TTeam manager Ralf Rangnick from English football record champions Manchester United longs for an end to the goal drought of his superstar Cristiano Ronaldo (37). “It’s clear that he should score more goals,” said the former Bundesliga coach before the Premier League duel between the “Red Devils” on Saturday (1.30 p.m. / Sky) against Southampton.
Returnee Ronaldo, United’s top scorer with 14 goals this season, has gone five games without a goal in all competitions. CR7 last experienced such a dry spell in 2010 in the service of Real Madrid. Most recently, the Portuguese even missed a penalty in the English FA Cup against second division club FC Middlesbrough. That meant the end for the top club. “I think we’ve created enough chances and opportunities in the last few games, but we just haven’t scored enough goals,” Rangnick said, referring to the recent setbacks: “But that’s not just a problem for Cristiano, it’s also a problem for him all the other players, especially the attacking players.”
Christian Eriksen, meanwhile, does not want any preferential treatment when returning to the Premier League after suffering from heart disease. “I told my teammates on the first day that there was no reason to treat me with kid gloves. Otherwise I wouldn’t need to be on the football field anymore,” said Eriksen of FC Brentford in an interview broadcast on Sky on Friday. “If I wasn’t 100 percent fit, then I wouldn’t take part in this adventure either.” All tests on his heart were positive, said the 29-year-old, pointing out that he had gotten a lot of advice from doctors.
Eriksen also spoke to ex-Ajax Amsterdam team-mate Daley Blind, who encouraged him to trust the implanted defibrillator and the technology behind it. Some time ago, Blind himself had one of these implants inserted. The 109-time Denmark international had returned to the Premier League on the last day of the transfer window. Eriksen had previously had to undergo extensive medical examinations at newly promoted Brentford. His new coach Thomas Frank, also from Denmark, emphasized on Friday that Eriksen is training well, but he did not want to commit to a date for the Danish playmaker’s debut: “I think he’s fine, he’s training well and he looks good like the quality player we know he is.”
Eriksen suddenly collapsed on June 12, 2021 during the European Championship game against Finland in front of his home crowd in Copenhagen – his heart stopped without warning. Most recently, he had been preparing for his return to professional football in his native Denmark and with the reserves of his former club Ajax. He played more than 300 games for Tottenham Hotspur from 2013 to 2020.
