Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes revealed that he is concerned about the lack of confidence amongst the players following today’s dispiriting home defeat to Brighton and Hove Albion.
United lost 3-1 and rarely looked threatening against Fabian Hürzeler’s well-drilled Brighton side, who took the lead after just five minutes at Old Trafford.
Speaking to Manchester United club media after the game, Fernandes said “I think we started very bad, then we came back to the game.” The Portuguese levelled from the spot within 20 minutes of the Seagulls’ opener, during United’s best spell of play, and he added that “in the first half I think we were the better team.”
He noted that United lacked “decision-making” and “consistent play” in the final third, and that retaining possession and trying to “be brave on the ball” is “something that we have to improve.”
But where fans hoped for a revitalised United to emerge in the second half, Ruben Amorim’s men instead looked lacklustre, and it was no surprise that they went behind again.
Fernandes said that “we could have stayed in the game even when we conceded for 2-1”, but identified “a lack of belief in that moment that we could change the game.”
He continued that “when we conceded for 3-1, everything was much more difficult but we still had time to come back to the game, we still had time to do something different.”
Where a late United surge saw an Amad Diallo hat-trick secure three points against Southampton on Thursday, there was no such spark this time around.
And the club captain revealed that confidence is low in the team, who as a result are underachieving – after all, this set of players beat Manchester City and Arsenal, and came close to turning a draw into a victory against Liverpool.
Fernandes said: “For me, the thing that worries me the most is the lack of confidence that we have at the moment to do the things that we are able to do.
“I don’t mind anyone losing the ball for trying something to help the team. We need to get the best out of the players and we need the players to trust themselves.”
The fixtures continue to come thick and fast for the Red Devils, who will be torn between being desperate to get back out there and make things right, and retreating to the training ground to gather their thoughts.
Thursday’s Europa League clash against Rangers is an ideal opportunity for Amorim to rotate his squad, and Sunday’s trip to Fulham is exactly the sort of game United must be winning to avoid slipping further down the table.
Featured image Gareth Copley 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.
