Jordan defends OGS decision to bench Ronaldo vs Everton

Simon Jordan has defended Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer after he started Cristiano Ronaldo on the bench against Everton on Saturday.

The Red Devils drew 1-1 with the Toffees on the day, prompting criticism for the Norwegian manager.

He received criticism from none other than Sir Alex Ferguson – who was quoted saying: “You should always start with your best players.”

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The United legend did, of course, rest Ronaldo many times during his incredible spell as manager.

However, former Crystal Palace owner Jordan – who is usually very critical of Solskjaer – has jumped to his defence, saying Ronaldo physically cannot play every single match in a season.

He told talkSPORT: “Of course there is an argument to say you will play your best players, but then there is context and an expansion of that conversation.

“If you’ve got a snippet of what he said – unless you are rotating, unless the opponent is weaker than you, unless we heard the rest of that conversation we can only give it a certain amount of credence.

“I don’t argue with the principal of always playing your best players, but the argument cannot be that unless Cristiano Ronaldo plays every second of every minute of every single game, United will turn to the situation and say ‘should have played Ronaldo’.

“He didn’t play every minute for Juventus last year. He cannot play 60 games, most players can’t.”

Edinson Cavani replaced the Portugal captain in the starting XI, and Jordan believes the Uruguayan is more than good enough to lead the line in Ronaldo’s absence.

He added: “Of course we are talking about a slob in Cavani who scores 138 goals for PSG in 200 games, 52 goals for Napoli in 69 games.

“A player that was heralded last season coming through the door and I went ‘I’m not sure about him’ and people said are you mad, have you seen the quality of this player.

“They had enough on that pitch to win that game and it shouldn’t all be about Ronaldo.

“The game itself was there to be won and there was enough talent on the pitch to be able to win that game.

“Irrespective of whether it is Ronaldo or not, he is 36 years of age. Whilst he can play at a certain level and score a lot of goals, there are times when he will need to be rotated and need to be rested.

“It is almost unarguable that Ronaldo has to play every single minute of every single game.”