A Manchester United icon has called out the club and labelled them as "disrespectful" for benching Cristiano Ronaldo for the entirety of the Red Devils' 6-3 loss to Manchester City this past weekend.
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It what seems to be a familiar trend this Premier League season, Ronaldo started the Manchester derby from the bench, but unlike in previous league fixtures he did not start, the Portuguese forward did not come on at all in this instance.
At half-time, when Erik ten Hag's men were 4-0 down and looking for an avenue back into the tie, the Dutch tactician opted to bring on Luke Shaw before using the rest of his substitutions on Anthony Martial, Casemiro, Victor Lindelof and Fred.
This was the first time all season the five-time Ballon d'Or winner did not play any part of a Premier League fixture for the Mancunians, and former United captain Roy Keane thinks it is offensive to keep on subjecting the Real Madrid icon to bench duty.
"I think Man United are showing disrespect to Ronaldo. I think he should have been let go before the [closing] of the window," the Irishman said on a Sky Sports broadcast after the match.
"Okay, you're the manager, you need options, but you don't hold on to Ronaldo to sit on the bench. He's one of the greatest players ever.
"He's played him in one or two European games. It's just going to get uglier as the season goes on.
"If he's sitting on the bench for United, week in, week out, it's just going to get uglier. I think United have shown nothing but disrespect to Ronaldo.
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"They should have let him go when the opportunity came. He did have options, I know that for a fact.
"But to hold on to Ronaldo to sit on the bench, I think is ridiculous for a player of his stature."
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