Having once been a signing who threatened to lead a Manchester United rejuvenation, Bruno Fernandes has come to symbolise the club’s deep-rooted problems.
To celebrate a season of chronic under-achievement and a whole litany of mediocre performances, what did Old Trafford executives do? Give one of this campaign’s many under-achievers a massive pay rise and an extended contract. The deal was announced on April 1 and the fools are in the stands.
Fernandes’ original deal did not expire until 2025 and his recent form hardly screamed out for a salary boost. It was - and is - a towering example of the muddled thinking that has mired United on and off the field for so long.
During the game at Anfield on Tuesday night, Fernandes was, apart from collecting a yellow card, predictably anonymous. But at least he had the backbone to face the media afterwards. Ok, it might have been to just mutter the standard apologies and platitudes but he was willing to front up and, to be fair, has been more often than not. But what United players must do now is front up to themselves.
There is, of course, plenty of stuff the new manager, presumably Erik ten Hag, can do. Plenty, obviously. But so much has to come from within the players themselves. And having witnessed, at close quarters, their four Premier League matches against Liverpool and Manchester City - in which a 15-1 deficit flattered United - it remains obvious that there is a fundamental problem.
Simply put, they do not look fit enough. And that has to be addressed, By the club but also by the players themselves. Ok, Liverpool have set new physical standards and to have an entire squad in such rude health at this stage of the season is freakish. Manchester City’s distance-covering statistics are impressive even if they are paying a serious injury penalty at the moment.
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But never mind stats, too many times this season, the evidence that United players are simply not up to the elite physical standards set by Liverpool and City is there in plain sight. Too many are blowing after an hour. Simple as that, and it is inexcusable. There are not many, if any, defences in world football who could have coped with the Liverpool attacks in that sort of form on Tuesday.
But Harry Maguire, Phil Jones and Victor Lindelof were still markedly off the pace. Marcus Rashford’s blistering pace seems to have somehow been reduced, Paul Pogba barely lasted ten minutes, Nemanja Matic has never been overly-agile and Fernandes himself looks short of staying power.
Of course, this group of players is not good enough, this manager is not good enough, the recruitment is not good enough, the structure of the club is not good enough, the list goes on. But, physically, they do not look well enough prepared to cope with the demands set by the likes of Liverpool and Manchester City. That is inexcusable. And until the players sort that out, perhaps fat new contracts should be put on hold.
