Manchester United are guilty of making their own mistake with Cristiano Ronaldo

What a difference a year makes. When Manchester United met Newcastle at Old Trafford last year, spirits were high with the homecoming return of Cristiano Ronaldo and the belief they might finally be on their way back to the top under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

A season on and the illusion has gradually been shattered. Not only were United found out in their atrocious campaign that saw Solskjaer sacked, but the discussion around Ronaldo has changed once again from that of him being a problem solver to another problem in their squad.

It is fully understandable why he wanted to leave in the summer window, even if the timing was poor, but now that he has come to terms with his extra season in England, he has also had to come to terms with the fact he is no longer untouchable in the team.

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Anthony Martial is the favoured centre-forward and has backed it up with goals this season. Ronaldo, in contrast, has looked like a shadow of his former-self, disillusioned with his reality of Thursday night football and seemingly low on confidence as a result.

His performance against Newcastle on Sunday afternoon seemed to sum it all up. Here is a player who believes he should be playing at a higher level in the twilight of his career but is failing to prove it.

There are still moments of quality and perfection, but now they are sporadic rather than certain, and Ronaldo has lost the guarantee of goals that he was bringing to the squad earlier in the year.

It is well-documented that he is not the ideal fit for Ronaldo, and perhaps the Dutch manager is not the ideal fit for him either. The Portuguese forward has adjusted his game in order to make the best of an unsavoury situation in what is expected