"Ronaldo's upfront and never shakes the manager's hand" - Craig Burley slams Manchester United and says their players are 'a disgrace to their profession'
Former Chelsea midfielder and ESPN pundit Craig Burley has lambasted Cristiano Ronaldo and Manchester United following their 4-0 defeat against Brentford in the Premier League.
The Red Devils were down by four goals by half-time with David de Gea's errors and generally shambolic defending costing Erik ten Hag's side dearly. United are currently winless in the Premier League after two games. They lost 2-1 to Brighton & Hove Albion in their opening league game at Old Trafford last weekend.
Burley was particularly critical of Ronaldo, calling his antics a "soap opera." Following the final whistle, the forward looked dejected and even refused to shake hands with manager Ten Hag before walking down the tunnel.
The former Chelsea midfielder also criticized David de Gea for his errors while stating that Manchester United had enough to defeat the Bees. Speaking on ESPN FC, Burley said:
"Ronaldo's upfront and never shakes the manager's hand, that's been a soap story and David de Gea had an absolute nightmare. Even if you say it's an awful Man United team, I get it but it's Brentford, no closing down, no second balls, no fight, no passion."
Burley added that Brentford players were hungrier, which could not be said about Manchester United's superstars. He also questioned the United players' professionalism after a second sobering defeat.
"Let's just say to a man, those players are a disgrace to their profession. I'll tell you why, we can all lose games, we can all have bad performances but individually would any of those Brentford players really have got into that Man United team? But they are super hungry, they want to be in the PL."
He added about the likes of Luke Shaw, Harry Maguire, Diogo Dalot and others:
"I mean Shaw's an international, Maguire's played in a WC semi-final, Dalot is an international, Jadon Sancho is not worth a million, never mind a 100 million at the moment, Marcus Rashford, PSG want him, he wouldn't go to one of the newly promoted teams in the league."
"It's a real achievement to spend a billion pounds and be this bad" 💰
Brentford's starting XI: £55m
Manchester United's starting XI: £424m https://t.co/SeNGiIohfX
Craig Burley questions Ten Hag's tactics after Manchester United suffer defeat at Brentford
Burley also questioned why Ten Hag hasn't been able to implement his preferred tactical set-up against Brentford:
"Where's the new pressing game that Ten Hag's been saying? Where's the tactics, just outplayed and outfought by Brentford? That doesn't need 500 million in the transfer market to put right, that doesn't need new players."
He concluded:
"It needs new attitude and these players for some reason are reluctant to go on the field and do the basics, it's quite scary."
Cristiano Ronaldo was visibly angry following Manchester United's hammering to Brentford #MUFC
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Manchester United will look to pick up their first points of the season when they take on Liverpool at Old Trafford on August 22.