Portugal boss praises Ronaldo for keeping quiet
PORTUGAL coach Fernando Santos praised Cristiano Ronaldo for refusing to answer questions about his future again on Wednesday night.
Manchester United great Ronaldo received his second successive man-of-the-match award at the Confederations Cup after scoring the only goal in Portugal’s win over hosts Russia in Moscow.
Ronaldo skipped the postmatch press conference again, having avoided the media following the European Championship winners’ draw with Mexico at the weekend.
Ronaldo has hardly spoken in public after reports claimed he was intent on leaving Real Madrid amid accusations of tax fraud and Santos applauded his decision to eschew testing questions.
“I think he did very well in not answering other questions,” Santos said. “Do you think he should answer questions from issues outside the game? He is here to talk about the game full stop, not about his life and his family.
“I understand you are curious but you have to respect and have an understanding – and I’m saying this with a good feeling. You will have other opportunities.”
Ronaldo stopped to talk to Fifa TV but chatted only briefly about Portugal’s win in the Russia capital.
Despite being heavily linked with a United return, M.E.N. Sport understands the club is unwilling to get involved in the circus surrounding the Ballon d’Or winner and is nonplussed by the intense speculation. IT is a measure of Marcus Rashford’s range of talents that during one youth tournament the Manchester United striker wanted to operate in an Andrea Pirlo role.
It is also a statement about the difficulty in producing world-class goalscorers within the modern academy structure.
Former United youth coach Paul McGuinness explained: “Academy football doesn’t produce greedy goal-scorers – it’s not just United, it’s everywhere.
“If you are really skilful you want to do other things as well.”
Yet in Rashford, Jose Mourinho hopes he has a striker capable of breaking the trend.
In the absence of Zlatan Ibrahimovic – released following knee ligament injury – and the collapse of United’s move for Antoine Griezmann, Mourinho needs Rashford to continue his dramatic ascent and develop into a goalscorer of the highest order next season.
Alvaro Morata has been identified as the man to lead United’s attack next term – but Rashford is seen as pivotal to inject pace, width and goals into a forward line that lacks MANCHESTER United have been here before.
Angel Di Maria’s signing was hailed as a statement of intent when Louis van Gaal broke the British transfer record to sign the Argentine from Real Madrid in 2014.
Fresh from a man-of-the-match cutting edge. McGuinness is convinced the 19-year-old, who burst on to the scene less than 18 months ago can do just that.
And if he does so, Mourinho will owe much to the guidance of coaches McGuinness, Warren Joyce and Colin Little.
“Michael Owen didn’t have the skills of Marcus,” added McGuinness, who now consults on youth development with bodies such as the FA and UEFA.
“He said the academy was no good for him.
“He scored 97 goals in a year. They don’t get that many chances to score in an academy.
“We did a lot of one-on-one work with Marcus. It’s very rewarding when you see what came out of it.
“He is a real all-round player. But if I had my time with him again – all of them – I’d focus on the goal-scoring.
“Academy football doesn’t produce that mindset.
“We decided, myself, Warren Joyce and Colin Little, that he was a very good footballer. He could be a No. 10, a winger, beat people. He used to drop off into midfield.
“There was one tournament where he wanted to play like Pirlo.
“But we saw his potential to be a striker. display in the Champions League final, and a whopping 17 assists in the heart of midfield, the £59.7m deal was deemed a coup. But it always seemed a strange fit. Van Gaal hailed the dribbling king as a ‘team player.’
Di Maria had his best ever season under Carlo Ancelotti in the left of a midfield three, but van Gaal thought differently.
The Dutchman constantly toyed
“We worked on his body shape, different runs. He’s a really, really intelligent lad in terms of football. He picked it up very quickly.
“Colin Little improved his finishing.
“We started him on a road to do that. He’s working to do it.
“He’s trying to improve on it all the time.”
Though dramatic, Rashford’s rise was not straightforward.
“At 14, 15 he had a growth spurt and it happens to them all,” said McGuinness. “It can knock them back.
“It was frustrating. His legs grew, but he didn’t have the strength or co-ordination. He was fine, but he couldn’t do all the things he could do before – like just run past people.
“Some fly through it, but others have problems.
“He had struggles. Some people thought he was sulky. It wasn’t that. He was just frustrated, but he came through it a year or so later.
“He played U18s at 16 and didn’t with Di Maria’s position. And while Di Maria hit the ground running, and was directly involved in six goals in his first five games, his form dramatically tailed off as the games came thick and fast. After just 12 months, United cut their losses and opted for a quick divorce. Which brings us to Alvaro Morata. The 24-year-old is perhaps Madrid’s greatest academy graduate since Iker Casillas in 1999 and club have the strength. He was playing on the wing against Newcastle - I can still picture it. His body language was ‘I’m dead.’ We decided to keep him on and made him get through it. He got stronger.” That type of resolve has established Rashford as a firm favourite of the notoriously critical Mourinho. “What I love about this kid Marcus is he copes with the pressure,” said the United manager last month. “I can press him, I can be very demanding with him, he’s the kind of kid that when the training session finishes it doesn’t finish for him. “He wants more. He lives for football. “This is the kind of character I like. I like to squeeze the player and the player to cope with it and react to it.” Such is McGuinness’ faith in Rashford, he believes the teenager would have continued to flourish even if Griezmann had arrived at Old Trafford this summer. And it says everything about the Paul McGuinness president Florentino Perez has always had a soft spot for a homegrown youngster.
Morata, though, would have expected so much more when he returned after coming of age at Juventus. Only Cristiano Ronaldo scored more goals for the club as Los Blancos swept the boards, but it was Isco, not Morata, who finally broke through. Morata had to make do with just 19 starts – which makes his first