The Portuguese legend took aim at the Manchester United boss for admitting that his team are not in a position to challenge for the Premier League and Champions League but the coach pointed out that Ronaldo had made the same comments during his interview with Rio Ferdinand.

Ten Hag said: "No, he said this, if you read the article very well.

"He is entitled to his opinion. It's OK. He is far away in Saudi, far away from Manchester."

Questions have been asked of Ten Hag's United future after a poor start to the season that has seen them lose two of their first three Premier League games but he says that he is paying no attention to the outside "noise".

The Dutch manager said: "It doesn't impact me. I know where we are in the process and what we have to do and where we are going.

"I have said before we are still in a transition period. We have to integrate a lot of young players in the team and still have to deal with injuries and bring players back into the team.

"Before anyone thinks about excuses, no, we have to win every game. I know that. The team knows that. It doesn't matter who is available."

Ronaldo had questioned Ten Hag's admission about United's prospects in the major competitions by stating that nobody at United should ever make such a statement publicly.

He said: "The coach says they cannot compete to win the [Premier] League and Champions League.

"As Manchester United coach, you cannot say that you're not going to fight to win the league or Champions League.

"Mentally [you can] say maybe we don't have that potential, but I cannot say that. We're going to try, you have to try."