Erik ten Hag launched a strong defence of Bruno Fernandes on Wednesday after the Manchester United captain was branded a “shame” for his attitude in last weekend’s humiliation against Liverpool.
Fernandes was accused of giving up and showing poor body language as Liverpool scored six times in the second half of their historic 7-0 victory at Anfield on Sunday.
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The Portugal midfielder appeared to push one of the assistant referees and clashed with Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold, leading some fans to call for him to be stripped of the captaincy.
Former United star Roy Keane called Fernandes a disgrace, but Ten Hag said the 28-year-old was the right man to lead the team and would remain skipper when club captain Harry Maguire does not play.
Hailing Fernandes as an “inspiration” forward of Thursday’s Europa League final 16 first leg in opposition to Real Betis at Old Trafford, Ten Hag instructed reporters: “I believe he’s taking part in a superb season.
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“He’s had a extremely necessary function in why we’re within the place the place we’re as a result of he’s giving power to the workforce.
“He’s pointing and training gamers. He’s an inspiration for the entire workforce however nobody is ideal. Everyone has his errors and everybody has to study.
“He will study as effectively as a result of he’s clever. I’m actually completely satisfied to have Bruno Fernandes in my workforce and I’m actually completely satisfied that Bruno Fernandes, if Harry shouldn’t be on the pitch, is our captain.”
United forward Marcus Rashford also backed Fernandes, insisting he was a role model for the rest of the team.
‘100 percent support’
“I love playing with Bruno, as you can imagine. He’s been a good leader for us even when he’s not been captain, which is always a good sign,” he mentioned.
“I don’t have something detrimental to say about Bruno. Like the supervisor mentioned, no one’s excellent.
“Sometimes you wish to win so dangerous you find yourself doing issues which might be slightly bit out of character however, hear, I 100 per cent help Bruno and am behind him.”
United’s shocking performance against Liverpool was especially surprising as Ten Hag’s team had only just won the League Cup seven days earlier, ending the club’s six-year trophy drought.
The Dutch coach held a debrief about the Anfield debacle with his squad on Monday, but he is keen to look forward rather than dwell on United’s heaviest defeat since 1931.
“We have to set conclusions and we talked about the game. We have seen the game, we have to reset and bounce back,” he mentioned.
Asked if the gamers had let him down, Ten Hag mentioned: “No, we’re in the identical boat. We win collectively, we misplaced collectively. We made a large number on Sunday and we have now to take care of it.
“We wish to be an enormous workforce, we wish to win trophies so then it’s important to act totally different. After Sunday we acquired an enormous lesson.”
Ten Hag had labelled United “unprofessional” within the quick aftermath of the Liverpool sport, however Rashford insisted his workforce had not thrown within the towel as Jurgen Klopp’s males piled on the targets.
“We didn’t quit, that’s nonsense,” Rashford said. “We were unorganised, yeah. Communication was bad, yeah, that’s why we conceded the goals.
“We were trying to get a grip of the game when it was 2-0 and 3-0. We were talking but I don’t think we were really in agreement of what to do.
“Like the boss said, it’s about resetting now. That’s all we can do. There’s no point dwelling on what happened because we can’t change it.
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