Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes suggested that manager Michael Carrick got his tactics wrong after a 4-1 loss to Como on Wednesday, Oct. 21.
The Portugal international said United needed to be "braver" in its pressing. When asked if the team wasn't set up to succeed, he replied: “That’s on the manager and the staff to see. It’s not on me."
It was the seventh straight winless match for United, which has just two victories in all competitions this season.
United fell behind just two minutes into the Champions League match in Italy and eventually slumped to another loss, increasing the pressure on Carrick.
Carrick parlayed a successful run as interim coach last season into the full-time job this past summer. But the former United midfielder
has seen speculation around his position swirl recently, and his status won't be helped by his team's captain questioning his approach.
“It’s not the first time we started on the wrong foot, they scored very early. Not much pressure on the ball, not really many good movements without the ball, not many things going our way," Fernandes told TNT Sports after the game.
“Conceding the goal very early makes us go into game with a mood of defeat, it’s very difficult to get out of that at the moment without being ourselves and trying to be brave, trying to have the ball trying to make something happen. If we are not able to do that, it is going to be very difficult to get out of this situation."
Asked about United's lack of cohesion, the Portugal international replied: “It’s a decision from the staff not to press man-to-man and sometimes leave a little bit of space in behind, trying to get the ball in the first moment or wait for them to give us the ball.
"But sometimes, when you give too much of the ball to these teams, they get confidence. They have so many bodies behind the ball that they make you run a lot, make people get frustrated, and then obviously, when you recover the ball, the legs and the brain make it much more difficult to make it work.”
Asked if United got its tactics wrong, Fernandes said: “That’s on the manager and the staff to see. It’s not on me. I just said that I think sometimes we have to be braver with the pressure, trying to take the risk of pressing very high and making them uncomfortable, as they did to us.
"As you saw, their center back was coming to mark me all the way into my own half. I think sometimes we had to do that as a team, and we weren’t really able to do it."
It was the second straight week in which a United player gave an eye-opening interview following a Champions League defeat.
Last week, defender Lisandro Martinez made explosive remarks criticizing the club's hierarchy following a 2-0 defeat to Atlético Madrid.
The Argentine defender said he felt the club hadn't done enough to improve the squad in the summer.
"I expect more (investment), 100 percent," he told Prime Video. "I expect more from our technical director (Jason Wilcox). I have to be honest, as players we have to do more, but it is also important when you make a strong squad to be ready for this kind of night."
Martinez later added to CBS Sports: "We have many games and we have to rotate players and for me we don’t have the best squad at the moment compared with other top teams. But also as a club I expect more. I’m not going to close my mouth. We need more ambition."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Manchester United captain questions coach's tactics after blowout loss
