Former Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has acknowledged that Edinson Cavani “endured the most” after he approved the return of Cristiano Ronaldo to the club.
Ronaldo rejoined Old Trafford in the summer of 2021 from Juventus, with United paying £12.8 million for the then-36-year-old forward. He was integrated into a squad that already included Cavani, Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial, and Mason Greenwood.
Ronaldo’s return caused some disruption in the United dressing room and did not work out for Solskjaer, who was dismissed just three months later.
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Solskjaer maintains that he doesn’t regret the decision but admits that there were compromises, such as those made by Cavani, who had to relinquish the No.7 shirt for Ronaldo.
“We started off straight away thinking about how we are going to press and change the little tweaks,” Solskjaer explained on the Stick to Football podcast. “Cristiano is different from Antony Martial, who was up front, or whether we would play Mason or Marcus up front.
“Edinson Cavani was the one that suffered the most when Cristiano came in. We had played and gotten Edinson into a certain way of understanding the way we played. Cristiano, when you know him and speak to him, he wanted to play three out of four games. He realized he’s getting older as well. But when you leave him out once, he’s not happy!”