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Tyson Fury has broken down Cristiano Ronaldo's Manchester United return and it could be the realest take so far.
Ronaldo re-joined United from Juventus last summer and had a strong season personally, scoring 24 goals in all competitions.
It came at a cost though. The Red Devils finished sixth in the Premier League with their lowest-ever points tally.
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WBC heavyweight champion and United fan Fury was asked about Ronaldo in a recent interview and said the five-time Ballon d'Or winner may be overshadowing some of the younger players.
He told The Mirror: "It’s good news Ronaldo is staying on, but here’s a theory: when they didn’t have him the season before last, they finished second in the Premier League, then we had Ronaldo and we finished sixth.
"People will say, ‘Well, if we hadn’t had him scoring 20 goals we’d have finished a lot lower last season’, but we didn’t the season before and we finished a lot higher.
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"When you have a superstar like Ronaldo, everybody relies on him to score goals and if he wasn’t there they’d be scoring the goals themselves, like they did the season before last.
"I’m not saying he’s a bad asset, he’s a great asset, but sometimes with a star player, he carries the team and the young people are overshadowed by it all, they don’t get their chance to shine because ‘the great Ronaldo’ is on the pitch."
United finished second in 2020/2021 and Marcus Rashford was an important part of the attack with 21 goals. Last season, he registered just five and regularly looked drained on the pitch.
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Jadon Sancho arrived from Borussia Dortmund a few months before Ronaldo and he was a player United chased for years. The England international failed to live up to his £73 million price tag and will be hoping for more next campaign.
Fury used to regularly attends games at Old Trafford, but has found it difficult in recent years.
'The Gypsy King' defeated Dillian Whyte in April and claims to have retired from boxing. He admitted he'd like to attend more games in the future and laid out exactly what United need.
He added: "They need someone strict, like Sir Alex Ferguson, who’s going to tell them what to do and if they’re not listening say, ‘It’s the bench for you, I don’t care how good you are or how famous you are, you’re not playing until you decide to work hard’.
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"The word ‘team’ means everybody pulls their own weight, they don’t rely on someone else to score the goals or to run for them.
"It’s everyone working hard for a common interest, a common goal, and that’s winning. I know nothing about managing football but I know everything about winning and I know everybody has to muck in to get results. If I go into the gym on my own to train for a world title then I’m not going to be that successful."
United open their Premier League campaign under new manager Erik ten Hag on August 7 against Brighton.
Topics: Manchester United, Cristiano Ronaldo, Premier League, Tyson Fury
Daniel Marland