have to keep hold of Ronaldo; you can't just let him go when you haven't got the backup behind it."
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