United only managed to get a 1-1 draw at Everton.
Ferguson said: “I don’t think the referee protected our players enough. I don’t know what the game’s coming to with some of the tackles going in.
“With the ferocity of the challenges, somebody’s going to get a bad injury.”
He continued: “It was a battle, but Everton turned it into a battle in the second half. Their crowd were up for it and in fairness you have to give them credit because they unsettled us and we started to give the ball away and that’s cost us the match.”
He added: “The referee was to blame, and the crowd was egging him on and there was every chance he may have been sent off, and not for anything he did in the game.
“You get a booking for nothing and then you wonder what the referee is going to do next.
“Cristiano Ronaldo had a chance near the end if he could have dug it out of his feet, but we didn’t deserve anything because at that point it was a hanging-on job.”
