Everton 1-2 Manchester United
by James Nalton
at Goodison Park

IN HIS post-match press conference at Goodison Park on Sunday night, where his Manchester United side had just defeated Everton, Erik ten Hag initially described Cristiano Ronaldo’s winner and 700th goal in club football as simply “the sub coming on a scoring a goal.”

The United manager was speaking about how important the contributions of the whole team will be to any success his side might have this season

Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial had performed this super-sub role in the midweek Europa League game against Omonia Nicosia, the former scoring twice and the latter once to secure a 3-2 win in Cyprus.

Both started against Everton, but Martial left the field injured after around half an hour. He was replaced by Ronaldo, who scored what was to be the winner after Antony had cancelled out Alex Iwobi’s opener.

"You see the spirit in this team is really good, and it’s really also a squad, it's not only 11 players,” said Ten Hag.

“Today, again, the sub coming on and scoring a goal. You see Victor Lindelof and, in the end, Rafa Varane and Scott McTominay coming in, so we do it with more than 11 players and I am happy with that process.”

Ten Hag described Ronaldo's tally of 700 goals as a huge achievement, but it was only the Portuguese forward’s first of this season in the Premier League.

United have previously looked a lot better without him, and Ten Hag has been bold enough to leave out the brand that is CR7 in favour of better team performances.

The Dutchman described Ronaldo finally opening his league account for this campaign as the type of “confirmation of intuition” that any attacking player needs, regardless of how many goals they have scored in their career.

Ronaldo’s future at United remains uncertain. He’s reportedly not happy with his situation as a squad player but, regardless, it is one which does seem to be benefitting the team as a whole.

Ten Hag's insistence on a team ethic has helped United put together six wins in their last seven games, and though the one loss in that run was a disappointing thrashing a the hands of local rivals City, they generally look in better shape than they have for some time.