Jamie Carragher lays into Cristiano Ronaldo in toxic tirade | OneFootball

Sky pundit and former Liverpool player Jamie Carragher says Cristiano Ronaldo will not elevate Manchester United into title contenders.

A weekend doesn’t seem to go by these days without a bitter and overrated former Liverpool player having a pop at Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s men, but this time around the biggest culprit, sourpuss Graeme Souness, has passed the badmouthing baton to the man who likes to spit at 14-year-old girls, Carragher.

The former defender asked himself whether Ronaldo will bring United closer to the title and answered ‘On the evidence of the first five games, albeit they have won three of them, I would say no.

‘What his arrival alone cannot do is turn United into a title-winning unit or impose the distinctive way of playing they still lack.

‘The transitional era should be over. Whenever you watch a Pep Guardiola, Thomas Tuchel and Jürgen Klopp team, they have an easily identifiable and settled style, regardless of how often they tweak personnel from one game to the next.

‘United still look like an ensemble of brilliant individuals in need of being moulded into a collective force.

‘United’s Champions League defeat on Tuesday struck me as a classic example of a coach in a position where he could overthink his selection so ended up making changes in an attempt to keep everyone happy.

‘This might become a recurring problem and is partially a knock-on effect from the Ronaldo deal.’

Whilst the pundit admitted Ronaldo is actually still a pretty good player who might improve United, he feels that is far outweighed by the fact that the TV cameras like the Portuguese legend.

‘Even when Ronaldo is taken off, it is like he is involved in the game. His performance and body language are a media obsession.

‘He was caught on camera remonstrating with officials and team- mates on the touchline in Switzerland, reminiscent of the Euro 2016 final with Portugal. Who tells Ronaldo to take a back seat?’

Carragher claims that Jadon Sancho, Paul Pogba, Marcus Rashford, Mason Greenwood and Edinson Cavani will all be negatively affected by Ronaldo’s arrival before concluding ‘United hope Ronaldo will have the same impact on their line-up as Eric Cantona in 1992.

‘The difference with Cantona is he was the final piece of the jigsaw for Sir Alex Ferguson. Ronaldo may eventually complete the puzzle for United. At the moment, it looks like he may have created a set of new ones for Solskjaer.’

It is laughable that Carragher claims that United can ‘still look like an ensemble of brilliant individuals in need of being moulded into a collective force’ and yet also claims at the same time that Ronaldo will disrupt their unity.

United next face Liverpool on October 24th and United fans will be relishing the opportunity to make the poisonous pundit eat his words.