Ten Hag ruthlessly beat Cristiano Ronaldo in a 2-hour showdown in front of the Man Utd squad, telling the flops: my way or the highway

CRISTIANO RONALDO was brutally crushed in front of the entire Manchester United squad during a two-hour summit.

Boss Erik ten Hag called the players together last Thursday and asked them to voice any complaints without impending consequences.

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During the clear-the-air session, Ten Hag informed Ronaldo and captain Harry Maguire that they would not be facing Liverpool on Monday.

Ronaldo, 37, did not speak but a number of players did speak as the coach imposed the right on his underperforming.

They then beat Liverpool 2-1.

Ten Hag is fed up with the Ronaldo circus threatening to undermine his rebuild job.

He was particularly furious last week after the Portuguese superstar promised he would be giving an in-depth interview soon.

Now Ten Hag just wants the striker out, while some players feel that Ronaldo’s attitude and mood is affecting the mood in the camp.

The United boss told his players it’s his path or the highway in the matter-of-fact address to the squad.

The manager invited everyone to have their say at the training ground last week as he tried to find out why they had performed so poorly in their opening two games.

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In a two-hour showdown, Ten Hag gave each player the chance to say anything they wanted about the state of the club.
But he insisted on going first.

The Dutchman told the players he has the United board’s full support to do everything his way.

If someone didn’t like it or didn’t want to play for them, they were asked to tell them on the spot – and they were free to leave the club.

He said they all had to be on the same page and play football the way he wanted.

The former Ajax boss said he wouldn’t let his underperforming stars ruin his reputation.

He then invited the players to speak out in front of the squad to air their own grievances, which some did.

Marcus Rashford is said to have asked when he would play him as No9, as he had told him preseason.

It was then that Ten Hag told him he would get his chance against Liverpool the following Monday.

Rashford, 24, responded with his best play in a while in the middle of a front three with Jadon Sancho and Anthony Elanga far from him.

He switched to wide position early in the second half when Anthony Martial replaced Elanga and the pair combined for Rashford to score.

Ten Hag made four changes to the team after the 4-0 defeat at Brentford, informing both Ronaldo and Maguire during the meeting that they were out.

The captain’s armband went to Bruno Fernandes.

Last weekend, Ten Hag had canceled the players’ day off and invited them to a brutal 13.8km run in which he also took part.

That impressed the group – many of them had been upset about the cancellation of their day off.

Ten Hag said last Friday he wanted them to be angry and channel that anger into their performances.

His words and actions had the desired effect as United beat Liverpool 2-1 on Monday.

Training is understood to have been at a different level than before in the days following Thursday’s team briefing.