A lot has been said about Man United's recent home draw with Everton, with everything from Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's tactics to the club's dip in form coming under scrutiny after yet another slip-up from the Red Devils.
However, one of the biggest controversies from the 1-1 stalemate at Old Trafford was the decision to bench the in-form Cristiano Ronaldo. Despite scoring five in his first five appearances since returning to the Theatre of Dreams, including a stoppage-time winner against Villarreal in the UEFA Champions League, Ole left the Portuguese icon on the bench, opting for Anthony Martial, Mason Greenwood, and Edinson Cavani as his attacking three.
The five-time Ballon d'Or winner did eventually come on shortly before the hour mark as the Red Devils, who were 1-0 up at that time, looked to kill off the game. Unfortunately, Cristiano could not impact the match as he would have liked. Instead, he was forced to watch Andros Townsend net the equalizer. In fact, the Toffees came close to winning the game, with intervention from VAR preventing Rafa Benitez's side from collecting all three points.
This decision sparked an outrage and it wasn't only the fans and pundits who criticized the manager over this move. Iconic former Old Trafford boss Sir Alex Ferguson, who was in attendance, was caught on camera airing his disagreement with the decision to bench Ronaldo.
The Scottish legend was in conversation with retired MMA superstar Khabib Nurmagomedov, with a clip of that short dialogue being posted on the Russian fighter's Instagram. In it, Ferguson can be heard criticizing Ole, arguing that every team's best player must always be in the starting eleven.
The Man Utd legend said: "'But I also think that when they (Everton) saw that Ronaldo wasn't playing, it was a bit..."
Khabib weighed in with his thoughts, saying: "He came on in the second half..." before Sir Alex, who was having none of it, cut in, replying with: "I know, but you should always start with your best players."
Should Ole have started Ronaldo against Everton?
— Mirror Football (@MirrorFootball) October 4, 2021
Sir Alex seems to think so pic.twitter.com/Fo5vWqCGkB
Man United are currently fourth, level on points with third-placed Man City (14) while trailing second-placed Liverpool by a single point. Despite this, the pressure is already on Solskjaer after being heavily backed over the summer. The Red Devils have won only twice from their last six outings across all competitions and given that they are set to face Atalanta (2x), Leicester, Liverpool, Tottenham, and Man City in the next month or so, things could get trickier for Ole quite rapidly.
