Manchester United gaffer Erik Ten Hag has revealed that Cristiano Ronaldo was left out of the team’s thrashing against Manchester City out of respect. City obliterated United by 6-3 at the Etihad and Ronaldo was not used by the Dutchman.

In fact, the visitors were down by 4-0 at the half time and Ten Hag revealed that he didn’t want to expose Ronaldo to the humiliation, which they suffered from Pep Guardiola’s men.

Phil Foden and Erling Haaland scored hat-tricks for the home team and it was just one-way traffic throughout the game, especially the first half. 

Meanwhile, ​​Victor Lindelof, Anthony Martial, Fred, Casemiro, and Luke Shaw all came on as substitutes but Ronaldo kept waiting on the bench. The Portuguese has started only once for Manchester United in the ongoing season of the Premier League.

“I wouldn’t bring him in out of respect for Cristiano, for his big career,” Ten Hag said.

“The other thing was the advantage that I could bring on Anthony Martial. He needs the minutes, but I don’t want to point it out like that.”

The Dutchman gave credit to Manchester City for their strong performance but at the same time admitted that they were not up to the mark on the field.

“It’s quite simple, it’s a lack of belief,” Ten Hag added.

“When you don’t believe on the pitch, then you can’t win games; that is unacceptable. We get undisciplined at following rules and you get hammered, that’s happened today.

“All the credit to City, but it’s nothing to do with City, our performance was not good. It had to do with the belief as individuals and as a team.

“From the first minute I felt it, and at half-time, we changed things and we changed attitude.

“At this moment I can’t think about the positives. We let our fans down, we let ourselves down and we’re hugely disappointed.”

Manchester United will take on Omonia on Thursday in the Europa League.