Fernandes dropped from Man Utd team for crucial Bournemouth game

· Sky-PL

Bruno Fernandes has been dropped from the Manchester United team for their Premier League game at home to Bournemouth.

Bruno Fernandes has been dropped from the Manchester United team for their Premier League game at home to Bournemouth.

The captain was named on the bench after he criticised Michael Carrick's tactics following Wednesday's 4-1 thrashing at Como in the Champions League on Wednesday.

Sky Sports News reported on Thursday that Sunday's game against the Cherries - which is live on Sky Sports - could be pivotal for Carrick, who is under heavy pressure amid United's dreadful start to the season.

But Carrick's side will now be without their captain, who told TNT Sports after the loss to Como: "It's a decision from the staff to not press man-to-man and sometimes leave a little space in behind and try to get the ball in the first moment, to wait for them, to give them the ball.

> "But sometimes when you give too much the ball to these teams they get confident, they have so many bodies behind the ball that make you run a lot, make people get frustrated, and then obviously when you recover the ball the legs are, and the brain, much more difficult to make it work."

Asked if the tactics were to blame for the defeat, Fernandes replied: "That's on the manager and on the staff to see it, it's not on me.

> "I just said, I think sometimes we have to be more brave on the pressure, trying to take a risk of getting that press very high and making them uncomfortable - as they did to us."

Sky Sports News reported on Thursday Fernandes would not be stripped of the captaincy for his comments.

But at his pre-match press conference on Friday - which he unusually began with an emotional monologue - Carrick refused to rule out disciplinary measures being taken against Fernandes.

> "The most important thing for me is the team and the dynamics in the squad. It is about the football club. Whatever the situation is, I will always do what is best for the football club," he said.

> "If I've spoken to him or haven't... this isn't the time to go into details."

Fernandes was the second United player to publicly criticise the club this month after Lisandro Martinez's comments following the Champions League defeat at Atletico Madrid.

Martinez said: "I expect more from our technical director [director of football, Jason Wilcox]. We expect more from the top, from upstairs, to bring in more players to compete."

Martinez was not dropped for United's following game, playing 45 minutes of the 1-1 draw at Leeds.

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