Manchester United manager reacts to Sir Alex Ferguson’s criticism

Manchester United have not been in great form lately. They had started the season brilliantly and at one point of time were sitting at the top of the Premier League table. Things have not gone the way of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side lately though as they have slipped down to fourth in the table, are out of the League Cup already and sit at third in their UEFA Champions League group.

Interestingly, this downturn in form has coincided with the arrival of Cristiano Ronaldo for a second stint at Old Trafford. Individually, the Portuguese legend has been superb. But overall, the team have appeared to take a step back. But perhaps that is only a bit natural and things will get better over the course of the season.

One of Solskjaer’s decisions that raised a few eyebrows though was when he left Ronaldo on the bench in the game against Everton. Days earlier, he had scored a dramatic late winner against Villarreal.

Even Sir Alex Ferguson felt that Ronaldo should have started. Solskjaer has now responded though. As reported by GOAL, the Manchester United manager said:

"“I’m quite relaxed about it.“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 11. 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.”"

Solskjaer will need to get the best out of Ronaldo if Manchester United are to win titles this season

It is safe to say that Ronaldo will be Manchester United’s first-choice striker this season and if they are to win titles, Solskjaer will need to get the best out of the Portuguese superstar.

There is no doubt that he will continue to score goals regularly. Even at 36 years of age, he remains one of the best goalscorers in the game. But Solskjaer also has to make sure that the team progresses at the same time.

We already saw Juventus take a step back in domestic competition and in Europe over Ronaldo’s three seasons in Turin. Manchester United need to avoid that happening.