Ronaldo could learn from Best

Needless to say it is our fault, too, that Cristiano Ronaldo is being kicked to an extent which currently poses him a genuine risk of serious injury. "I don't think you as a press do enough to stop the systematic fouling on him," Sir Alex Ferguson said on Tuesday night during his exposition of what he considers to be a collective effort by teams to hurt his player.

Perhaps there can be a complacency about the abundance of hacks and boots he gets, especially when they are viewed from a distance. Close up, the scarring down Ronaldo's legs and even on the area where he wears his shin pads was shocking to see when he gave an interview in shorts and flip-flops before last season's European Cup final.

It is even worse this season and from Villa to Villarreal in the past week Ronaldo has been gathering another lattice of cuts and stud marks. But he is a changed man too; operating in a whirl of irritation and frustration with all around him. Two instances of many: the kick he aimed at Marcos Senna when Tuesday's game was barely a minute old; the carpeting he gave Anderson for failing to play a ball into the space he had created by drawing away a Villarreal defender. The United manager is right to say he is a victim, who must be protected, but as he gives so Ronaldo gets.

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Ferguson was irritated when it was put to him on Tuesday that the player's responses might be contributing to the problem. "Tell me someone who likes being abused?" he said, shaking his head. But the one who gives out stick takes heart from a response to it, be it Ariel Ibagaza, extracting a misplaced slap from Ronaldo when the Villarreal player pinched his neck amid the opening exchanges in Spain, or the Stoke City fans who won ironic waves and wiggles of that scarred right leg in tune to their vile songs about him – and chanted all the more.

George Best, the player with whom Ronaldo invites many comparisons, did not have to live with fans like Stoke's, who waited a generation or more for a league match at Old Trafford yet could find nothing better to do than abuse the most gifted player on the pitch. That is because in the Best era, supporters went to matches to appreciate the opposition, too.

Best was not immune to the same abuse on the field that Ronaldo is experiencing. Arsenal, for one, would task two players – Peter Simpson and Bob McNab – just to prevent him operating. It was the kind of strategy Ferguson was talking about this week: stop him, because there is no way we can play him. Best was kicked the length and breadth of English football by anyone who could get a boot on him.

The difference was that you could not needle him and there is no greater illustration of the way he played on, impervious to the abuse, than Nobby Stiles's description, in his recent autobiography, of the 1970 match between England and Northern Ireland in which Best, who had just been fined two weeks' wages after being caught with a girl in a hotel, was greeted by the jeers of a 75,000-strong crowd.

Stiles recalls his futile attempts to tackle Best after Best he ran on to a long ball and threaded past goalkeeper Gordon Banks. "I had to make it the tackle of my life," Stiles says. "I went straight through the ball and straight through George but without the result I was looking for. I finished up on my back, on the dead-ball line. 75,000 fans who had earlier booed and jeered George filled the stadium with cheers and as I got to my feet I thought, 'What a player'."

Stud missiles: When other superstars were taken out...

Pele – 1966 World Cup

42 years of hurt – that's probably what Pele's shins have been feeling ever since this tournament. The Brazilians were eliminated in the group stages thanks to the relentless targeting of Pele, first by the Bulgarians – causing him to miss the Hungary defeat – and then, surprisingly, by the Portuguese.

Eusebio – 1966 World Cup

That England restricted him to a solitary goal in the 2-1 semi-final win was down to Nobby Stiles. Ramsey told him he wanted Eusebio stopped. "For life, Alf?" the little man is reputed to have asked.

Maradona – 1982 World Cup

Argentina crashed out of the '82 finals thanks to Italian Claudio Gentile battering Maradona into brutal submission. When quizzed about his systemic GBH, Gentile replied: "Football is not for ballerinas". His 23 fouls on the No 10 was considered a record for a single game.

Gazza – 1991 FA Cup Final

Maradona can blame Gentile, Pele the Bulgarians and Portuguese but Paul Gascoigne had only himself to blame in the 1991 FA Cup final against Nottingham Forest. His reckless lunge at Gary Charles in the opening minutes tore the cruciate ligament in his right knee and at the age of 24 there was a sense that things would never be the same again.

Group E

Results: Celtic 0 AaB Aalborg 0; Manchester Utd 0 Villarreal 0; AaB Aalborg 0 Manchester Utd 3; Villarreal 1 Celtic 0; Manchester Utd 3 Celtic 0; Villarreal 6 AaB Aalborg 3; Aab Aalborg 2 Villarreal 2; Celtic 1 Manchester Utd 1; AaB Aalborg 2 Celtic 1; Villarreal 0 Manchester Utd 0.

Remaining group stage fixtures: Celtic: 10 Dec: Villarreal (h). Manchester United: 10 Dec: AaB Aalborg (h).