‘He wanted that so much’ – Erik ten Hag praises Cristiano Ronaldo and Jadon Sancho after Sheriff win

However both impressed in their Europa League appearances, with Ronaldo getting his first goal of the season.

Ten Hag told MUTV: “I’m really pleased [for Jadon Sancho]. Another goal… he’s doing well, but I think there’s much more room for improvement for him, because he has so many skills.”

He continued “Ronaldo needed that goal. Many times he came close, but he wanted that so much. We are happy for him and the team wanted to bring him a goal. You know that Cristiano will score a penalty.”

On the match, he said: “Difficult start. The opponent played really direct, went for the second balls and they won too many in the first minutes. But after a certain period we played better.

“Then you say we can play between the lines, we got depth to our game and scored a great goal. Then we took control of the game.

“After the first 10 minutes we found our formation, we were more secure, we had some good movements on the ball in the middle of the park, we kept the ball and in right moments we split up, we made a great goal with Jadon Sancho.

“We did that more in this season, like Arsenal, many players involved in making a goal. So if we can keep this going, more quantity of such occasions, we are in a good way.”