Jamie Carragher proven right about Cristiano Ronaldo

Former Liverpool centre-back Jamie Carragher received a lot of criticism after he questioned why Manchester United signed Cristiano Ronaldo last summer if they were not going to push for the Premier League title, but on Monday night he was the one laughing.

The Portuguese forward disappointed once again as the Red Devils lost 1-0 at home to Wolverhampton Wanderers on the day he captained the team for the second time, with the last coming 14 years ago during a victory against Bolton.

"Getting back out of my lane!" Carragher tweeted after United's loss to Wolves, as he hinted at the criticism he received for his comments on Ronaldo, particularly from Patrice Evra.

What was said?

Speaking on the Sky Sports panel at the end of November, Carragher made the point that United signed Ronaldo with the clear aim of winning the Premier League.

"Ronaldo's not the player he was," said Carragher.

"He's obviously still delivering for Manchester United in terms of goals, but I don't think it should be a big story if Cristiano Ronaldo doesn't start every game or at times comes off.

"I think [Ralf] Rangnick will not cause himself a problem by putting Ronaldo on the bench, but this idea of Ronaldo playing every minute I don't think is right.

"I think going away to big games I can understand why [Michael] Carrick didn't start him. He's 36.

"You finish second and sign Ronaldo at 36, you're not going to win the league in four years. If you sign someone at 36 it's to win right now. If you sign [Raphael] Varane, a four-time Champions League winner, it's to win right now. Are they any closer to winning the league?"

That led to an argument with Roy Keane, who made the case that Ronaldo has come back to Old Trafford to "win cups", intimating that the club have a better chance of winning the FA Cup than the league.

Evra's response

A few days after Carragher made his comments, former Manchester United left-back Patrice Evra was on Amazon Prime Video and criticised the retired centre-back's comments.

"There's a lot of talk about this player and I really don't understand," said Evra.

"Some players like Jamie Carragher, I think he had like 775 games and Cristiano has today scored his 800th and 801st goal, and those kind of people talk about Ronaldo.

"I just think people have to stay in their line, I don't understand the hate, some people wake up and want to talk about Cristiano."