Bruno Fernandes dropped and left on bench by Carrick in latest Man United embarrassment

Under-pressure Manchester United manager Michael Carrick dropped Bruno Fernandes on Sunday in a statement selection with the team in a crisis — and didn’t even bring the captain on as a substitute in a heavy defeat.

Fernandes — the player of the year in English soccer last season — was named among the replacements for the embarrassing 3-0 home loss to Bournemouth, four days after appearing to criticize his manager following a 4-1 loss to Como in the Champions League.

Carrick responded at that time by saying “whatever tactics you play, if you don’t run, and you don’t run forward, and you don’t run back, you aren’t going to win.”

Then he dropped Fernandes from the team, with the Portugal star sent out to warm up at one point but never making it onto the field despite Carrick making four second-half substitutions.

Carrick said in a pre-match interview that it was a “pure football” decision to leave out Fernandes, who was named on the bench for a Premier League game for just the sixth time since joining United in January 2020, statistics company Opta said.

After the game, Carrick told the BBC about Fernandes: “He’s fit and available but we decided to pick the team that we did today. Unfortunately for everyone we didn’t manage to get the right result.”

United dropped to 16th place, has now failed to win any of its last eight games in all competitions and has won just one of its eight matches in the Premier League this season, leaving Carrick fighting for his job.

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