Ralf insists he’s not worried about Ronaldo’s sub strop
CRISTIANO RONALDO threw a strop after being subbed at Brentford but Ralf Rangnick insisted he has no problem with the Portuguese superstar and warned he would happily haul him off again in the future. Ronaldo was fuming when he was replaced by Harry Maguire in the 71st minute with United 2-0 up and Rangnick keen to switch to a back three to protect his side’s lead. The Portugal star trudged off muttering to himself, threw his jacket to the ground in frustration as he sat down on the bench and was later seen questioning the decision to take him off. Rangnick had the last word though turning to Ronaldo after Marcus Rashford, who came on along with Maguire, then scored United’s third. The interim manager said: ‘He was asking me, “Why me, why do you take me off?” Cristiano was not happy. ‘I didn’t expect him to hug me. He is a goalscorer and he would have wished to stay on and maybe score but it was more important to be compact and have enough legs and strong headers to defend their set-pieces and when we scored the third goal I said exactly that to him. ‘I have no issues whatsoever with Cristiano. He came back from a little injury, didn’t train for one-and-a-half weeks and being 2-0 up with 15 minutes to play, having players like Marcus, Anthony Martial why should I not make use of that and I would always do it again in a situation like that.’
United were indebted to goalkeeper David de Gea for keeping them in the game in the first half before Anthony Elanga, Mason Greenwood and Rashford struck clinically after the break to move Rangnick’s men to within two points of fourth. Ivan Toney pulled a late goal back for Brentford, who have now lost five of their last six but remain 10 points above the bottom three. Brentford manager Thomas Frank said: ‘We are the smallest club in the Premier League, Manchester United the biggest. We destroyed them in the first half, they didn’t have a sniff. ‘It’s a miracle they weren’t 2-0 down. De Gea was by far the best United player. They are unbelievably lucky. The way we smashed them in the first half was fantastic.’