Bruno Fernandes Will Remain Manchester United Captain

Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag has confirmed that Bruno Fernandes will remain as team captain this season.

In the wake of United’s embarrassing 7-0 defeat to Liverpool at Anfield last weekend there had been calls by some figures in the game to strip the Portuguese player of the United captaincy for his seemingly petulant behaviour.

However, Ten Hag dismissed this view and offered Fernandes his full support when asked if he would continue as his captain. “Yes, definitely,” he replied.

“I think he is having a brilliant season,” Ten Hag added. “He is a really important reason why we are in the position where we are because he is giving energy to the team.”

“He is not only running a lot and in the highest intensity, but also in the right way, in the right direction and he is pointing and coaching players.”

“He is an inspiration for the whole team but no one is perfect. Everyone has his mistakes and everyone has to learn. I have to learn and he will learn as well because he is intelligent.”

“I am really happy to have Bruno Fernandes in my team and I am really happy that Bruno Fernandes if Harry [Maguire] is not on the pitch is our captain.”

It was only ten days ago that Fernandes captained United to their first major trophy in six years with their victory over Newcastle in the Carabao Cup final at Wembley.

Meanwhile, United remain in the Premier League top four and are still in the Europa League and the FA Cup competitions.

But United’s defeat to Liverpool, which was the biggest in the history of the fixture, and the biggest since 1895, has shaken the club this week, and sparked some reflection by Ten Hag into what went so wrong.

“We have to set conclusions and that is what we did,” he said. “We talked about the loss and we have seen and set the right conclusions. We have to reset and bounce back.”

Ten Hag banished any talk that he was let down by his players at Anfield last Sunday. “No, we are in the same boat and we did it in togetherness,” he said. “So we win together, we lose together, so all we made a mess on Sunday and we have to deal with that.”

“I think the players, they reflected well. We know when you go in the season, the setbacks will always be there. And this was a huge setback. But when you have a run of 23 games with one loss, and that was the second, but, of course, the way there were a lot of lessons in it that can help us for the future.”

“That is what we have, so that is the positive out of it. The negative is that we were really below average, especially mentally. We have to take the lessons. We want to be a big team, we want to bring trophies, so then you have to act different and I think, after Sunday, we got a big lesson, we take that, but now we have to move on and we have to look forward. So that is the way we treated it, and now all the energy, all the focus, has to be on the next game.”

This next game is against Real Betis this Thursday in the first leg of their round of sixteen Europa League tie at Old Trafford, and Ten Hag has confirmed that Anthony Martial and Marcel Sabitzer will be unavailable for it.