Cristiano Ronaldo continues to spin straw into gold for pedestrian Man United

Manchester United's Cristiano Ronaldo (left) celebrates scoring their side's goal.

Oh to be a fly on the wall should Cristiano Ronaldo pay a visit to Sascha Lense, the sports psychologist brought in to Manchester United by Ralf Rangnick.

It would not be difficult to imagine an earnest conversation about the pressures of pulling on the famous red shirt, especially when comparisons are inevitably going to be made with the golden days under Alex Ferguson.

The weight of enormous expectation and the frustration that past glories are not being replicated.

He’d be talking about his team-mates of course as once again CR7 dug the Red Devils out of the mire of yet another bang average pedestrian performance. The Prince Charming(ish) of Real Madrid is forced to play the role of Rumpelstiltskin in his twilight years, popping up out of nowhere to spin straw into gold.

Ronaldo celebrates after scoring from the penalty spot. Picture: Joe Giddens

Ronaldo’s 75th-minute penalty, which he had won himself, magicked one point into three, but the Brothers Grim also had another Fergie signing to thank in David De Gea, whose fine saves from Teemu Pukki and Ozan Kabak prevented the Premier League’s least prolific scorers from enjoying a rare happy ending.

Rangnick’s own post-match diagnosis did not make the patient sound particularly healthy even if the chart with ‘fifth in the table’ and ‘six unbeaten’ written on it suggests otherwise.

“I wish we had more intensity up front, more physicality and more willingness to win the one-v-one duels,” said the interim manager with the power to appoint himself later on if he likes.

“Offensively, we also had some nice moves, but we didn’t find the best solutions in the first half and in the second half, after we scored, it was a question of intensity — we conceded too many free-kicks and corners. It was a game where something could never not happen and we need to change this.”

Norwich are bottom of the table for one reason only — a whole season of not happening in front of the opposition net: there is no hiding behind eight goals from 16 league games, five of which have been scored by Pukki.

They have tightened up at the back since Dean Smith replaced Daniel Farke a month ago, and were hit by injuries to Andrew Omobamidele and Ben Gibson before the game plus Grant Hanley 20 minutes into it. But the goal that sunk them was not atypical. Max Aarons hauled Ronaldo down on the edge of the six-yard box in a panic and the Portugal superstar sent Tim Krul the wrong way from the spot.

Then it was over to De Gea, who had tipped Pukki’s fierce drive over at 0-0, to claw away Kabak’s goalbound header late on.

“It’s a big clean sheet for him — we haven’t had enough this season,” said Harry Maguire, as if that was in no way related to his own patchy form.

The captain also paid inevitable homage to the goalscorer.

“Cristiano is in the team and when that happens, you’ve got the greatest ever match-winner there’s ever been,” he said.

“So we know that we’re always going to score goals.”

Well, yes, but the nearest anyone else came to that was a first-half free-kick from Alex Telles that hit the wall and then the bar. United were sluggish and it was no surprise that the fans were not impressed, or the ones who like to call radio stations after games anyway. The general impression there was that a team with more bite than Norwich, ie everyone else, would have punished such a performance. Yes folks, United fans are genuinely hoping Ivan Toney is not back for Brentford by Tuesday.

Norwich have another chance to redeem themselves that night, or at least score a goal, when Smith is reunited with Aston Villa, the club that sacked him last month.

“We’re disappointed, we played very well, with togetherness and confidence on the ball,” said midfielder Billy Gilmour.

“We’ll take real confidence from this game to go into Aston Villa and know we can give them a real good battle and take three points, hopefully.”

United had a scare when Victor Lindelof had to leave the pitch late on because of an abnormally high heart rate. “The doctor has checked him and it seems everything is okay now,” Rangnick said.