Who was to blame for Manchester United’s miserable 4-1 defeat in Como in the Champions League?
Bruno Fernandes criticized the tactical plan of Man Utd coaches.
Michael Carrick questioned the motivation of his players.
If only Man Utd’s performance on the pitch in Italy was as strong as the post-match interviews.
After losing to Atletico Madrid last time out in the Champions League, Lisandro Martinez hit the club’s hierarchycalling out technical director Jason Wilcox for failings in the transfer window.
This time captain Fernandes targeted the club’s coaching staff in a scathing reversal of their pressing plan.
Asked by TNT Sports for the lack of cohesion in United’s work out of possession, Fernandes defended his teammates and blamed Carrick and his coaches.
“It’s a decision by the staff not to press man-to-man and sometimes leave a little bit of space behind and try to get the ball at the first moment, wait for them, give them the ball,” he said.
“But sometimes when you give these teams the ball a lot, they get confident, they have so many bodies behind the ball that they make you run a lot, they get people frustrated, and then obviously when you get the ball back, the legs and the brain are a lot harder to make it work.”
Was this tactical idea what cost Man Utd in Como? “That’s the responsibility of the manager and the staff to see that, it’s not up to me,” Fernandes said.
“I just said, I think sometimes we have to be more brave about the pressure, trying to risk raising that pressure too high and making them uncomfortable – like they did with us.”
A meeting between Carrick, Martinez and Wilcox repaired relations following the centre-back’s comments in Madrid. But Carrick gave a blunt reply in his post-match press conference on Wednesday when Fernandes’ thoughts were directed at him.
“We did half a man-to-man pressure in the second half and ended up conceding a goal from him,” he said. “Whatever tactics you play, if you don’t run back, you won’t win.”
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Paul Merson criticized Manchester United after they were beaten 4-1 in the Champions League by Como.
Carrick ‘Angry’: You can’t choose when to give your absolute all
Carrick is usually measured in front of the media, but he made his feelings clear as the club’s winless run stretched to seven games with the defeat. “I’m really angry,” he said. “For us to play in that way is not acceptable.”
For all that United did wrong in the game, it was the application of its players that stood out in his post-match assessment.
“I’m definitely going to look at what we’ve done (as a coaching staff) or whether it’s the motivation, the goal, the goal and the intensity of a football game that you have to bring,” he said. “We didn’t bring it today.
“You can’t turn it on and off and you can’t choose when you want to perform or when you don’t want to perform or when you give absolutely everything or when maybe you don’t,” he said. TNT Sports.
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Carrick, who apologized after the match for supporting United on the trip, later added in his press conference: “It wasn’t just the goals. It was the way we did it that was the hard thing to watch. It’s not about me now. Results can come and go but you have to do it a certain way. That wasn’t it.”
There are now two defeats in three Champions League games this season. Fernandes, Carrick and United will have to show solutions to their problems at home to Bournemouth on Sunday, live on Sky Sportsif their winless streak ends in the Premier League this weekend.