Cristiano Ronaldo is back at Manchester United and ready to wear the club's No. 7 shirt for the first time since 2009 in Saturday's Premier League clash against Newcastle United at Old Trafford. But giving the Portugal forward his old number is the easy part for United; the big challenge now is where to play him.
United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is the man who must solve the Ronaldo dilemma, and it's not an easy one to fix. If he gets it right, Solskjaer will give a huge boost to his prospects of guiding United to their first major trophy since 2017 and, at the same time, turbo-charge his team's goal-scoring output. But if Solskjaer gets it wrong, he risks a domino effect of disenchantment and loss of form among his other attacking players.
With Ronaldo becoming one of six international forwards in the United squad, alongside Marcus Rashford, Edinson Cavani, Mason Greenwood, Jadon Sancho and Anthony Martial, Solskjaer must not only ensure he keeps them all happy, but also get the right formula with his attacking game-plan. He must also find a way to make sure that Ronaldo's presence in the team does not have a negative impact on the performances of midfielders Bruno Fernandes and Paul Pogba.