Wayne Rooney has admitted that Cristiano Ronaldo must stay patient to earn more opportunities at Manchester United after he drew his latest blank on Thursday night.
The 37-year-old hasn't started a game in the Premier League since the Red Devils' 4-0 thrashing at Brentford on August 13, with Erik ten Hag preferring to use Marcus Rashford in that central berth. It is a formula that has worked a treat so far, with Rashford scoring three goals and grabbing one assist in his last five league games.
Rashford was even awarded with the Premier League Player of the Month for September for a couple of excellent performances and grabbed another two goals in United's 3-2 win over Omonia Nicosia in the Europa League. In the same game, Ronaldo missed a golden chance to score his 700th career goal, hitting the post from close-range when it looked harder to miss than score.
Ten Hag has decided to hand Ronaldo chances in Europe instead, after the five-time Ballon d'Or winner was left on the bench in United's 6-3 defeat at Manchester City last weekend. It was a new low for Ronaldo, as Ten Hag chose to bring on five others instead but Rooney has urged Ronaldo to stay patient at the Red Devils.
"The manager's obviously gone a different way in terms of how they're playing and been successful," Rooney said in his DC United press conference. Cristiano... him and (Lionel) Messi are two of the greatest players to ever play the game, but ultimately time catches up with us all.
"He's obviously not the player he was when he was 22 or 23, for instance. It's a tough one for him.
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"Knowing him, it'll be very difficult for him to sit on the bench... I'm sure if he stays patient, his chance will come and, again, it's then obviously him taking those chances and trying to force his way back in."
Despite failing to find the net in Cyprus, Ten Hag was impressed with Ronaldo's all-round performance and believes it won't be long until Ronaldo scores his first goal from open play since April.
"I think they were on target as well," Ten Hag said when reminded of Ronaldo's impotence. "The first two, good saves from the goalie, so he had a couple of chances, he created a couple of chances.
"He was involved with a good run with the first goal for Marcus Rashford, so he had an impact in this game. I think we created a lot of chances tonight, we count them only in the first-half already 14, so there was a lot of threat to the opponent's goal."
