It was a derby day to forget for Manchester United, whose trip across town to Manchester City ended in defeat.
Ruben Amorim’s side lost 3-0 and rarely looked like posing a threat to their hosts. But when asked by Sky Sports if it was difficult to find positives from the match, United captain Bruno Fernandes replied “no, it’s not hard”.
Bruno looks for the bright side
Fernandes explained: “You have to look at what we did well and it’s not enough because you want to win football games.
“What we did today was not enough to get a result and that’s what we’ll take from this game. Obviously look at what we have to do better and look to the next game.”
The 31-year-old was then asked whether United are heading in the right direction, and answered philosophically. He said: “The result is very bad, very bad on us, but I think it’s two ways of looking at this game. The goals could have been avoided.
“On the ball we were very positive, very brave, we were playing the ball forward. When we created chances we could have been more clean.
“We wanted what City got and that’s the three points. City were smart to get the goals in the way they did, they have a very good team and good players.”
How United can improve
In the spirit of looking for positives, Fernandes laid out exactly what his side need to do bounce back from today’s loss.
“We need to score goals and not concede,” he said. “We keep creating chances but were not able to score as much as we wanted. We have to be more in control. We concede three goals we could have avoided.”
Fernandes was expected to start further forward than usual given the injuries to Matheus Cunha and Mason Mount, but he was once again in the heart of midfield, this time alongside Manuel Ugarte.
The United captain called for more risks and courage from his team-mates: “When we go, we have to take more risks and be more brave with the last line. When we pass to our centre-backs they go three against three and squeeze so much. The space is very narrow.”
Featured image Michael Regan 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.
