Bruno Fernandes was crap at Anfield. That’s absolutely fair comment. A lot of what has been said in the aftermath of a humbling, soul-destroying humping at the hand of Manchester United’s arch-rivals is not.
Fernandes was the captain of the ship that sunk without a trace in just over 45 minutes on Sunday. His team-mates were equally as wretched – actually, in many cases, they were worse – but as the skipper of Erik ten Hag’s crew, Fernandes is copping considerably more flak than anyone else.
As Harry Maguire has discovered, that’s part of the territory that comes with wearing the armband when United have one of their moments. The elastic on the bicep, as well as his style of leadership, puts Fernandes firmly in the firing line when the Red Devils surrender as they did on Sunday.
But that does not warrant the pile-on that commenced well before Liverpool completed their rout.
Gary Neville remains one of the ring-leaders. Neville – seething, stewing next to Jamie Carragher as the ex-Liverpool defender’s cackling intensified with each goal at the Kop end – took aim on multiple occasions at Fernandes. Only some of it was justified: “You give the ball away at Anfield, you try to get it back. You don’t flap your arms around. I’ve had enough of him whinging. He whinges at everybody. He’s got to put a captain’s performance in there, and that wasn’t a captain’s performance.”
Roy Keane echoed Neville’s thoughts and, of course, the pair were renowned for not whinging at team-mates and maintaining an even temper when they captained United. That’s right, isn’t it?
Perhaps Neville would have preferred Fernandes to have chosen violence. The current skipper tried but, typically for United, he missed when Stefan Bajcetic skipped past him down the right flank late on. Last season, when Hannibal Mejbri came off the bench at 4-0 down and set about making his mark on his opponents’ ankles, Neville was all for it. In fact, he was “proud of him”.
“Maybe he doesn’t like the idea of Liverpool passing around him,” suggested Neville. “I wish the others were the same.” One suspects Fernandes’ frustrations ran along similar lines. Remember, though: Kicking people – fine. ‘Flapping’ arms around and ‘whining’ – not cool.
Neville zeroed in on Fernandes while many of this team-mates sleepwalked through the…
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