It’s hard to imagine Erik ten Hag’s Manchester United being led by Cristiano Ronaldo.
The first period of the season – where the Red Devils were getting packed in by Brentford and Brighton, shipping goals for fun, scrambling to break into the top four – seems a long time ago now.
Ronaldo’s rigid style, lack of pre-season and desire to leave last summer meant that he did not immediately feature in Ten Hag’s plans. But after getting some minutes in his legs, he quickly fell out of them altogether.
Eventually, Ronaldo’s frustrations saw him leave a match at Old Trafford before the final whistle and then conduct an explosive interview with Piers Morgan, intensely criticising the club and Ten Hag.
Ronaldo left Man Utd in November and now plays for Al-Nassr / Naomi Baker/GettyImages
His contract was mutually terminated shortly after the start of the World Cup.
How have United fared since his departure back in November? Let’s crunch the numbers.
Premier League top six since Cristiano Ronaldo left Man Utd revealed
Analysis
United have benefitted from playing more games than any other side, sure, but hey, you’d rather have points on the board than games in hand, right? It’s not a real table anyway so calm down.
But since Ronaldo’s departure, it’s clear to see that the Red Devils have enjoyed some stability. They aren’t blowing teams away just yet and they’re still relying on Marcus Rashford to carry the scoring load, but there’s definitely more positive feelings around the club now that they don’t have to worry about Ronaldo.
Arsenal may have wobbled in recent weeks but their overall record since the World Cup has been decent, while they have been helped by the gap they opened up in the autumn and Manchester City failing to better them since.
Brentford – unbeaten in their last ten – Fulham and Brighton have all continued their excellent seasons.
Where are the other ‘big six’ clubs?
You may have noticed that three ‘big six’ clubs, as well as fourth-placed Newcastle United, are missing from the table.
The Magpies have won three and drawn five of their eight games in this time period, accumulating 14 points and sitting in seventh on goal difference.
Liverpool and Tottenham have both taken 13 points, sitting in 11th and 12th respectively. Shortly behind them in 14th are Chelsea who have a measly record of 10 points from nine games. Fix up, Graham Potter.
Champions League all-time top scorers – Ronaldo, Messi & UCL goal kings
Who is in the lead in the race to become the all-time top scorer in Europe’s leading club competition? We’ve taken a look at the top finishers
The Champions League has featured some of the best goalscorers in history. As the premier club competition in Europe and arguably the world, it is a stage that has been graced by countless icons of football.
Striking sensations such as Raul and Andriy Shevchenko dominated during the 1990s and 2000s, while Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi have taken the art of scoring to a whole new level.
GOAL takes a look at the all-time top scorers in the competition’s history, dating back to the inaugural European Cup in 1955.Who is the all-time Champions League top scorer?
As you can see from our table below, Cristiano Ronaldo is the top scorer in the history of the Champions League (including the European Cup). He is closely followed by his arch-rival, Lionel Messi.
There is a significant gulf between that pair and the rest, Barcelona striker Robert Lewandowski following in third.
Karim Benzema follows in fourth, while Raul completes the top five, with the likes of Ruud van Nistelrooy, Thomas Muller and Thierry Henry among the best of the rest.
List of Champions League/European Cup all-time top 20 goalscorers
The composition of the all-time goalscorers list is mostly made up of players who are playing or played in the modern Champions League era (i.e. 1992 onwards) which has added more continental games to the modern day calendar. Specifically, of the 20 players in the list above, 17 of them played from the mid 1990s on.
However, despite that, two players who played in the pre-Champions League era (when the tournament was known as the European Cup) still figure prominently, with former Real Madrid star Alfredo Di Stefano and Benfica icon Eusebio featuring in and around the top 10.
Ferenc Puskas , who shone for Real Madrid in the 1950s and 1960s, is also in the top 20. Former Bayern Munich striker Gerd Muller was in the top 20 before being edged out by Mohamed Salah. Despite being nudged out, no player comes remotely close to Gerd Muller’s phenomenal goals-per-game ratio of 0.95.
Puskas boasted a goal-to-game ratio of 0.85 and Di Stefano’s was 0.84, while Messi’s is currently 0.8, which is undoubtedly the best in the modern era.
Source: 90min.com; goal.com
