Ronaldo's response to strop fallout may worry Man Utd more than strop itself

Cristiano Ronaldo hit the headlines for the wrong reasons with his reaction to being substituted in Manchester United's win at Brentford, but the veteran had a chance to immediately make amends against West Ham United.

It may worry him, then, that the display against the London side was one of his least effective since making his high-profile return to Old Trafford during the summer transfer window.

Over the years, Ronaldo has regularly responded to questions of petulance by showing his importance on the pitch and ensuring the conversation shifts almost immediately.

This time, though, the man who has so often bailed out his underperforming colleagues needed to be bailed out himself as Marcus Rashford saved United's bacon deep into stoppage time.

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When Ronaldo was subbed off for Real Madrid against Las Palmas in 2016, allegedly swearing at manager Zinedine Zidane in the aftermath, he scored a big European goal in the very next game.

When something similar happened against Levante under the same manager, he followed it with a hat-trick in the next game and 20 goals in his next 10 appearances for the Spanish club.

After United's win at Brentford, though, and with a chance to stop people dwelling on his attitude, we saw no such thing.

It's now three games without a club goal for Ronaldo, after he drew a blank against both Brentford and Wolverhampton Wanderers before an ineffective 90 minutes against West Ham.

That's something which only happened 13 times in total across his nine seasons with Real Madrid, and six times in his three Juventus campaigns.

More concerning, though, was the manner in which he came up empty, missing a golden chance from close range and only registering one shot on target across the entire 90 minutes.

While Ronaldo had a small part to play in the winner, starting the move which ended with Rashford finding the net from close range, but there was a less proud moment earlier in the game when he went down softly in an attempt to win a penalty.

Rangnick's message to Ronaldo after the Brentford game was simple:

"Listen Cristiano, you are 36 in great shape, but when are a head coach, you will see if through the glasses of a head coach," he said.

"My job is to take the decisions in the best interest of the team and the club and I hope he sees it the same way."

Ronaldo kept his starting place, with Rashford among the substitutes despite scoring from the bench in midweek, and visibly failed to hide his frustration after what he seemingly saw as poor decision-making from Mason Greenwood.

It was hard to look at that response and not recall Ronaldo's earlier comments in a Sky Sports interview, where he called out younger players for not being receptive to criticism.

"But other people, they don't accept that, if you criticise them," he said.

"I don't say this in relation to our players, but in general. I have kids, I know. Sometimes when you're a little bit harder, they do the opposite, so you have to find the right balance to speak with them."

"We didn't always find the best solutions in the final third," Rangnick said after his three substitutes combined to make the difference for United.

"In the last 20 minutes we had too many shots on goal when there was no realistic chance to score.

"We needed to be a bit more patient, but in the end it was about taking all three points."

In the past, Ronaldo has been given a wide berth for his emotions off the pitch and his comments off it, often because his contributions in front of goal are important enough to make up for any other question marks.

It's something we've seen this season as well, and there's every chance United would be even worse off were it not for his goals under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in the early part of the season.

"[There's] nothing wrong with a player being upset but Ronaldo has not come back to sit on the bench," former United captain Roy Keane said back in November after back-to-back league games without a goal saw him left out against Chelsea.

"He's a world class player, the idea Ronaldo will close people down he's not. But sometimes you have to work around the superstar.,"

The reaction after the Brentford game was the sort of thing which, once upon a time, would have made him a must-pick for the next game because you knew he'd perform when he had a point to prove.

A few more displays like the one against West Ham, though, and we might be left wondering whether he's still the kind of player you have to start every single week.