{"id":661512,"date":"2026-10-22T00:10:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T00:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/661512\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T00:10:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T00:10:09","slug":"bruno-fernandes-questions-michael-carricks-tactics-as-pressure-builds-on-manchester-united-manager-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/661512\/","title":{"rendered":"Bruno Fernandes questions Michael Carrick\u2019s tactics as pressure builds on Manchester United manager \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bruno Fernandes questioned manager Michael Carrick<\/a>\u2019s tactics after Manchester United were thrashed by Como on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

United\u2019s season sank to a new low as they were humbled 4-1 by the Italian side in the Champions League<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It has been a troubled start to the campaign for United, with just seven points collected from seven Premier League<\/a> games, defender Lisandro Martinez openly highlighting the club\u2019s shortcomings, and Carrick coming under pressure.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Como demolish dismal Manchester United to pile more pressure on Michael CarrickOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Fernandes, who was substituted after 67 minutes at the Stadio Giuseppe Sinigaglia, delivered a damning assessment after the game.<\/p>\n

The captain told TNT Sports: \u201cIt\u2019s a decision from the staff to not press man-to-man and sometimes leave a little bit of space in behind, and trying to get the ball in the first moment, to wait for them, to give them the ball.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes when you give too much of the ball to these teams, they get confidence. They have so many bodies behind the ball that make you run a lot, make people get frustrated, and then obviously when you recover the ball, the legs and the brain are much more difficult to make it work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked further about the tactics, he added: \u201cIt\u2019s on the manager and on the staff to say it, it is not on me.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just said that I think sometimes we have to be more brave under pressure, trying to take a risk of getting that press very high and making them uncomfortable, as they did to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fernandes felt United\u2019s attitude was wrong from the moment they conceded the first goal after two minutes.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cObviously it\u2019s not the first time and I think, again, we started on the wrong foot and they scored very early.<\/p>\n

\"ManchesterManchester United captain during the game. Photograph: Piero Cruciatti\/AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n

\u201cConceding the goal very early makes us feel, going into the game, already in a mood of a defeat, and it\u2019s very difficult to get out of that at the moment without being ourselves and trying to push and trying to be brave, trying to have the ball, trying to make something happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd if we\u2019re not able to do that, it\u2019s going to be very difficult to get out of this situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carrick held his hands up apologetically to the largely empty away end after the defeat.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst of all, I have to apologise to the supporters,\u201d he said after game.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor us to play in that way is not acceptable. It wasn\u2019t a good performance at all. We wanted to build on what we brought to Leeds and the performance that we had at Leeds. That bit of intensity, that spirit, that aggression, that real willingness to give everything, and tonight was the total opposite of [that] performance. It was tough to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carrick sidestepped a question about whether he would quit during a press conference that ended with him being asked if he feared he could lose his job.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve not given my own position any thought,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is the supporters (I am thinking about). I was one of them tonight watching that and I wasn\u2019t happy at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added of his side\u2019s effort: \u201cWe can all play well, we can all have poor performances, but to do it in that manner is really not right at all.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t just the goals, it was the manner and the way we played at times, in the way we went about it, was the difficult thing to watch for me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bruno Fernandes questioned manager Michael Carrick\u2019s tactics after Manchester United were thrashed by Como on Wednesday. United\u2019s season…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":661513,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[15013,42,917,47000,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-661512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-champions-league","tag-headlines","tag-manchester-united","tag-michael-carrick","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=661512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/661513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=661512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=661512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=661512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}