"I'm scathing of 'cowardly' Bruno!" - Football Weekly panel SLAM United | Football Weekly

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Football Weekly: Bruno's comments and Carrick's crisis after United's humiliation

The panel discusses Manchester United's demoralising defeat to Como, Bruno Fernandes publicly questioning the coaching staff's pressing plan, and Michael Carrick's future. They argue United's problems go far beyond the manager, with a lack of leadership and communication at the top, a squad that does not fit together, and fan apathy making another change feel like part of the same cycle; Bruno's comments give the hierarchy a pretext to sack Carrick.

Bruno Fernandes twisted the knife last night after Manchester United's humiliating night in Europe, seemingly taking aim at Michael Carrick's tactics. Max Rushden is joined by Paul Watson, Jonathan Liew and Archie Rhind-Tutt to discuss whether United are doomed to repeat this miserable cycle forevermore. Watch the full podcast episode ► https://youtu.be/rZvymeJRxOM Subscribe to Guardian Football ► https://www.youtube.com/@guardianfootball?subconfirmation=1 We want your feedback! If you had any thoughts on our coverage of the World Cup, please let us know here ► www.theguardian.com/YTWorldCupSurvey The Guardian publishes independent journalism, made possible by supporters. Contribute to The Guardian today ► https://support.theguardian.com/ Guardian Football Weekly: https://www.tiktok.com/@guardianfootballweekly https://www.instagram.com/guardianfootballweekly/ Website ► https://www.theguardian.com Facebook ► https://www.facebook.com/theguardian Bluesky ► https://bsky.app/profile/sport.theguardian.com Instagram ► https://www.instagram.com/guardiansport/ The Guardian on YouTube: The Guardian ► https://www.youtube.com/@theguardian Football Weekly podcast ► https://www.youtube.com/@footballweeklypodcast Guardian News ► https://www.youtube.com/@guardiannews Guardian Australia ► https://www.youtube.com/@guardianaustralia Guardian Sport ► https://www.youtube.com/@guardiansport

Transcript

Daggle says there's no light. There's not even an effing tunnel. Como four, Manchester United won. Manchester United now winless in seven. Just two wins this season against Sabbat and Ipswich. The three draws in that run of seven. Spurs, Fulham, and Leads. they could easy have lost all of those games. Um, look, the performance was bad. The comments afterwards, you know, inflamed even more. Bruno Fernandez in the postmatch said, "It's a decision from the staff to not press man-to-man and sometimes leave space behind and try and get the ball, but sometimes when you give space to these teams, they get confidence." Uh, he was asked if Carrick if that was on Carrick and his team. He said, "That's on the manager and the staff to see, not me." Even though I've just seen it. Sometimes you have to be more brave under pressure. take the risk of pressing high and making them uncomfortable. That was then put to Carrick in a really sort of ferial press conference when everyone is being so earnest if it's as if it's the end of the world. And he says, Carrick, there's a little bit of whatever system you play, whatever tactics you play, if you don't run and you don't run forward and you don't run back, then you aren't going to win. Um, Johnny, your take. >> If you didn't manage to get tickets for You Can See Everything, there's another sort of car crash documentary unfolding in front of you. Um, you know, I to what just to start with the the Bruno comments because I I think last week I was I was basically warmly in favor of of Landre Martinez for for his kind of brutal honesty on the [snorts] state of Manchester United in front of the TV cameras after the game. Uh, and and this week I'm going to be brutally scathing of Bruno Fernandez for fronting up in front of the TV cameras and and being honest about the state of Manchester United. I think um turning like turning your fire on the on the hierarchy is is brave and correct. I think turning your fire on on the manager is is cowardly and it's it's wrong. Um this this goes back to the whole game actually the first the start of the season. Bruno's been banging on about this for a while. Lack of pressure on the ball and that is a problem. Ko's gone after two minutes. Nikico Paz just doesn't um he gets too much space and Dunia Tun get you know Mazarawi doesn't get close enough to Paz has a great finish. So this is, you know, this is not something that is um that is a it's not a new problem and it it reared its head against against Atletico and it reared its head um here. But you know, Carrick is not a Carrick is not a high pressing coach. It never has been. He's a sort of he's a mid-block coach. He's sort of defend you defend the spaces um and and you try and stay compact and organized out of possession. That's that's what Carrick has always been. It's what got them into the the Champions League last season. And Bruno Fenders knows this, right? He's not, you know, he knows who he's been playing. >> It's not for him to see, Johnny. It's not for him to see. He said that >> for the for the last six months, but but it does it does feel a little bit like um it does feel a little bit like a a rebellion um against against a coach who probably doesn't suit the the way that Fernandez wants to play. They had 49% possession under Carrick last season. They are one they're sort of mid-table for for things like pressing. And one of the one of the reasons