Boss defends call to bench his star man

OLE GUNNAR SOLSKJAER defended his decision to start Cristiano Ronaldo on the bench against Everton after seeing the Manchester United star cut a frustrated figure at Old Trafford.

Solskjaer made five changes to the side that beat Villarreal in midweek when Ronaldo snatched an injury-time winner and Anthony Martial came into the side to score his first goal in eight months.

Ronaldo was sent on in the second half but could not stop United being held to a 1-1 draw and stormed down the tunnel at full-time.

‘You make decisions throughout a long, long season and you’ve got to manage the players’ workload. The decision was, for me, the correct one today,’ said Solskjaer.

‘Anthony Martial did well and scored a good goal. Edinson (Cavani) needed minutes and got an hour. We have to make those decisions sometimes.

‘With the result today, I understand they go away disappointed. We have started better than last season but it’s still not what we wanted.’

United dropped points in the Premier League at Old Trafford for the second time in a week.

And Everton’s equaliser came from Bruno Fernandes’ corner at the other end of the pitch as they broke away for Andros Townsend to score, meaning United have kept one clean sheet in 18 games.

Fernandes warned that they need to cut out their mistakes and play much better if they want to win a trophy this season.

‘We should win this game,’ he said. ‘We should create more chances. We should not concede that kind of goal. It’s not the first time and we have to look at our mistakes and see what we can do.

‘We don’t look at the league table at this moment but, of course, we should have more points. We drop points at home and we shouldn’t do that.

‘These last two games at home were not good enough in the Premier League. If we want silverware at the end of the season we have to do much better.’