Manchester United legend Gary Neville has slammed Bruno Fernandes for attempting to con supporters during their home defeat against Manchester City.
A double from Erling Haaland and a goal from Phil Foden were enough to hand Erik ten Hag his fifth defeat in 10 Premier League games this season.
Late into the game, Fernandes started recklessly charging about and diving into challenges, seemingly frustrated by the result and his own performance.
Fernandes tried to put in a heavy tackle on John Stones, who easily bypassed the Portuguese midfielder before proceeding forward.
After the incident, Neville said, “He’s trying to do someone there, Fernandes. He’s trying to do John Stones but he’s seen him coming and he’s ended up hurting himself. He’s conning no one with what he’s been trying to do over the past few minutes.”
Neville also took issue with Fernandes’ complaints to referee Paul Tierney, who dished out a yellow card to Antony for a lunging challenge on Jeremy Doku. Neville added on this, “There’s the couple of whinges that I promised you.”
The former defender also ripped into Antony for clashing with Doku, just minutes after being brought on as a substitute by Ten Hag in a desperate effort to make a difference.
He remarked on Antony, “Doku is absolutely right, Antony just has a kick at him. United have lost their discipline, it starts with the captain. It’s absolutely ridiculous, I would just send him off. It’s embarrassing.”
Neville spoke on Sky Sports and questioned United’s “strange” transfer strategy and specifically their recruitment of midfielders.
Ten Hag started a midfield trio of Sofyan Amrabat, Christian Eriksen and Scott McTominay in the number 10 position.
Amrabat’s substitution at the interval saw Mason Mount come in. McTominay was pushed back to the pivot, with Eriksen as the deepest-lying midfielder.
Mount barely had a kick and his introduction was ultimately a futile endeavour. City still managed to easily power through United in the middle of the park.
This prompted Neville to explain, “You just sort of wonder how they have been recruited. Eriksen, Fernandes and Mount are all No.10s. There is three of them.”
“Casemiro and Amrabat are the ones who sit a little bit deeper. McTominay, to be fair, was supposed to be leaving, he [Ten Hag] wanted him out, and he is probably now United’s best midfield player in terms of performances in these last few weeks. It is all a little bit strange.”
United face Newcastle next in the Carabao Cup at Old Trafford.