Forlorn Man Utd Stars Crawl Home In Rain After Como Nightmare
Shortly after midnight, images were released of Michael Carrick and Bruno Fernandes leaving Manchester Airport in their car following the miserable loss suffered by Manchester United at the hands of Como 1-4 which is their seventh consecutive defeat. They were in a terrible mood after the match and went back to the hotel before they decided that it wasn’t raining that much and they should get into the car at around 2pm on Thursday to leave for home.
It was a first in Italy for Como to be in such a position which is a major milestone but at the same time, it’s an awful moment and a major disappointment for United to be coming off of seven games without a win as their previous league win was on September 10 when they beat Sabah 4-0.
Senne Lammens and Mason Mount, two players not called upon in their Italian debut match, were among other players leaving for their respective destinations in very poor and wet weather conditions.
Following Martinez’s complaint about the top leadership of the club last week, Fernandes publicly questioned Carrick’s approach, thereby, further increasing the pressure on the head coach, who was honest and revealed that their players couldn’t carry out the pressure move with man-to-man effectively.
Carragher Slams Fernandes As A ‘Disgrace’ After Como Rant
Reacting to Fernandes’ comments, CBS Sports pundit Jamie Carragher was in shock at the attitude which he deemed Fernandes had shown towards the captaincy and labelled him a ‘disgrace’.
‘ When Fernandes criticises the hierarchy above him, it really disgraces us,’ said Carragher.
“Lisandro Martínez was out of bounds when he criticised the hierarchy last week, in our opinion. But Bruno Fernandes doing this makes it really disgraceful.’
‘If we recall, last season, he was the only one awarded the player of the year. But if it had been without Michael Carrick, he wouldn’t have received it, as Michael Carrick put him back at the right position from where he went on to deliver a stellar season through his talents. But as a footballer, you know, he has that talent, but if you don’t look at his attitude and how he goes about things, there is no way it is right.”
He got offended because he was a substitute, and the manager embarrassed him by taking him off at that time. He said to the press that it was all about pressing, whether in man-to-man or zonal ways. However, as per Bruno Fernandes, the
Manchester United cannot press because he does that for the crowd. I commentate on the United matches, and he runs all around the place like a kid for the supporters. All think he’s working hard – he’s not. That’s the way he is killing the rest of the team.
Carragher: Fernandes Has ‘Awful Attitude’, But Carrick Must Go Now
Years ago, there was one of the legends of Manchester United: Bryan Robson, not only a great player but also a great teammate because he never said a word against the manager or the players.
What Robson exemplified is not even close to the behaviour of current captain Bruno Fernandes, as highlighted by Carragher, who expressed that throwing arms up in a game for complaining about the manager is the least thing one deserves. Carragher’s frustration was hardly ended with the mention of Carrick.
What is amusing is how many managers have been in the position Bruno Fernandes has been in. So is it that all these guys don’t have a unique style of play? Right now, do we know how many managers Bruno Fernandes has had at United? Five? The whole thing of manager changes is just ridiculous … Manchester United is not a healthy club.
I was saying not long ago, the issue is not the manager. It’s not the manager at all. It’s something about the club, isn’t it? Who has all the answers?
We make a mockery of it all the time. “They may have to change the manager or maybe a bit of this and some of the other.” Are we really any good for a team at a certain level to point them in the right direction? One needs to consider, but there is no doubt, that now is the time to change the manager. At this moment, we are at an impasse for a club at the magnitude of Manchester United.”
Carragher backs Carrick Over Fernandes Bust-Up: ‘He had to be brought off.’
‘But I’m happy that Michael Carrick spoke up and just said that about Bruno Fernandes, that he doesn’t run, because the team they are, the players in this Manchester United team, don’t run either.’
‘And it’s only fair that he did because, after all, they were his own colleagues whom he was criticising. Last season, Michael Carrick has been hailed neither as one of the greatest managers in European football nor as having his achievements been the reason for such claims. And yet, he came on board as a voluntary coach and was the one who helped to raise their performances. ‘
‘And that’s the reason that Manchester United ended up being in the Champions League – it’s because of Carrick; he got them into it. Also, due to that, they added another 100 or 150 million to their total. You couldn’t have guessed that they would have managed to get into this particular season of the Champions League, so they’ve put a big amount of money into it. ”And he’s the only one who can do it. He’s a player’s legend, very loyal to the club.’
‘But he’s very much against the fact that they are playing a different game against their usual one, as was evident by him getting annoyed at the idea of being asked to explain this change of strategy, but the fact that the team didn’t play in the way that they usually did against Como made it look like there was no connection between the two events.’
When interviewed at their home ground, Fernandes admitted that United’s performance was quite sluggish. He mentioned that it’s the coaching team who decides whether one of these two systems is used in the team and that the reason they are so quiet is that it gives the ball to a runner, and then they wait for others to come to them.’
Fernandes: United Must Be Braver After Another Early Goal Horror Show
When Fernandes was questioned if he implied that manager Carrick misplayed tactics, he replied, ‘That’s up to the manager and staff to comment on, not me.’
One has to be bold when under the spotlight, take a risk and launch the pressure that the opponent will be very comfortable with. From Como’s game, an experience that will serve us in the upcoming matches, the centre-back was covering the player’s half, where the attack was. However, it seems a bit strange that we didn’t have such a plan ourselves.
Certain clubs rely on playing through the centre in small moves, so allowing them too much time and space will allow them to exploit you in the wide areas, Fernanes explained. Nico Paz, who was a star player for Como, had been given the opportunity to score the first goal of the match and later another one. It was a very short time after last week’s goal against Atletico.
United were behind once again very soon, after only two minutes, following a strike from Pazz.
According to Fernandes, this time also wasn’t much different from others: ‘We had a wrong first start, and they got a first goal very early. We did not show our good side, did not have enough pressure, and our team did not look happy with passing the ball either. Conceding a very first goal is always tough; it is like you have no choice, you are forced into playing it safe, not even going looking for the ball and making something happen. It will certainly become an even harder situation if we cannot pull out of that.”
Carrick Hits Back After Fernandes Sub Row: ‘If You Don’t Run, You Won’t Win’
Fernandes was unexpected to be substituted by Carrick around the middle of the second half, and the United captain was so mad that he was shaking his head when he was walking back to the bench.
Carrick told the players that if they were able to run as hard as the opponent, that is not going to lead to victory. When Carrick was informed of Fernandes’ comments, the United manager pointedly replied that his players do not seem to run too much. “Indeed, in the second half we tried something half-press, man-to-man, but then we conceded another point from that,” he said. “It depends partly on the system the play as well as the tactics, but above all, one must run; one must run forward and back; otherwise, there is no victory.”
Mutually, United aims to get the win and finally get the winless streak over on Sunday afternoon at home against Bournemouth in the Premier League.
