Erik ten Hag refuses to reveal if Cristiano Ronaldo will start in league clash with West Ham

Cristiano Ronaldo’s Scoring goals for Manchester United won’t guarantee him a place in the squad to face West Ham at Old Trafford on Sunday, but manager Erik ten Hag still believes the Portuguese star can reach the 20 mark again this season.

Ten Hag called Ronaldo back into the line-up against Sheriff Tiraspol in the Europa League on Thursday evening after being banned from the first team for refusing to substitute against Tottenham a week earlier and leaving Old Trafford early.

The 37-year-old scored a late goal to complete United’s 3-0 win in his third of the season, but missed a number of other opportunities and is still well below the 24 he hit last season.

United boss Erik ten Hag has refused to reveal whether the attacker will play against West Ham

Ten Hag was reluctant to say whether the former Real Madrid and Juventus star had made his way into the lineup to face West Ham in the continued absence of Anthony Martial.

But the Dutchman backed Ronaldo to have another high-scoring season if he stays with United after January and seizes the opportunities the team creates for him.

When asked if Ronaldo can reach the heights of last season, Ten Hag said: “It’s up to him. But I think if you collect all the opportunities that he creates, the team has created for him over the past few weeks, you see that he is still able to get into the right positions and can still finish them. I think it’s possible, yes.’

Ten Hag downplayed the idea that he has one team for Europe and another for the Premier League after giving Ronaldo just two domestic starts.

“I know some see it that way, but I don’t have a Europe team and I don’t have a Premier League team,” he added.

Ronaldo marked his return to the United line-up with a goal in the Europa League match

The striker scored his third goal of the season after being limited in playing time this year

“I look at the opponent and what we need, what suits the opponent. Now I have to focus on West Ham for Sunday. We pick the team to start with, but also have a plan B or plan C in our pocket to win that game.

“In the end, that’s what we need to win games, and for that we don’t just need 11 players, but the whole squad.”

With Ronaldo set to leave Old Trafford at the end of the season – or perhaps in January – and Martial still sidelined with the third injury he has suffered since Ten Hag took over, United are expected to be looking for a new striker in the summer.

‘We don’t focus on that,’ said Ten Hag. “At the moment we are working on developing our team and our attacking department, our attacking game. We have strikers and we have good ones, we are working on that.’

The Portuguese star stormed out of Old Trafford this month after being an unused replacement