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Video of Mourinho explaining how to manage big players goes viral amid Ronaldo vs Ten Hag

Erik ten Hag’s treatment of Cristiano Ronaldo in the wake of his decision not to come on a substitute during Manchester United’s win over Tottenham Hotspur has divided fans.

For the most part, supporters are backing Ten Hag’s maintenance of a strict new culture at United in which there should be very real consequences for players who fall short of certain standards and expectations.

Those very same fans have praised Ten Hag for not showing any preferential treatment towards Ronaldo, which can’t have been easy considering that the 37-year-old is a legend of the game adored by millions.

The debate about Ronaldo vs Ten Hag

But not everybody agrees with Ten Hag on the matter and there are onlookers, including the likes of Piers Morgan, who believe that United’s No. 7 has been treated poorly by the current coach.

In the words of Morgan, for example: “Disgraceful. Ten Hag once again opting to humiliate the greatest footballer in history & Utd’s top scorer last season… @Cristiano should find another club asap where they treat him with the respect he’s earned.”

Has Ronaldo been shown disrespect by way of being benched for the majority of the season and by facing the consequence of missing out on the Chelsea game for ignoring Ten Hag’s orders?

Ronaldo and Ten Hag on the sidelines.

Jose Mourinho on managing big players like Ronaldo

Well, that’s the question which is being bounded around corners of the online football community right now and a little unexpectedly, footage of none other than Jose Mourinho has become quite the lightning rod for this discourse.

The ‘Special One’ has, of course, been there, done that and got the postcard when it comes to managing Ronaldo, working through good times and bad with the Portuguese superstar across three years at Real Madrid.

And one fan whose sympathises clearly lie with Ronaldo as opposed to Ten Hag has called upon footage of Mourinho discussing how to manage big players as part of the Netflix documentary ‘The Playbook’.

Providing the examples of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Didier Drogba, as well as Ronaldo, Mourinho explains how it’s not a manager’s job to interfere with the world-class talents of these players, but rather to guide how they need to play specifically for their team.

Now, you may well be thinking: “Isn’t that exactly what Ten Hag is doing at United in regards to Ronaldo?” Understandable, if so, but not everybody’s taking it that way.

Ronaldo and Mourinho at Real Madrid.

The Mourinho video that’s sparking debate

In fact, Twitter user @MadridPreeti, who uploaded the video to the tune of over 2,000 retweets and more than 9,000 ‘likes’ at the time of writing, didn’t exactly mince their words in the caption.

They wrote: “Good morning everyone, As Always, Jose Mourinho said it before the time. How can we expect Ten Hag to know how to handle big players nevermind the biggest, Cristiano Ronaldo, when all he has on his CV are Dutch Titles.”

We’ll leave you to make up your own minds, though, so be sure to check out Mourinho’s comments on managing big players to see which side of the argument you find yourself on:

Video: Mourinho on managing players like Ronaldo, Zlatan and Drogba

Do Mourinho’s comments back Ten Hag or not?
Look, for what it’s worth, your humble GIVEMESPORT writer actually thinks that Mourinho’s analysis on managing big players has a lot of synergy with Ten Hag’s current approach.

While there’s never been any denying Ronaldo’s individual output since he returned to United, there has been very little evidence to suggest that his presence has improved how the team functions as a collective unit.

Is Ten Hag, therefore, not benching Ronaldo in order to get the best out of United as a team and suspending him to uphold the highest possible standards for the team?

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