Paul Merson has very bad news for Manchester United

Paul Merson has been talking about Manchester United and specifically Cristiano Ronaldo.

The 37 year old failed to get his move elsewhere in the summer, leaving manager and player in a difficult place.

For Manchester United to be stuck with the club’s highest paid player who Erik Ten Hag doesn’t even want to play…

Ronaldo assumed that a top club with a realistic chance of winning the Champions League this season would quickly snap him up, with reality proving very different. Instead, he has started only one Premier League match this season for a very average Premier League club, who are even struggling to qualify from their Europa League group.

Martial started on Sunday in Man Utd’s most recent Premier League game against Everton, though injury to the striker forced Ten Hag to put Ronaldo on after only 29 minutes.

Fifteen minutes later and Ronaldo had scored what proved to be the winner after a smart finish from Casemiro’s pass, a first PL goal of the season for the Portuguese striker.

For Paul Merson, his reading of the situation is that ‘Erik ten Hag will have to play Cristiano Ronaldo now, won’t he? Ronaldo, in my opinion, is the best finisher in the world.’

Hmmm, Haaland might have something to say about that…

Ronaldo and Messi are of course two of the all-time greats but Paul Merson surely failing to factor in that now aged 37, whilst Ronaldo may well be as good as anybody else at finishing, he won’t have the capacity to do what he could in his prime.

Paul Merson was also speaking as well before Ronaldo started last night and was forced to play the full 90+ minutes, as Man Utd struggled to beat minnows Omonia in the Europa League. You have to question whether Ten Hag will even consider starting Ronaldo against Newcastle only 64 hours after that final whistle on Thursday night. My guess is that Rashford (who also ended up having to play the full game last night) will play up front against Newcastle, with Ronaldo on the bench at best.

The Paul Merson ‘research’ is as always a little on the dodgy / bizarre side and when talking about Eddie Howe’s team he declares…’I like the way Newcastle are playing at the moment – they absolutely dismantled Fulham last week.’

Seemingly totally missing the fact that since then, Newcastle have also hammered Brentford 5-1.

How workings out may be a ‘little’ dodgy but hopefully Paul Merson still reached the correct answer in the end, with a prediction of Manchester United to lose 2-1, with Eddie Howe leading Newcastle United to only their second win at Old Trafford in 50 years…

Paul Merson talking to Sportskeeda:

“I like the way Newcastle are playing at the moment – they absolutely dismantled Fulham last week.

“You’ve got to give them credit – they’ve got the players and have pace on the counter.

“Erik ten Hag will have to play Cristiano Ronaldo now, won’t he?

“Ronaldo, in my opinion, is the best finisher in the world.

“You don’t score 700 goals by not being able to finish. You give him chances, and he scores goals. He makes the hardest things in the world look very easy.

“I think Casemiro needs some time. There’s a lot yet to come from him.

“This game is very different to the Everton fixture, and United will need to be at their best.

“I’m not too sure about this game, and that’s a big compliment for Newcastle.

“I’m going to go for a shock this weekend.

“Newcastle have the players in their team to hurt Manchester United.

“They’ve got the game to beat United, but they’ll need to pick the right pass.

“If they stick to Eddie Howe’s plan and execute it like they have been over the last couple of weeks, I think they’ll win.

“Prediction is Manchester United 1 Newcastle United 2”