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Solskjaer defends substitutions in Man United's loss to Young Boys

Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer defended his decision to substitute Cristiano Ronaldo and Bruno Fernandes after his side fell to a shock 2-1 away defeat against Young Boys in their Champions League Group F opener yesterday morning (Singapore time).

United took the lead in the 13th minute via Ronaldo's third goal in two appearances, but the match flipped on its head when Aaron Wan-Bissaka was shown a straight red for a poor challenge in the 35th minute.

Solskjaer took off Jadon Sancho for Diogo Dalot after the dismissal and added a third centre-back in Raphael Varane at half-time, after removing Donny van de Beek.

The Swiss side piled on the pressure and shortly after Moumi Ngamaleu grabbed a 66th-minute equaliser, the United boss replaced Ronaldo and Fernandes with Jesse Lingard and Nemanja Matic.

Lingard handed Young Boys the win after his poor back-pass was seized upon by substitute Jordan Siebatcheu, who slotted home in the 95th minute.

Said United skipper Harry Maguire: "Discipline is a huge part of tournament football. If this was a knockout game and we got knocked out... because we went down to 10 men, everyone would be kicking ourselves."

On the removal of his Portuguese stars, Solskjaer said: "The game had gone 70-odd minutes, they had been running a lot, both on Saturday and today. The astroturf takes its toll as well and we wanted Nemanja's experience to keep hold of the ball and Jesse's legs."

However, several pundits questioned Solskjaer's decisions as United collapsed after the red card, recording just two shots, the second of which came in the 25th minute. It's the lowest tally in their 138 Champions League games since 2003/04.

Ex-Arsenal midfielder Paul Merson questioned the substitutions, saying on Sky Sports that "Young Boys were petrified of Ronaldo" and Lingard "will come back and get the ball, and that's not helping because you are down to 10 men already".

Ex-United midfielder Paul Scholes, meanwhile, said on BT Sport: "They couldn't get out their half, they were so deep... He should've brought more pace on earlier in (Anthony) Martial or (Mason) Greenwood."

Former Manchester City defender Danny Mills slammed United for "inviting pressure" on themselves, telling talkSPORT: "It's Young Boys. It's not Barcelona, or Chelsea, or Manchester City... I know they had 10 men but they should be better than that."

In the other Group F tie, Atalanta drew 2-2 at Villarreal.

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