DBasia.news – Cristiano Ronaldo appeared from the bench when Manchester United traveled to Chelsea headquarters in the 2021-2022 Premier League continued. This sparked a heated debate between Roy Keane and Jamie Carragher.
In the match that took place at Stamford Bridge, Sunday (28/11), Manchester United successfully held Chelsea to a 1-1 draw. Michael Carrick as the caretaker applies an unusual tactic.
Carrick bravely reserved Ronaldo. Instead, he fielded a duo of Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho with the support of Bruno Fernandes up front.
While in midfield, Nemanja Matic, Fred, and Scott McTominay played simultaneously. This rarely happened in the era of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
Carrick’s decision proved effective because Manchester United was able to reduce Chelsea’s explosive power. The visitors were even able to steal the first goal through Jadon Sancho’s action in the 50th minute.
But Carrick’s decision to reserve Ronaldo was unacceptable to Keane. He considered this not the right time to rest the Portuguese superstar.
“This is a big game for Manchester United. I will forgive (Carrick) if it’s a Champions League group game when your team has qualified,” Keane said while serving as a pundit at Sky Sports.
“But you see a guy who won everything in this game and he’s coming back to lift the club. Of course he wants to play in this game.”
Carragher who was also there did not agree with Keane’s opinion. He can understand Carrick’s decision to leave Ronaldo.
Carragher then again brought up the reason Manchester United sent Ronaldo back last summer. He considered this not purely for tactical reasons.
“Ronaldo is obviously still getting results in terms of goals. But it shouldn’t be a big story when Cristiano Ronaldo doesn’t start every game or is sometimes taken off,” said Carragher.
“Why did Man United sign Cristiano Ronaldo? They signed him to stop him from going to Man City and there was no plan for this beforehand.”
Keane did not accept Carragher’s opinion. He felt that his former team would not repatriate Ronaldo just because of his prestige with a city rival.
“Ronaldo will not fix United’s problems but you don’t bring Ronaldo back to Man United to sit on the bench. Of course he will not start every game,” said Keane.
“But it’s an away game against Chelsea where you might use the counter-attack and only get one or two balls into the opponent’s box.
The debate between the two continues to spread everywhere. The names of Ian Rush and Lionel Messi were also brought up.
The debate between Keane and Carragher also received attention from Gary Neville, who watched it from the small screen. He was seen smiling when he saw his two fellow pandits arguing fiercely.
Michael Carrick himself had a strong reason to back up Ronaldo. This is purely a tactic to reduce the strength of Chelsea.
“This is just a game plan or an idea. I actually communicated well with Ronaldo and we decided to do it today,” said Carrick.
Carrick just entered Ronaldo in the 64th minute. But the 36-year-old couldn’t do much and showed a disappointed expression after the match.
Ronaldo polemic
Ronaldo’s return to Old Trafford is indeed a polemic in itself. He is considered to have contributed to the decline in Manchester United’s performance which led to the sacking of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
Ronaldo’s future is now also in question after Manchester United plans to appoint Ralf Rangnick as interim coach. The philosophy of the German man’s game was judged to be incompatible with CR7.