Ronaldo is playing with 'DUMMIES' at Man Utd!

Martin Macdonald

• 9 Feb 2022 10:31 GMT
• 3 min read

Former Premier League star Dean Saunders believes Fred and Scott McTominay are the worst midfielders Cristiano Ronaldo will have played with in his illustrious career.

On Tuesday evening, Ronaldo was left out of the starting XI as Man Utd dropped more Premier League points, struggling to a 1-1 draw away at Burnley.

Like in their FA Cup match against Middlesbrough, Man Utd took the lead but failed to capitalise on numerous chances thereafter to take the game beyond their opponents.

Paul Pogba opened the scoring for the Red Devils 18 minutes in, but the visitors were pegged back thanks to a Jay Rodriguez goal shortly after the break.

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Ronaldo was eventually brought onto the pitch, but was unable to find the winning goal.

Looking at Ronaldo's season so far, Saunders believes he is struggling playing alongside inferior players.

"At one point they should've been 3-0 up, they were running away with it. Then the minute they get a bit of adversity they seem to go backwards and crumble," he said on talkSPORT.

"If you asked Ronaldo, 'Who's the worst midfield players you've ever played with in your career?" Fred and [Scott] McTominay won't be far off.

"People are starting to point the finger at Ronaldo, but he's playing with a few dummies, some of them are not on the same wavelength as him.

"Every time the ball was shifted around the box and they were piling the pressure on Burnley the ball was going to a really good player, to Pogba, to Rashford, to Lingard, Ronaldo, they've got ammunition.

"They've got a bang-average back four and no engine room in the middle of the pitch, the players they've got in there are not up to the standard."

Man Utd lacking a killer instinct?

Ralf Rangnick believes his players are lacking a "killer instinct" in front of goal.

"Again we played an excellent first half. We controlled and dominated the game. We scored the three goals but two were disallowed," he said after the Burnley draw.

"In the second half we were not aggressive enough. It was clear they would come out and be aggressive. The way we allowed them to score, we didn't defend the whole situation.

"A frustrating night for us because we should have won that game comfortably. We scored three goals in the first half so I couldn't blame the team for not having a killer instinct in the first half.

"In the end it was also a little question of luck. One point for a performance like this is just not enough."