Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s decision to bench Cristiano Ronaldo before the international break has caused quite a stir.
The Manchester United manager left Ronaldo on the bench just days after his late winner against Villarreal as his side dropped points in a 1-1 draw with Everton.
After the game, former manager Sir Alex Ferguson was overhead telling MMA superstar Khabib Nurmagomedov “you should always play your best players”.
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Solskjaer has insisted the decision was taken in Ronaldo’s best interests in a bid to keep the 36-year-old fit and firing when needed.
But it would appear that Ronaldo has sided with Ferguson rather than his current manager in the debate, with The Sun reporting he has told Solskjaer he’s fit to start every Premier League game.
A United source told The Sun : “Ronaldo was extremely disappointed for being benched.
"Ole presumed that he was tired after the Villarreal game, so he decided to only put him on early in the second half.
“But Cristiano told him that he will tell him when he isn’t fit to play and that he wants to play in every single league game.
“He also told him that he has come here to win trophies and that United need to play their most important players in all of the games.”
HAVE YOUR SAY! Was Solskjaer right to leave out Ronaldo? Comment below
Speaking ahead of today’s game against Leicester, Solskjaer insisted he is “relaxed” about the criticism from Ferguson.
“I'm quite relaxed about it,” said Solskjaer.
“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. 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.
“He knows how difficult this job is anyway, the gaffer. He didn't always play the same eleven.
“He took some risks at times to rest Ryan Giggs, Wayne Rooney or David Beckham, the best players that we had. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't.”
