Fernandes concedes Carrick was right to drop him after United's 3-2 comeback over Roma

Bruno Fernandes admitted Michael Carrick was right to drop him after Manchester United came from 2-0 down to beat Roma 3-2, ending a run of 10 matches without a win. The United captain scored the opening goal with a twice-taken penalty as his side completed a remarkable turnaround.

The backdrop to Fernandes’s post-match interview was a simmering dispute that had played out publicly over recent weeks. After United’s 4-1 Champions League defeat to Como, Fernandes criticised Carrick’s tactical approach in a post-match interview, specifically pointing to the team’s lack of pressing. Carrick responded by leaving the Portuguese captain as an unused substitute for the following match, a 3-0 loss to Bournemouth.

Fernandes addressed the fallout directly after the Roma win. “The manager took a decision of making myself be on the bench because I wasn’t performing, and that’s fair,” he said. “Everyone felt that was a punishment for the words that I had said. And if it was, it was right. The manager is the one that makes the decisions. I have to accept them. I have to go forward with that.”

He added: “It doesn’t change the belief I have on the manager and on the staff and every player that is in this club, and it doesn’t change my aim to win every f***ing game that I have ahead of me.”

Fernandes and Carrick held talks in the aftermath of the Bournemouth defeat, and the skipper was restored to the starting lineup for Saturday’s match against Chelsea. But Fernandes pushed back against suggestions the Roma result had been shaped by media speculation surrounding the pair’s relationship. “It’s been a lot of lies around many things that have happened in this club between me and the manager, like that we had cleared the air then after when nothing of that happened,” he said.

Carrick has been under mounting pressure after United collected just seven points from their Premier League campaign and lost three consecutive matches across all competitions before the Roma game. Fernandes was careful to frame the win in collective rather than individual terms. “We don’t need to save anyone’s job. But it was important — he needed that win tonight. The club needed that win, the players needed that win. It’s something that we needed as a group of players together with the staff.”

United’s victory over Roma represents their first in 10 matches and offers a measure of relief, though the scale of the challenge facing Carrick in the Premier League remains significant.