Manchester United boss Ralf Rangnick has defended his decision to substitute Mason Greenwood which was booed by the Old Trafford crowd during our 1-0 home defeat to Wolves.

Despite being the team’s best player prior to his substitution, the 20-year-old was replaced by Bruno Fernandes on the hour mark much to the surprise of the Old Trafford crowd.

Explaining his decision, Rangnick said he felt he could not afford to replace midfielders Scott McTominay or Nemanja Matic, opting to keep Edinson Cavani on the pitch ahead of Greenwood.

Asked about the Greenwood substitution and the reaction it received, Rangnick told Sky Sports: “It was 0-0 and we were having the better moments in that part of the game to so we decided to bring on Bruno.

“He had the big chance to put his 1-0 ahead.

“Mason was good but I had to take somebody off and we didn’t want to take one of our sixes off.

“So the question was should I take off Edi or Mason and I decided to take off Mason.”

The defeat to Wolves on Monday leaves us in seventh place in the Premier League and four points off fourth-placed Arsenal.

Meanwhile, Arsenal legend Ian Wright has slammed Manchester United manager Ralf Rangnick’s decision to take off Mason Greenwood during Manchester United’s defeat to Wolves.

“I think that was a sacrifice because it’s easy to take him off,” Wright told Premier League Productions.

“You’re not going to take off Cavani or Ronaldo. He’s taken off Greenwood who is someone at the age where he is kind of fearless. We know what he is capable of doing.

“He’s always going to get on the ball and dribble at people. You don’t take that off because he is going to do something at some stage that’s going to create a chance.

“When you consider [Nemanja] Matic and [Scott] McTominay played the whole 90 minutes when they needed something, I am baffled by that.”