Manchester United may have brought Cristiano Ronaldo back to the club but Jamie Carragher doesn’t think Liverpool would do the same with Luis Suarez.
United beat Brentford 3-0 on Monday night with Ronaldo scoring the second goal from the penalty spot.
That takes Ronaldo’s tally for the season to 24 in all competitions with 18 coming in the Premier League.
It has been a dismal season for United but Ronaldo can personally point to plenty of goals.
Whether that justifies the decision to bring Ronaldo back to Old Trafford is open for debate, with United set to miss out on the Champions League.
The Red Devils face a tricky decision now; do they stick with Ronaldo even if he isn’t ideally suited to Erik ten Hag’s style of play?
Ditching such a popular United player may be difficult too, so we don’t envy Ten Hag here.
Pundit Jamie Carragher has always been vocal in his belief that United shouldn’t have re-signed Ronaldo from Juventus last summer.
That hasn’t gone down well at times, especially as Carragher is a former Liverpool player, but he reiterated his point on Monday night.
Speaking on Sky Sports, Carragher suggested that United made a decision that Liverpool simply wouldn’t have made.
Carragher highlighted that Luis Suarez is revered at Liverpool just like Ronaldo is at United.
Yet with Suarez well into his 30’s, Carragher doesn’t think Liverpool would even think about bringing him back to the club.
Instead, Liverpool are looking for their next heroes like Luis Diaz and Diogo Jota, not going back to past heroes.
Carragher even suggested that United re-signing Ronaldo made them look like a ‘small club’ comparable to Everton signing Wayne Rooney in 2017.
“My thing is that Manchester United is one of the super clubs of world football,” said Carragher. “I just look at the other ones, say Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Barcelona, the ones who have won Champions Leagues – even Liverpool right now. Would Liverpool go and bring back Luis Suarez? I don’t think they would, even if they knew he was going to get 20 goals.”
“Manchester United, for me, should be buying Haaland this summer. Manchester City are getting Haaland whereas United have got Ronaldo, who’s a legend, one of the best goalscorers of all time, I get that! But it made me think that United were a small club. It almost reminded a little bit of Wayne Rooney going back to Everton. So Everton know they’re not going to win something when Rooney comes back but it gives everyone a lift, Wayne’s happy to come back. It almost feels like that type,” he added.
Those comments may again cause some ire from United fans, but Carragher does have a point.
Liverpool are so set on their approach – both on and off the pitch – that they wouldn’t break it just to bring Suarez back.
That’s an overly-emotional decision, not the type of move that has made Liverpool so good. For all the fanfare over Ronaldo’s return, United will miss out on the top four whilst Liverpool contend for a quadruple.
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
