Following United’s 3-0 loss to Manchester City, the captain went on media responsibilities.
When asked about his team’s tactical formation during their 3-0 loss to Manchester City, Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes responded categorically.
After Erling Haaland scored a brace and Phil Foden scored an early header, City easily won at the Etihad Stadium.
Luke Shaw’s misdirected pass allowed Haaland to run the length of United’s half uncontested for his second goal, while Foden was left unmarked in the box for City’s first.
Manuel Ugarte’s backward pass was too short for Matthijs de Ligt, forcing the center-back to stretch but ultimately letting the ball escape, and the Norwegian had missed the first goal.
Going forward, Fernandes had minimal impact on the match as the midfielder once again played alongside Ugarte in a more defensive capacity.
The outcome puts additional pressure on manager Ruben Amorim, who has been in charge of United since December of last year and has failed to win back-to-back Premier League games.
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Fernandes offered himself for media duties following a significant game loss, as he always does, and was subjected to some challenging questions regarding United’s system and his teammates’ performances.
“That’s all we have to learn from this game,” he told Patrick Davison of Sky Sports. “What we did today was not enough to get the result.”
“The most important thing in football is to score goals and not give up. We keep creating scoring opportunities, but we can’t score as many as we’d like to, so I believe we need to exercise more control in some circumstances. We handed up three goals that we could have prevented.”
“No, because we play with a back five, or sometimes with a four or a three, whatever you want to call it,” Fernandes said in response to Davison’s question on if he felt City was attempting to “overwhelm” United’s midfield partnership.
“When under pressure, we need people to be extremely aggressive. If we don’t have the jumping moments, the midfielders will be under pressure.
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“If you look at City, they had Foden, Bernardo entering, Tiji [Reijnders], and Rodri. They essentially play a four-man midfield against a two. As Luke [Shaw] was doing a great job on Tiji, you need the people behind you to jump. They didn’t play since we did it in the first game against Arsenal. They were unable to locate areas for play.
Because of this, it is extremely difficult to play on the front foot against a team that is very aggressive. They will look for areas to play since we are up against a very good opponent if you lack the will to do that.
“I believe there are two ways to look at the game, but the outcome is terrible and it’s terrible for us. Although we could have prevented the goals, we played the ball forward with great bravery and positivity.
“We could have been a little cleaner when we built our opportunities. That doesn’t yield anything for you. We desired the three points that City obtained.
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