Solskjaer responds to Ferguson's Ronaldo criticism

The Red Devils boss responded to Sir Alex Ferguson criticising his decision to not start Cristiano Ronaldo last time out.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer claims that Sir Alex Ferguson’s recent criticism of his decision to bench Cristiano Ronaldo against Everton does not bother him.

In a 1-1 draw with Everton on October 2, Solskjaer left Ronaldo out of the Manchester United line-up. The Portuguese ace instead came on as a second-half substitute. His demotion to the bench came only days after scoring a winner against Villarreal in the Champions League.

The decision caught many fans by surprise, including the club’s legendary former manager – and Solskjaer’s old boss – Ferguson.

What did Fergie say?

In a conversation with UFC legend Khabib Nurmagomedov, Ferguson was filmed saying: “I also think that when they saw Ronaldo wasn’t playing…”

After Nurmagomedov reminded him that CR7 played in the second half, the Scot interjected: “I know, but you should always start with your best players.”

🗣 Sir Alex Ferguson: “You should always start with your best players.” [IG: khabib_nurmagomedov via @MirrorFootball] pic.twitter.com/upAb461JyU

— UtdDistrict (@UtdDistrict) October 4, 2021

Solskjaer ‘relaxed’ over Ronaldo criticism

Speaking in a press conference on Friday, MEN quoted the Manchester United boss as saying: “I’m quite relaxed about it but, of course, it’s not really fair to the gaffer that something like this gets broadcast.

“You always have opinions and you speak to people, you speak to people in confidence.

“I disagreed with the gaffer quite a few times and I told my wife quite a few times that I disagreed with him, but that never made headlines as a player. I’m sure Sir Alex knows that it doesn’t bother me.”

Solskjaer added: “We all want to see Cristiano. We all want to, because he’s unique, he’s different, he’s had a career and everyone wants to come and watch him. But the plain fact of it is he cannot play every single game that we play. That’s just physical nature, human nature.

“But he knows how difficult this job is anyway, the gaffer. He didn’t always play the same XI. He took some risks at times to rest Ryan Giggs, Wayne Rooney or David Beckham, the best players that we had. Sometimes it works, sometimes it didn’t.”

Ronaldo hopes to return to the line-up on Saturday for Manchester United’s trip to Leicester City. For match details and betting tips, check out the link here.