The Portuguese legend's second spell at United came to an acrimonious end in 2022 when he gave an interview to Piers Morgan criticising the coach but former Red Devils assistant Steve McClaren believed that the manager handled the situation correctly.

He told the Daily Telegraph newspaper: "I couldn't fault Ten Hag's approach. He really handled it very well. I said at the time he was the right man to go in. That was shown in the way he handled Ronaldo.

"He came in with set standards. Set rules. Set way of playing. And if you didn't run, you didn't play. He was rigid on that. He knew that was what was needed. There could be no flexibility, no way the players could manoeuvre."

McClaren – who left United to take over as manager of Jamaica this summer - continued: "This is what you had to do – or you didn't play. And he took on Ronaldo, and quite rightly. Other managers have tried to adapt. Erik didn't feel it was necessary to do that.

"(Ralf) Rangnick had tried it and it hadn't quite worked out and Ole (Gunnar Solskjaer) the same. So (Ten Hag) stuck to his guns and developed other players.

"He took on Ronaldo, and quite rightly... discipline was important, standards were important, behaviour was important.

"Everyone knows that about United. That's what he (Ten Hag) brought. Some people didn't like that – that's normal – but he never swayed from it. That's his strength."