Gary Neville has claimed that Manchester United could finish in the bottom half of the table if they fail to bring in another striker to contend with Cristiano Ronaldo after their poor start to the season saw them finish the end of the second week of the season bottom of the Premier League.
United, alongside West Ham and Everton, are the only sides in the division who haven’t had their own squad score a goal in the opening fortnight of the campaign.
Cristiano Ronaldo was introduced against Brighton but failed to make an impact, whilst the rest of United’s attacking contingent were lacklustre against the Seagulls and Brentford on Saturday.
Ronaldo’s future is up in the air, and it remains to be seen if they will buy anyone to challenge him for a starting spot – despite links to Matheus Cunha picking up the pace.
Regardless, the Brazilian has only scored six goals in La Liga for Diego Simeone’s men and will most likely fail to produce the numbers that Harry Kane, Gabriel Jesus, Mohamed Salah and Erling Haaland are expected to across the season.
And Neville has warned that if United’s don’t begin to fix their sinking ship before it perishes at the end of August – marking Ronaldo’s uncertainty as the reason for their potential bottom half finish.
“As I sit here today, I think there’s a massive decision they have to make on Cristiano Ronaldo and they’re damned if they do, damned if they don’t,” he told Sky Sports prior to Liverpool vs Crystal Palace on Monday (as relayed by the Daily Express).
“A few weeks ago before the season started the best thing to do was to facilitate a move out the club for Cristiano because he’s obviously not happy and the club aren’t happy with him.
“The problem they have now is if they lose him there’s nothing left in terms of the goalscoring part of the pitch, and I think if they don’t bring players in or if they bring in poor players and he leaves, I genuinely think they can finish in the bottom half of the table.
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“That’s a bottom half of the table team, that’s a massive statement.”
