Bruno Fernandes says Carrick was right to drop him after criticism
Bruno Fernandes said Michael Carrick was right to drop him last month as he reflected on Manchester United’s comeback win over Roma at Old Trafford on 3 November 2026. Fernandes converted a twice-taken penalty as United recovered from 2-0 down before Matheus Cunha scored twice to secure the victory.
Fernandes had been omitted after the previous Champions League fixture, a 4-1 defeat at Como, following a post-match interview in which he criticised the manager’s tactics, and he was an unused substitute against Bournemouth in the subsequent game. He accepted the demotion, saying: “The manager took a decision of making myself on the bench because I wasn’t performing. And that’s fair.” He added: “Everyone felt like that was a punishment for the words that I had [after Como]. And if it was, it was right.”
Asked about his standing at the club, Fernandes insisted he respected club decision-making and remained focused on winning: “The manager makes the decisions. I have to accept it. I have to go forward with that. It doesn’t change the belief I have in the manager, the staff and every player at this club. And it doesn’t change my aim to win every game that I have ahead of me.” He also dismissed the idea of rescuing an individual, saying: “We don’t need to save anyone’s job. The club needed that win. The players needed that win. It is something we needed as a group of players and staff. We have been working so hard to get out of this situation together.”
The victory was United’s first in 10 matches and came amid a raucous atmosphere at Old Trafford that was pockmarked by protests against the club’s ownership. The result prevented United from completing what would have been their longest winless run in a single season since March 1978.
Carrick praised the matchday environment and the team’s second-half response, saying: “I don’t like to keep talking to the lads about what this place can do in history and what’s gone before them too much, but it’s there. This place does magical things, it’s done it before and it’ll do it over and over again at some point in the future. There’s just something in this place that when we do have these types of night, we do it the hard way.”
Carrick singled out 19-year-old substitute Shea Lacey for praise after Lacey set up Cunha’s winner on his 10th senior appearance. “We love him to bits,” Carrick said. “He’s a great young man, he’s desperate to do well, he’s got great ability. He’s got that little glint in his eye, he plays with a bit of mischief if you like.”
The win, fuelled by Fernandes’s penalty and Cunha’s double, could yet save the embattled Carrick’s job as United seek to arrest a damaging run of results.