ironically that that Carrick can't play a high press even if he wanted to is you have guys like like Bruno who who will charge straight at the ball without checking whether anyone's going with him. So one of the reasons he can't play high press is that is that Bruno can't really be trusted to carry it carry it out. And that's and if you look at the the third goal which I think Carrick referred to that comes from some players pressing some players not pressing on the pitch. But it it feels a little bit like that's what exactly what would happen if you've got a coach saying do this and you've got a captain going no get stuck in lads and some of them are doing it and some of them aren't. So I'd like it feels a little bit it feels a little bit like a kind of sabotage by by Bruno. >> It's interesting you say that like the I think the fourth goal Meguire is sort of pressing and goes sort of walk and no one really covers him and then you know Ramon is in acres of space. You're right about the first Kuna is sort of just lets Paz walk past him and Magguire's not close to him and Ko played some lovely stuff and we'll get to that. I guess Archie, it does feel like Carrick is just done now and and at the same time it feels like there's no point in second Carrick because we'll just be here as Benedict says we'll see you in a year when Eddie How's in the same position. We're just doing the same over and over and over again. Yeah. Look, the the hot potatoy of responsibility in where it extends itself not just on the pitch but off the pitch with these interviews that we've seen in the last week. And I I do think it's worth pointing out that both Landro Martinez and Bruno Fernandez's contracts are up at the end of the season. So, this feels very much like them going, "Well, if I can't say what I think now, then when am I going to say it?" Ju just watching them last night, it seems like just if I if like they were acting at, okay, how can I make it look like I'm trying, but at the same time, I don't want to do anything wrong, but it it just felt so confused. And you're right, it looks like Michael Carrick will go and and then we'll go around in the same circle. Now, I know that there are lots of people who enjoy Manchester United going up in flames. I kind of can hear them cheering in the background. Um, but you it it's difficult to see any other outcome for Michael Carrick when they just look so bad and even when they do get the ball, you can almost hear the players thinking, "Okay, now what?" So if if you're that bad in and out of possession, then yeah, uh it it feels like there are going to be consequences which we know are not really of Michael Carrick's making when this team just does not fit together. >> No, no, I agree. I mean that's the thing, Paul, isn't it? You can have a lot of sympathy for Carrick when he's got Harry Magguire and Dict playing so deep like they're they're defending so like so you can't like you can't press even you want to cuz those spaces are so big you know and he has the problems that Martinez articulated quite well about you know who they've invested in who they haven't invested in and yet they are still bad right like he's still not doing a great job either no and I think it's fair to say that you couldn't have picked a game that was more designed to unseat Carrick than this one right in so many ways in that I think people are still underest underestimating Ko like massively. Um I think people still don't quite get how good a job CES Fabricas is doing there. But in the way that Ko have played over, you know, quite a while now, they have this fearless ability to set about opposition. If opposition don't have a good plan, if opposition don't really know what they're doing, they will tear you to shreds. And you couldn't really have picked a more embarrassing way for Carrick's kind of evening to go. But I think there's also this thing that if they had lost like this to Milan to AC Milan, it would be there would be a little bit less embarrassment, right? Even though this Komo side is every bit as good as Milan right now, it looks a lot worse because you're next to a beautiful lake in a 12,000 capacity stadium with a team that were in Syria D decade ago. It's all a bit more embarrassing. But this Ko team, you you basically couldn't have set up a team more equipped to rip Man United to shreds. And what I did think was interesting is a few weeks ago um a team did stop Ko and they did it very very well. Uh this is Finone. They they really just outthought Fabregas. And there was for the first time a bit of kind of murmuring about you know does Fabregas have a plan B because he he he famously says basically he goes out and he plays the same way everywhere every time he he plays. So a lot of people are saying well is this is this a sign people are starting to catch on to how to beat Fabregas. It's quite clear Carrick didn't watch that frozen game because yeah, they there was no plan here. There was literally no plan. And I have to say a contender for the least consolation consolation goal of all time, that Xerxy goal. [laughter] Even the way he scored it, not just a celebration, obviously the lack of celebration, the way he scored it was like me hoofing the ball into the net of Fiverside when we're already 110 down. It was [laughter] amazing, wasn't it? I thought it I presumed it had been disallowed just for the sheer lack of anyone caring. I mean the question Johnny is on on sort of what like what should Manchester