‘He’s p****d off’ – Erik ten Hag finally admits Cristiano Ronaldo is unhappy at Manchester United

Erik ten Hag admits Cristiano Ronaldo was ‘p****d off’ at being left on the bench against Manchester City and is unhappy with his playing time at Manchester United.

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The 37-year-old was an unused substitute in the 6-3 defeat at the Etihad and Ten Hag claimed afterwards that he left Ronaldo on the bench ‘out of respect’ for his career, given United were 4-0 down at half-time.

Ronaldo has started just one Premier League match so far this season, which was the 4-0 defeat at Brentford.

The forward requested to leave the club last summer and was absent from the side’s pre-season tour of Australia and Thailand.

Reports on Monday night claimed Ten Hag will allow Ronaldo to leave the club in January but speaking ahead of his side’s Europa League clash in Cyprus, the Dutchman says his decision on Sunday had nothing to do with Ronaldo’s future.

‘I can’t see that relation, that he is not coming on when we are 4-0 down, I did not bring him on out of respect,’ said Ten Hag. ‘It has nothing to do with the future or January. I don’t see him as unhappy. He is happy, training well and enjoying.‘

However, the former Ajax boss did go on to say that Ronaldo is unhappy with his situation at the club because he is not playing and is ‘really competitive’.

‘He’s not happy that he didn’t play Sunday, don’t get me wrong, but the question was about his mood in training, where he’s happy,’ said Ten Hag. ‘Of course, he wants to play and he’s p***** off when he’s not playing.”

‘It’s always about, you live by the day, you line up the strongest team you had, but there are differences and no one is the same in the team. I treat everyone with respect, but they have all different backgrounds, so I have to treat