Mauricio Pochettino's Cristiano Ronaldo comments show where Manchester United went wrong

Cristiano Ronaldo summed up his entire spell at Manchester United since rejoining the club in his last two performances.

On the Saturday, he was at his marvellous best. His hat-trick against Tottenham Hotspur was simply stunning and showed that 'never say die' attitude which United fans have been begging for this season.

Just three days later we saw the other side of Ronaldo - with a lack of chances created and without the ability to conjure up that magical moment, United and the Portuguese superstar were out of the Champions League. United perhaps have better individuals than Atletico Madrid and Spurs but the difference between the two performances was clear. Ronaldo can only bail out the Reds on certain occasions now.

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At 37, Ronaldo is inching towards the end of his career and as each day passes the more the obvious becomes clear; United need to be able to rely on more than just one man. Real Madrid seemingly had this figured out when Ronaldo wore their shirt.

Back in 2017, Mauricio Pochettino was asked to preview the La Liga side ahead of Tottenham's fixture against them in the Champions League. In this one extract he showed exactly where United have slipped up this campaign.

As reported in FourFourTwo, Pochettino said: "He's a very important player, but they have lots of very good players. The squad they have is amazing and they have a very good manager. They're a fantastic club, but you need contributions from the whole squad to win titles."

This, in a nutshell, is the problem at Old Trafford.

When watching United play this season you can sense that the players are just waiting for that next moment