Cristiano Ronaldo began on the bench in United's defeat, what will his role be?

Cristiano Ronaldo, whose future has created great controversy at Manchester United, is not part of Erik ten Hag's starting XI for the first day of the Premier League, a tournament in which the former Ajax coach makes his debut on Sunday. CR7 starts as a substitute at Old Trafford against Brighton. On the other hand, Christian Eriksen starts his first Premier League game for United.

Ten Hag said, after leaving Cristiano Ronaldo out of his first Premiership starting lineup, that the Portuguese "is working very hard to be in the right physical condition, it will take time".

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The new United coach stressed that the ex-Madrid player "started pre-season last week, it depends on how quickly he progresses".

It should be remembered that CR7, with the intention of leaving United (to which he arrived a year ago), joined the training sessions of the team now managed by Ten Hag with great delay. United's failure to qualify for the Champions League led the ex-Madrid player to want to leave Old Trafford, but his attempts to sign for another team have so far failed.

Failure in Old Trafford on match day 1

In the first official match with Ten Hag in the Old Trafford dugout, the 'Red Devils' accumulated almost 70% of the ball possession, but to no avail. In fact, they were not even able to get more shots on goal than a Brighton side that, more than well worked by Graham Potter, proved to be superior to United and obtained a 1-2 win at Old Trafford with total merit.