Mike Phelan reveals why Cristiano Ronaldo was 'frustrated' in Manchester United dressing room

Mike Phelan has revealed Cristiano Ronaldo would get frustrated at getting no response from his teammates after 'pushing hard' to improve standards in the Manchester United dressing room prior to the appointment of Erik ten Hag.

Ten Hag inherited a broken squad when he arrived from Ajax last summer and the club had just endured a torrid league campaign which saw dreadful results and a sixth-place finish in the table.

Ronaldo was United's top goalscorer in that campaign but he was subsequently moved on by Ten Hag in November.

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Phelan served as assistant manager to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Ralf Rangnick and he's spoken to Sky Sports this week.

The 60-year-old, who only left his role at United last year, was at the club for both of Ronaldo's stints and he opened up on what exactly went wrong for the five-time Ballon d'Or winner after his remarkable return to Old Trafford.

"The second time around, he came in a lot older and a lot more opinionated, strong-willed," Phelan said. "He still had massively high standards and was terrific to work with. But I'd probably say a tougher mindset.

"He had been at Man United, he had been Portugal's ever-present, he had been at [Real] Madrid. I liked it because he didn't want his standards to drop, he wanted other people's standards to come up. And sometimes you lose a few people along the way when that happens.

"I remember certain times when he pushed and pushed hard, and he didn't get much reaction or much response. And there was frustration. When you deal with top, top people, it's about them and where they can finish and where they can get to.

"They want to look back and go, 'Wow, that was successful'. And he probably realised,