God knows where Man United will be without Ronaldo - Shearer

England legend Alan Shearer has claimed that

was the only reason for

's victory over

, and that only God knows what the Red Devils would do without the Portuguese superstar.

Ronaldo managed to score a hat-trick during the match against Tottenham last night to gain three points in this crucial match for his team and the Red Devils to win 3-2. Harry Kane scored Tottenham's first goal and Harry Maguire mistakenly opened the scoring for the Red Devils, but Ronaldo's exceptional brilliance prevented Manchester United from losing a point. Now Shearer claims that the Red Devils will not be fine without Ronaldo.

"There are some people who think Cristiano Ronaldo is a problem for Manchester United. But God knows where they would be without him",

Shearer wrote.

"I said a few weeks ago that, if it wasn't for Ronaldo, United would be far worse off than they are, and Saturday's game against Tottenham summed up why in a nutshell.

"He was quite simply the only reason they beat Spurs. His hat-trick was phenomenal and his overall performance was so good, it was staggering.

"This was some response to his critics and all three of his goals were special in their own way. His third goal was my favourite, though. Ronaldo had to get every part of it right, and he did.

"From the way he reads the flight of the cross to the way he attacks it and times his jump, then meets the ball with accuracy and power, it was all absolutely perfect. A textbook header."

Ronaldo scored his 12th Premier League goal for Man Utd in current season.However, Sheearer was not impressed by Red Devils performance in last night game.

He added:

"United have still got a heck of a lot of work to do to get a top-four finish from here, but if they do miss out then there is no way on earth you can pin the blame on Ronaldo," he added.

"They would not be in a position to challenge for the Champions League places if it wasn't for him, so I don't buy that as the reason their results have not always been good enough.

"Their big problem is defensively - they are terrible at times, and we saw that again against Tottenham despite the end result this time.

"Yes, United deserve some credit for the way they responded to what happened to them in the derby last weekend [a 4-1 loss at Manchester City] and this was a huge result for them, but they had no control of the game whatsoever and it was Ronaldo's brilliance that got them over the line."

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