Manchester United avoided another embarrassing Europa League slip-up thanks to a last-gasp winner from captain Bruno Fernandes to sink Rangers 2-1 this evening.
The Portuguese once again played out of his skin, and despite some frustrating moments giving the ball away he was constantly looking to be the catalyst to get his side moving forward and threatening the opposition box.
But despite an ultimately positive result, speaking to TNT Sports after the final whistle Fernandes was in reflective mood as he addressed United’s recent run of poor form.
“At this club you need to win every game, you need to win every game,” he said. “You know that if you don’t win games here it’s going to be difficult, there are going to be tough moments because this is a massive club which is used to winning games.
“I hope that our fans never get used to losing games, even in this toughest period I want them to feel that this team has to win every game.”
When asked if he was proud of the character the players showed to snatch a late win from the jaws of mediocrity, he laid down a clear marker for his expectations.
He said: “It’s not about proving the character [late on], we have to prove that in the 90 minutes. We can’t only bring that out when we concede a goal and have something against us, we need to be consistent through the 90 minutes.
“It doesn’t matter the result, we have to be always trying to find a way to win the game.”
Fernandes was also not shy of confronting the elephant in the room – the infuriating contrast between the team’s spirited performances against big clubs versus the turgid displays turned in against perceived lesser opponents.
He immediately referenced the context of tonight’s result, saying “obviously we know how much it means for the fans to win games, and it means the same for us, we really want to win games.”
He continued: “We are a little bit frustrated because at the moment, I think we started this year very well with two great games against Liverpool and Arsenal. Against Arsenal we didn’t play brilliant football but we won the game with one man less, we did well.
“Then Southampton, we had good resilience even though again we didn’t play brilliant football. I think at moments we controlled the game, but we could have done it better, and then we had the game against Brighton where unfortunately everything went wrong for us.
“But today it was important to get the win because we want to get through in the Europa League, we want to go to the final in Bilbao and we have to win every game. We want to be in the first eight so we avoid playing two more games.”
United ended up with maximum points tonight, but overall it was not a particularly positive display – Ruben Amorim will still be searching for a truly resounding performance when his side face Fulham on Sunday evening.
Featured image Shaun Botterill via Getty Images
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Joe Ponting
Joe has spent more than half his life writing about football and all of it following United. As a child he told a doctor his name was ‘Paul Scholes’, but could never pick a pass like him no matter how much he tried.
