After the Capital One Cup elimination: is Ole Gunnar Solskjaer job in danger?

Cristiano Ronaldo was left out of the matchday for Manchester United's first Capital One Cup match of the season and it affected the team. The club struggled in Ronaldo's absence and eventually lost the match 1-0 to West Ham at Old Trafford. The same team United beat 2-1 away in the league on Saturday and Ronaldo scored .

Why was Ronaldo not in the matchday squad?

Many coaches leave their best players out for Cup competitions to give them much needed rest but not when you are paying a top opposition. At the age of 36, Ronaldo's fitness has to be of utmost priority so as to avoid injuries for him. Solskjaer said his absence was to give players who don't play minutes and get them ready for other competitions. 

What did Solskjaer say about Ronaldo's absence?

"Cristiano Ronaldo has come in and made a difference already, he wants to play as much as possible but I don't think it is possible. It's a competition we've got tradition for to give players minutes because we need to think about the bigger picture. Today, we made that decision and some of them will definitely come out stronger for it because they've now got 90 minutes under the belt and are ready for the league and the Champions League, and the FA Cup when that starts."

What did Solskjaer say about the elimination?

"We had a poor start, then some good bits and then towards the end when we went gung ho, we opened ourselves up and of course they could have scored a few more. I thought the boys gave it a real good go, worked really hard and we ended up with 27 shots which is quite remarkable. Maybe you could see some players needing minutes but that's natural.

"We didn’t create enough big chances, we built pressure, but we couldn’t [score]. We had a couple of big chances - Mason [Greenwood] came on, had a decent one. We built pressure but sometimes you know that pressure doesn’t come to anything.

"We’ve got lots of games and we'll just keep on doing what we’re doing and trying to get results. We’ve started the season okay, apart from we’re out of this cup which is not great, and we haven’t had a great result away in Europe. But we’ll be focused, we’ll be ready for Saturday."

When did Ronaldo's anger start?

Ronaldo's unhappiness at his manager was believed to have started when he was substituted in the 2-1 loss to Young Boys in the UEFA Champions League. Cristiano Ronaldo scored in the match but he was substituted after Young Boys equalised. He was seen on the touchline cheering his teammates on. Solskjaer defended the decision to remove Ronaldo by saying "we have to look after him too".