Ronaldo goes from one rookie manager to another

Carlo Garganese

• 29 Sep 2021 12:29 CDT
• 4 min read

Cristiano Ronaldo has made a brilliant start to life back at Manchester United, at least from an individual point of view.

He has four goals in four games as his incredible rate of scoring that has been maintained for the best part of 15 years shows no signs of slowing down.

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However, despite Ronaldo’s individual numbers, not everything is rosy at Old Trafford on a team level.

Going into Wednesday’s Champions League clash against Villarreal, Man United have lost three of their last four games in all competitions.

This includes successive 1-0 home losses in the space of three days to Aston Villa.

These results have once again poured the pressure on Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and raised the question of whether he is good enough to bring back the glory days to the club.

Solskjaer is approaching his third anniversary as manager at United and has still not won a trophy.

Was Solskjaer good enough for Man Utd?

Whatever your view on Solskjaer, there is no doubt that he didn’t and doesn’t have the managerial CV worthy of the biggest job in English football.

The two previous clubs he managed before getting the Man Utd job were Norwegian side Molde and Cardiff City.

At Cardiff, Solskjaer lasted just eight months before being sacked. He was relegated from the Premier League in 20th place and was dismissed just a month into the new season in the Championship. His win percentage was only 30 per cent from 30 games.

Ole thus returned to Molde for another three years, during which time he failed to win a trophy. His last piece of silverware as a manager was eight years ago in 2013.

The decision to appoint Solskjaer at United, despite his glorious past as a player, made no sense.

The same was the case for Ronaldo’s manager at Juventus last season in Andrea Pirlo.

Was Pirlo good enough for Juventus?

Pirlo was one of the greatest midfielders of all time during his playing career and had enjoyed a fantastic four years at Juve on the pitch between 2011 and 2015.

But he came into the managerial hotseat in Turin with zero experience. Only days earlier he had been appointed as Juve’s Under-23 coach in his first-ever coaching job before inexplicably being immediately promoted after Maurizio Sarri left.

Pirlo didn’t even have his coaching license at the time of his appointment, and it was no surprise at all that his one year in charge was a disaster.

Having won the Scudetto nine years in a row, Juventus collapsed to fourth place under Pirlo. They only qualified for the Champions League on the final day because Napoli failed to beat Verona at home.

Despite winning the Coppa Italia – which is not a prestigious competition in Italy – Juventus also flopped in Europe as they were eliminated by Porto in the last 16 of the Champions League.

Just like Man Utd under Solskjaer, Pirlo’s Juve lacked cohesion and identity and struggled against the smaller sides.

But Ronaldo flourished individually under Pirlo and scored 36 goals in 44 games in all competitions. He finished top-scorer in Serie A, winning the Capocannoniere crown for the first time after moving to Italy.

He will continue to star for Man Utd, no doubt, but it really is baffling that both his previous and current club would choose to sign one of the best players of all time and then waste him under a rookie coach.