United do and I don't know I don't know who I mean and actually I don't know who I mean by Manchester United there like the owners are Glazers are bad Jim Rakov is bad and Wilcox seem bad Carrick seems bad the players seem bad like this is bad from there to there so I don't know how this how how could they poss possibly go about picking a manager who could turn it around or sacking themsel or the owners sacking the you know the middle management bit the technical director bit like what what could you possibly do? >> Yeah. I mean the irony is that that everyone like I like you say everyone at every level is bad and yet there's still not enough leadership or direction there. So it's like that um Woody Allen joke there such you know these executives are so bad and and there's so few of them there's not enough of them. Um, but I I do think there's um there's an absence of uh of leadership and and and if you if you read the Eric Tenhog interview uh in in in the New York Times this week, he he exposes this quite well that uh they they talk about wanting to define the style of play and then there's just nothing. There's no communication about style of play. Uh there's no communication when it comes to there's no communication with the coach when it comes to transfers for example. or they just sell Scott McTominay under his nose without telling him and after having promised that they're not going to sell Scott McTominay. So that that that feels like the sort of dysfunction that that that um that goes right right to the top. It goes, you know, Will Cox is clearly, you know, useless. Um Bara, you know, throw your throw your medals and titles in the bin. Uh Jim Radcliffe is a corpse, a kind of right a right-wing reanimated corpse. Um, and also like he's not, you know, if you're Jim Radcliffe or you're you're the Glazers, are you waking up in the morning and thinking Manchester United? Probably not. You're thinking, oh, you know, what's my petetro, you know, what's the price of of Esters this morning or, you know, how are the, you know, how are the Miami theme parks doing? This is why I think a lot of United fans are, you know, there is there's going to be some confected anger and I'm like Roy Keane will say something on the overlap this week and it'll get clipped up and it'll be on the back page of the Daily Express. But I think for a lot of United fans I know it's just like there's so much apathy out there. It's like ah this again. And I don't I don't know as a club how you get yourself out of that that spiral like failure. You could deal with failure. Clubs could deal with failure but it's the apathy. is people just not caring about the product anymore. Is it objectively interesting to anyone whether Michael Carrick is the United coach or not this time next week? I think a lot of people will pretend that it is. But I'm not actually I'm not sure it is until you get proper change from from the very top. This is going to be a rotten product. If it is a rotten product, Archie, then either the owners don't care, but presumably they would prefer a manager who won lots of games than who didn't. Right. and Carrick did well last season when you know his one job was to get them in the Champions League and he did that. I don't know if they if they did and obviously you just pick the opposite of what you've got. But if they bought in some kind of dictator and actually said screw the setup, it's a bit like Fergie, you have the reigns. This whole thing is rotten. But like the reigns are yours. This is how much money you've got to spend. You know, you buy who you want. It's all on you. might actually be the only way you can solve something that's rotten in so many different places. Does that make any sense? >> It does. It it sounds like the same things that we've said before each appointment as well. But if if you just gave it to Tenhog, if you just gave it to Amarim and and we keep trying to find someone who does have that strength of personality and it's still [snorts] it's still not there because there was just such this hu this this massive vacuum that was created when Sir Alex Ferguson left. And I think this is their worst league start since be just before they hired Sir Alex Ferguson as well. And finding a way out of it, the problems are so so big. Like when when your dressing room culture is is that bad when when the the people in charge are are also just trying to Yeah. go in their own direction and people aren't working together, you don't have any chance as a club. Now, I think you see a lot across European football how being a slightly smaller club and not having the history is an advantage if you've got good funds behind you because you can make quicker decision- making without upsetting people in a quieter environment and you can take pretty significant steps um in a in a quicker time frame. Whereas with Manchester United, even if say say they are making a decision which may prove to be correct like we every decision is as as Johnny's alluded to kind of uh overlapped to the nth degree that that by the time it's taken then there's seeds of doubt which are planted every time. So it's going to take somebody who just does not care what is being said on the outside and who is going to have to be bold enough to go through that fire. But can they? >> I don't know. >> True. >> Yeah. I mean, I suppose it is worth saying, you know, while they're being over overlapped all the time, they're being football weekly quite a lot at the same time. Like [laughter] we, you know, and and I suppose the other thing is Paul, you sort of see hear people go sort of a throwaway comment like like all these players are bad, right? Or Bruno Fernandez the only good player in this squad. And I and I've got to the stage where I just don't know anymore. I don't know if Diego Dallot was suddenly playing, you know, fullback for I I I don't know, Chelsea, he'd be fine. Or if, you know, if you know, Tielemans was good last year at Villa and he's not good now. Like if Cesco was playing up top for Liverpool, I don't know. Like, are they all a five-year contract, by the way, and he's 29. >> I just I just needed to say that because I saw it and it jumped out. Sorry. >> No, no, fair. Um, you know, you can you can add to this if you want, Paul. Like like I just don't know. I'm sort of caught in this. Maybe they are all sort of average players. I don't know the I don't think they're Yeah, I don't think it's the greatest most stellar bunch of players. I think I think that's that's kind of not really up for debate even. But I don't think there's a vast gulf between what Ko have got in terms of talent and what Manchester United have got in talent. It was almost again a really good game for showing the difference between the two clubs, their mentalities, their coaches, their trajectories that I don't think that KOMO side that ripped them to shreds is packed full of incredible talented players. They are they've got some real good players in there. I think Nikico Paz is brilliant for example, but >> excellent as well. Yeah. >> Yeah. Like they're a very talented team in part, but it's more they just a team that that feel like they can do things under this manager. They've got a good plan. And they know again a philosophy. You ask what Fabregas's philosophy is, it's very clear. You can see it on the field like this is how he plays his football. Carrick, it's almost impossible to really describe. It's almost a philosophy as there is no philosophy and that that radiates out from everything at Man United. In the same way that Archie, it's a really that was a really good comment there. Like it's true that in a way Ko have got it easier because they're a small club. They can make changes very quickly. There isn't a huge amount of of kind of nasty like tangled mesh to pull out before you make any change at Kog. And they are actually the richest club in Italy. So let's not pretend they're some kind of like little Cinderella story. And in many ways they are. Yeah. They are the richest club in in in Italy. They've got um billionaire owners, but they don't have all this trappings that Manchester United have that every time they try and make a change possible. And as you're saying, if you if you're going to bring in this big dictator coach, is he going to put up with Manchester? Like I I genuinely saw I don't know if it's a joke but someone saying Antonio Conte Contress conference that Conte will do is just extraord you know just think what's he going to say >> he he'll resign during his unveiling like he'll literally his press conference will be like he'll be like yeah love it's a pleasure to be here but it's a disgrace the way I've been treated and I'm out the door like [laughter] no chance. >> How do you see it playing out Johnny? Like what do you think will happen? think Conte I mean okay I think ironically Carrick would be a really good guy to bring in right now uh if if Carrick weren't already the guy sort of steering them off the cliff uh maybe maybe the the future is just you know Carrick Solar Carrick Solar >> the DNA loop yeah okay >> yeah summer winter I interesting I I think Conte wants definitely wants the job he Conte has been doing interviews I think he did a big interview in maybe it was the Telegraph or something or maybe it was maybe it was the Athletic where he talked about I would like to I would like to take on a a fallen giant team, a big a big club that has maybe fallen on hard times that that that but has a lot of potential. I would like that kind of project and I would like to work in England again. I love working in England. Well, okay. There's not there's not that many um not that many candidates there. Um I don't I don't think you're you're looking to take on West Ham for for example. Um so that that that's an interesting one. I just think that um changing the coach uh mid-season leaves them in exactly the same position they were 12 months ago and it kind of worked out for them 12 months ago. Uh because you you you hire a short-term guy and he straps the electrodes on uh and and sort of you know cleans the slate and you you mix your metaphors and you end up in the Champions League. Uh I I you know it's not entirely out of the realms of possibility that they just keep doing that in perpetuity. Uh, I just don't think it I don't think it solves anything. What Bruno's comments have given the hierarchy is a permission structure, an excuse. I think uh a pretext for for bidding off Carrick. >> Yeah. Although, you know, Bruno threw Carrick under the bus. And when Carrick got under the bus, he could see Jason Wilcox under the bus saying, "Oh, here you [laughter] are. You're under the bus. You're under the bus, too." Uh, anyway, um, an impossible question to answer. a bit like, you know, you can imagine a tile regards the philosophy of of, you know, Carrick's philosophy, you know, just saying the greatest philosophy is no philosophy at all. I can imagine somebody on the internet saying tha