Man Utd reminded why they need Cristiano Ronaldo with telling Marcus Rashford moment

Cristiano Ronaldo’s return to Manchester United was met with a mixed response in the summer, and that scepticism has continued for much of the season so far. There are plenty who see the 37-year-old as a hindrance to United’s attack, unable to influence games in the same way he did during his peak years.

For this reason, those same critics would have preferred that the club utilised the money spent to secure the services of a younger attacking prospect in the summer instead.

The reality though was that the right candidate, for whatever reason, wasn’t identified, and those in support of Ronaldo would point to his record in terms of goals this season as a fair justification for why the Red Devils took up the opportunity to bring him back at the start of the campaign.

Ronaldo was the hero again on Saturday when he scored a hat-trick to help pull his United teammates through another flat display to beat Norwich City 3-2 at Old Trafford. He was unavailable for Tuesday’s trip to Anfield, understandably granted compassionate leave following the tragic death of his newborn son.

The hopeless nature of United’s attacking performance against Liverpool without Ronaldo did go some way to vindicating those who continue to defend the Portuguese superstar.

With Ronaldo unavailable, Ralf Rangnick moved away from the 4-2-3-1 that he has utilised for much of his time at United and instead set the team up in a 3-4-2-1, though the same often looked much more like a back five than back three.

United were second best throughout, meaning attacking opportunities were few and far between for Marcus Rashford who led the line in Ronaldo’s place. Yet in those rare moments when United did break out, Rashford offered little for United to build