How Cristiano Ronaldo showed he can be Manchester United’s star within a system

Ronaldo’s stunning hat-trick against Tottenham ensured the attention was, once again, on him - but this was not a display of an individualist

Naturally, it was all about Cristiano Ronaldo. It often is, to be honest, but especially when he scores a late winner, especially when that late winner completes a hat-trick, and especially when that hat-trick helps him move clear as the highest-scoring player of all time in the record books.

There was something about Ronaldo even before kick-off on Saturday. You could see it in the way he was striking the ball during the pre-match warm up. Even when one of his practice shots from range pinged back off the post, it did so with the same venom that he had put into it, the same menace he was about to put into his performance.

Whether that was because of the week he’d just had - the Manchester derby no-show, the scepticism over his hip injury, the sudden and seemingly unsolicited trip to Portugal - only Ronaldo really knows. His manager could sense that something was coming in the first full training session back on Thursday.

“We were just joking a little bit but maybe it makes sense to send him to Portugal for three days, have him not train for two days then have him back in training on a Thursday,” Ralf Rangnick said. “He performed on a similar kind of level, that’s why I decided to play him from the start even though he had been out for a week.”

Rangnick described Ronaldo’s performance against Tottenham as the five-time Ballon d’Or winner’s best under his management. “He made the difference for sure with his three goals but not only because of the three goals.” There was praise for what he did off the ball as well as on it. “Today he showed for sure he’s physically capable to do that.”

It was about as positive as Rangnick has ever been when speaking about a player who, he also admitted, is not always straightforward to manage. “It's a challenge with a player like him,” he said. The United manager also conceded that Ronaldo’s work out of possession “has not always been like that in the last few weeks and months”.

Among all the praise, those were not the only notes of moderation in the United manager’s post-match remarks. Though Rangnick took every opportunity to hail the Portuguese’s match-winning display, he would also refer most Ronaldo-specific questions back to talk up the all-round performance of the entire team.

Cristiano Ronaldo’s hat-trick kept Manchester United’s top-four hopes alive (Getty Images)

What can Ronaldo offer going forward, he was asked. “Again I think it was a top performance today by the whole team,” Rangnick answered. “As I said earlier on he made the difference but it is not the right moment after a top performance to speak about what might happen in the next 15-16 months.”

What does he bring to the squad, though? “He is an important player of course, with his reputation and with the way he can still play he has influence on the team for sure, but there are also other players in the team who have to take responsibility, who have to perform, who can be leaders of the team.

“This is what I have been telling him since I arrived, that with a performance like today he can be one of the engines of the team, but we have quite a few other players who can do the same,” Rangnick added. “Fred, Harry [Maguire], Rapha[el Varane], Victor [Lindelof], whoever.”

It was not especially hard to pick up on the point Rangnick was making: that as brilliant as Ronaldo’s individual performance was, that of the team was just as important. More than one United player had impressed. Fred caught the eye in more of a free-roaming, box-to-box role. Diogo Dalot returned to bring a new dimension to a problem position. Jadon Sancho was excellent, as he has consistently been of late.

Ralf Rangnick praised his team’s performance after he was asked about Cristiano Ronaldo (AFP via Getty Images)

Most impressive of all, perhaps, was United’s mentality. It is something that has been repeatedly called into question since Rangnick’s appointment, given the number of leads squandered. Leads were squandered once again on Saturday, twice in fact, but this time his players responded. “Coming back after two equalisers showed the mentality of the team today,” Rangnick said.

And crucially, Ronaldo was part of that. While his individual display ultimately made the difference, it was not the display of an individualist. As Rangnick said, he was noticeably working harder off the ball. On it, he was turning up in positions that he does not usually fill, making runs and occupying defenders when too often this season, he has been a static focal point waiting for the ball to come to him rather than actively seeking it out.

It is still not an easy fit, as Rangnick’s ‘challenge’ quote suggests. This was an anomaly in his performances under United’s interim manager so far, an exception to the rule, and it will not necessarily mark a turning point for him, United or this second spell at Old Trafford. Ronaldo was a star within a system, working to its particular demands, and that only helped him shine brighter.