Manchester United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has defended his decision to not start with his star striker Cristiano Ronaldo in the team’s home match against Everton on Saturday. The Red Devils had a chance to go to the top of the standings but the match ended in a 1-1 draw.

In fact, Manchester United needed a late VAR call in their favor when Yerry Mina’s goal was cancelled due to offside. Anthony Martial, who was included in the playing XI, scored for the hosts in the 43rd minute after he was set up by Bruno Fernandes just before the half time.

However, Everton bounced back as Andros Townsend scored in the 65th minute as the visitors launched a perfectly executed counter-attacking goal.

This is the second consecutive time when United to failed to get a win on their home turf. Meanwhile, Ronaldo had scored in the dying seconds of the Champions League clash against Villarreal but he was benched by the team’s manager against Everton. When asked about his move to not include Ronaldo in the final XI, Solskjaer said it is imperative for him to manage the player’s workload.

“You make decisions throughout the season, you’ve got to manage the players’ workload,” said Solskjaer. “The decision was, for me, the correct one today.” “We have started better than last season, but it is still not what we wanted.”

However, Solskjaer added Ronaldo and Sancho to the ground after 10 minutes into the second half. On the other hand, the United boss admitted that they made a couple of mistakes that led to their downfall.

“We need to be better at when to risk it and how not to be counter-attacked,” added Solskjaer. “We did have enough players behind the ball, we made a couple of bad decisions which cost us in those 10 seconds.”

United will need to bounce stronger and come up with collective efforts in their next match against Leicester City.