Ole Gunnar Solskjaer admitted the fact Axel Tuanzebe had been booked made his half-time substitution obvious in Manchester United's defeat to Istanbul Basaksehir.
United replaced Tuanzebe with Scott McTominay after 45 minutes in Istanbul, as they trailed 2-1 at half-time after goals from Demba Ba and Edin Visca. It was a move that saw Nemanja Matic shift back to centre-back and McTominay try to shore up the midfield alongside Donny van de Beek.
Many United fans commented on social media that the substitution was harsh on Tuanzebe, who had performed so well in the 2-1 Champions League win over PSG earlier in the campaign. United's performance did not improve after the break.
Solskjaer told BT Sport: "Well it's a yellow card and we needed to go for it and gamble, to go forward. So the yellow made my decision."
Solskjaer also admitted it was hard for him to feel positive after such a limp United performance.
“The performance wasn’t good enough against a team that ran and worked and caught us on the break," he added. We didn’t defend well enough. We threw everything at it but we couldn’t break them down.
“It’s set us back a lot. You get a reality check when you play a football game here. You don’t just turn up and get three points in the Champions League. We played against lots of good individuals in a good team, well set up and organised. We weren’t good enough.
“It’s not easy to be positive, not when you play like this.”
