Should Michael Carrick drop captain Bruno Fernandes for Bournemouth at Old Trafford?
Manchester United head coach Michael Carrick must decide whether to omit captain Bruno Fernandes for Sunday's Premier League game against Bournemouth at Old Trafford after Fernandes' post-match remarks following United's 4-1 Champions League defeat by Como intensified debate.
Fernandes has scored 111 goals in 338 appearances for Manchester United and was substituted by Joshua Zirkzee after 67 minutes in the Como defeat; Carrick apologised to the club's 700 travelling supporters after that result. The decision over Fernandes' place has drawn attention because he remains club captain despite Lisandro Martínez being fined for comments made eight days earlier after a 2-0 loss to Atletico Madrid.
Former Everton and Rangers striker Duncan Ferguson told The Overlap podcast: "It is a big problem for Michael. Put people in the team you trust. Your captain has thrown you under the bus. If you don't think he is playing for you, get him out. I wouldn't pick him even though he is their best player." Joe Smith, host of Stretford Paddock, said: "I don't think Fernandes should play on the weekend," and: "I don't think (Lisandro) Martínez should've played against Leeds, because otherwise they're running the ship here." Supporters returning from Como expressed predominantly negative views about the club.
Wayne Rooney, on the United Stand podcast, said: "When Martinez came out, I said this is an absolute nightmare because it will rip the dressing room apart. That was the start. We've seen it now with Bruno and you're going to see it with more players because they don't want to take responsibility. "I was in that situation [as manager at Plymouth and Birmingham City] and if I was in Carrick's position now, I'd come out fighting. There's no more Mr Nice Guy."
Many observers were surprised Fernandes was not disciplined for his post-match outburst after the 4-1 defeat in Como and that he remained skipper. "It was an assassination," one source who has worked with Fernandes previously told BBC Sport of Wednesday's comments. "It was unprofessional. Michael's team are killing him." The contention centres on Fernandes criticising Carrick's tactics in Como and saying it was on the coaching team on the sidelines to spot the problem and change it, not the players; his comments were made on TNT Sports and, according to the article, were not off the cuff or uttered in the same emotional state as Martínez's remarks.
There is also reported sympathy for Fernandes within the club because, the piece states, the 32-year-old conducted 10 post-match interviews after the Como defeat and his words when spoken were less inflammatory than they appear in written form. The article describes Fernandes as one of the most knowledgeable members of Carrick's squad on tactics and says he is desperate to succeed.
United are without Benjamin Sesko, Kobbie Mainoo and Marcus Rashford through injury, and the article questions whether Carrick can afford to drop Fernandes given those absences. It adds that Fernandes' link-up with Youri Tielemans "has not flourished as imagined" and that his only goal contributions since have been a hat-trick and an assist in the 5-2 win over Ipswich in August and a strike against Azerbaijan champions Sabah FK on 10 September; he was last season's PFA player of the year.
United's hierarchy, the article says, are keen to move away from a cycle of dismissing managers, noting Ruben Amorim was sacked last season and Erik ten Hag the season before. Carrick faces a run of seven games without a win that the piece says he must end and warns that a defeat would equal the poor sequence under Louis van Gaal in 2015-16, which itself was the worst since a Ferguson-led side had eight draws and a defeat during the 1988-89 season; "Carrick has to make the call. He needs to get it right."
Carrick is due to speak at a news conference to preview the Bournemouth game at 1330 BST and, the article says, he will be asked whether Bruno Fernandes is going to be dropped.
