Manchester United boss Ralf Rangnick defends Cristiano Ronaldo substitution again

Manchester United interim boss Ralf Rangnick has again defended his substitution of Cristiano Ronaldo, also revealing Bruno Fernandes has been similarly unhappy in the past, but insists his decisions are always in the best interests of the team.

The five-time Ballon d’Or winner threw a strop during United’s 3-1 victory over Brentford on Wednesday night when he was withdrawn for Marcus Rashford, with the latter netting the side’s third goal just a few moments later.

Ronaldo was criticised for his reaction, but Rangnick has both defended the Portuguese superstar and the decision to sub him off, while he says Fernandes has reacted similarly in the past – though that will not stop the German from making difficult decisions in the future.

Asked about how Ronaldo has reacted, and managing his ego going forward, Rangnick said on Friday: ‘Well I think we shouldn’t make too much of a fuss out of it, and I can only speak for myself and my coaching staff.

‘I explained that even to him during the game, when we had that little conversation after we had scored the third goal. In fact, I told him the same as what I said in the press conference: the job of a football manager is to help teams win games and for me it was clear after the experience that we made at Villa Park that this time we have to do things better and we did it better.

‘The only question was who do we take off. Of course, Cristiano is a prolific goalscorer as a player who always wants to play and score goals, he was also asking, “Why? Why me? Why didn’t you take off one of the younger players?” And then the answer came five minutes later when one of the younger players scored the third goal.

‘Maybe Cristiano could have also scored that third goal but football is not always