Manchester United teammate tells Cristiano Ronaldo to applaud fans

Cristiano Ronaldo was encouraged to applaud Manchester United's away fans by Diogo Dalot, following the side's win over Everton at the weekend.

It's probably been one of the worst starts to a season for Ronaldo in his entire career, with the 37-year-old not being Erik ten Hag's first choice striker.

The forward has reportedly been 'dismayed' by the new manager but it's the player who has been on the receiving end of more criticism, even by former teammate Wayne Rooney.

Ronaldo was still getting criticism in a game where he assisted Marcus Rashford, in the Europa League away against Omonia Nicosia last week.

However, on Sunday evening he was back to looking in form, as United earned themselves all three points away to Everton, with the former Real Madrid star scoring the winner off the bench, his 700th club goal.

It was an all round excellent display from Ronaldo, who'd come on in the first half after Anthony Martial picked up another injury, and it might be enough to see him get a run in the team.

After the game Ronaldo was ready to head into the changing room when Dalot encouraged him to applaud the travelling supporters, who'd popped down the M62 on a Sunday night to see United win.

I love how Dalot’s always looking out for Ronaldo, this time telling him to come over to applaud the travelling away fans! pic.twitter.com/c4Jm1FGCDC

— 𝗧𝗲𝗻 𝗛𝗮𝗴’𝘀 𝗥𝗲𝗱𝘀 ✍🏼🇳🇱 (@TenHagBalI) October 11, 2022

Whilst it seems like a pretty obvious thing for the players to go over and applaud, Ronaldo has definitely fallen foul of not doing it previously.

Earlier this season United slumped to the bottom of the Premier League table after they were embarrassed 4-0 by Brentford, in the second game of the season.

The five time Ballon d'Or winner was clearly annoyed at the team's performance at the end of the game, including his own performance, having started.

Rather than at least applaud the fans who'd travelled down to west London, or across from other parts of the capital, the Portugal star just walked off the pitch angrily.

As well as ignoring the fans on that day, Ronaldo also ignored assistant manager Steve MccLaren and then refused to shake Ten Hag's hand.

On Sunday, it did look like Ronaldo had applauded the fans briefly, before he was going to walk off, before Dalot encouraged him to join the rest of the players with a longer celebration.

The two Portugal players clearly share a good relationship, with the former Porto full back also part of an incident in pre season that caused his teammate to get in trouble.

Ronaldo was spotted leaving United's friendly with Rayo Vallecano early, something that the club initially tried to play down as something pre agreed.

However, Ten Hag later revealed he wasn't happy with the forward, but it was also other players that the Dutch manager wasn't happy with for leaving early, with Dalot driving Ronaldo away from Old Trafford.

Things will continue to be a lot happier if he adds to his 700 goals however.