Erik ten Hag makes Cristiano Ronaldo captaincy admission after Aston Villa defeat

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Erik ten Hag makes Cristiano Ronaldo captaincy admission after Aston Villa defeat

Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag has admitted that Cristiano Ronaldo was his fourth choice to wear the captain's armband against Aston Villa on Sunday.

Ronaldo, who has already had a disciplinary run-in with Ten Hag this season, was surprisingly named United captain for the trip to Villa Park, which ended in a surprise 3-1 defeat on Unai Emery's Premier League return.

After the game, Ten Hag explained how Ronaldo ended up with the armband.

“Harry Maguire is on the bench, our captain of the club," he began. "Then it is about David de Gea who is a leader but is a goalie and is far away from the outfield.

“Then Casemiro is the leader but he is not speaking perfect English so then Cristiano is the leader.”

Ronaldo played the full 90 minutes, finishing the match alongside both Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford in United's attack, but he failed to inspire a positive result as United slumped to their first defeat in ten games.

Ten Hag declined to blame Ronaldo for the result and instead put the defeat down to United's slow start in both halves.

"We lose the game at the start of the first half and second half, that is unacceptable," he told BBC Sport. "They looked fresher, more ready. The result is clear, it never lies. In football, you always get your own earnings. Today we were not good enough.

"After a long time this has happened, I said it was up to us. We didn't keep the ball, we didn't get the right organisation, didn't follow the rules and lost battles. Our players have experience.

"You have to read the game, get the right organisation and not concede two goals. That was totally unnecessary. We need to be sharper. You have to be compact and stand on the ball. Everyone has to win their own battles, we didn't, that is disappointing.”