Carragher says United players 'don't like playing' with Fernandes after captain is benched

Bruno Fernandes has been dropped to the bench for Manchester United’s Premier League match against Bournemouth at Old Trafford on Sunday, with manager Michael Carrick citing football reasons for the decision — a move that came days after the Portuguese captain publicly questioned Carrick’s tactics.

Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher argued the axing could have an unexpected upside for the squad, suggesting that Fernandes’s on-pitch behaviour has long grated on his teammates. “There’s no doubt about it, even though he’s their best player, there will be a lot of people who don’t actually like playing with Fernandes,” Carragher said. “He’s always throwing his arms up at people, he’s basically saying ‘you lot aren’t good enough to play with me’. We see that a lot from Fernandes.”

Carragher acknowledged the risk in leaving out United’s most influential player — last season’s PFA Player of the Year — but backed Carrick’s decision to make a stand. “You don’t want it to blow up in your face, he is Manchester United’s best player, we can’t get away from that,” he said. “But Carrick had to make a stand. You’re hoping that this brings us together as a group.”

Fernandes, who joined from Sporting Lisbon in January 2020, has started from the bench on just four previous occasions for the club. His omission comes in a turbulent week for United in which Gary Neville described the dressing room as having “completely gone” after both Fernandes and Lisandro Martinez made pointed public comments about the club’s hierarchy and direction.

Neville said ahead of the Bournemouth fixture: “The two most prominent players in the team — a World Cup winner and the PFA Player of the Year — coming out and hammering the owners, hammering the sporting director and criticising the manager, all in the space of a week means the players have completely gone.”

Martinez, despite his own public criticism of the Old Trafford hierarchy last weekend, retained his starting place for the defeat at Leeds. Fernandes, however, has paid a more immediate price for his comments.

United will line up with a front three of Amad, Mason Mount and Bryan Mbeumo against Bournemouth, with Fernandes joined on the bench by Matheus Cunha and Joshua Zirkzee.