Watch: Ronaldo rants furiously after getting subbed by Ralf Rangnick
Manchester United’s star man Cristiano Ronaldo was substituted by manager Ralf Rangnick in the second half of Wednesday night’s Premier League game with Brentford – and he was not at all happy about it.
Ronaldo came back into Rangnick’s starting XI at the Brentford Community Stadium, making his return after 10 days out with a slight hip issue.
During that time, United had played twice, beating Aston Villa at Old Trafford in the FA Cup and drawing with the same opponents in the Premier League at Villa Park.
Rumours had also been swirling during the same period that there was a rift in the Manchester United ranks, between the club’s Portuguese speakers and the English contingent.
Midfielder Fred had rubbished those claims, telling ESPN Brasil: “The news here, they like fake news… It’s obvious that we speak Portuguese, we communicate, we have a nice friendship.
“I’m a good friend of Alex Telles, both on and off the field. I’ve known him for a long time. So obviously I’m going to be a little friend of his.
“But that doesn’t mean I won’t talk to [Jesse] Lingard, [Marcus] Rashford, [Mason] Greenwood, [Harry] Maguire, the other English people here. On the contrary.
“We have a super cool friendship here, a super cool dressing room, they’re all teammates.”
Those looking to quash rumours of unhappiness among the ranks weren’t done any favours by Ronaldo’s reaction to getting hooked, however.
With United already two goals to the good, Rangnick took Ronaldo off – seemingly to give him a rest – and replaced him with Harry Maguire in the 71st minute.
Ronaldo was furious, gesticulating to make his discontent clear as day. And as he sat down on the bench, he continued to rant.
In the video below, he can clearly be seen saying: “Why did he take me off?”
Rangnick will have some explaining to do.
"Why did he take me off?"
Cristiano Ronaldo was not happy at being withdrawn in the 70th minute with Man Utd 2-0 up against Brentford… pic.twitter.com/gx0uur4GZf
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) January 19, 2022
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