Rooney brands Fernandes 'selfish' for deflecting blame onto Carrick after Champions League loss

Wayne Rooney has launched a sharp public attack on Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes, accusing him of deflecting blame onto head coach Michael Carrick rather than holding himself accountable for the club’s poor form.

Speaking on The United Stand, Rooney drew a direct line from Lisandro Martinez’s post-match criticism of United’s coaching staff following their defeat to Atletico Madrid to Fernandes’s subsequent public comments about tactics in the Champions League loss to Como. For Rooney, both incidents point to the same underlying problem.

“When Martinez came out, I said this is an absolute nightmare because it will rip the dressing room apart; that was the start,” Rooney said. “We’ve seen it now with Bruno, and you’re going to see it with more players because they don’t want to take responsibility.”

Rooney was unsparing in his assessment of the squad as a whole. “These players, they’re selfish. They don’t care about their team-mates, the manager, the staff, or the fans. They care about themselves. If they’re not getting what’s right for them, they’re like babies and just throw their toys out of the pram and go and deflect the blame onto anyone else but themselves.”

On Fernandes specifically, Rooney added: “He is putting pressure on someone else because he doesn’t want to face it. If he looks at himself in the mirror, if Martinez and all of them looked at themselves in the mirror, they’ll find what’s looking back at them is them, and that’s not good enough; they need to show more.”

The row was sparked when Fernandes publicly questioned United’s tactical setup after the Como defeat, telling reporters: “It’s a decision from the staff not to press man-to-man and sometimes leave space behind and try to get the ball, wait for them, but sometimes when you give space to these teams they get confidence.” He added pointedly: “That’s on the manager and staff to see, not me.”

Carrick hit back directly, noting that United did shift to a more aggressive press in the second half — and conceded from it. “There’s a little bit on whatever system you play, whatever tactics you play, if you don’t run, and you don’t run forward, and you don’t run back, you ain’t going to win,” he said.

Rooney’s intervention adds significant public weight to the growing sense of discord at Old Trafford, with the former United and England captain warning that more players are likely to speak out if the culture of deflection is not addressed.