Ian Wright slams Man Utd star for 'lashing out' at Arsenal and Liverpool players

Ian Wright has slammed Bruno Fernandes for ‘lashing out’ at Arsenal and Liverpool’s players and says the Manchester United midfielder was ‘lucky’ not to get sent off in their recent defeats.

Fernandes, who signed a new contract at Old Trafford earlier in the month, cut a frustrated figure in United’s 4-0 defeat at Anfield last week and 3-2 loss at the Emirates on Saturday.

United were left chasing shadows in their first defeat as Premier League title contenders Liverpool showed their class with an emphatic win.

Towards the end of the humbling loss, Fernandes let his frustration get the better of him and committed a blatant foul on Trent Alexander-Arnold, perhaps fortunately only picking up a yellow card.

Fernandes had more of an impact against Arsenal but missed a crucial penalty which would have levelled the match and later – with the game all but gone – received a booking for a nasty challenge on Nuno Tavares.

Speaking on the Ringer FC podcast, Wright said: ‘Seeing Bruno Fernandes just lashing out at people, lashing out at Trent really wildly, and then the challenge on Nuno, you look at it and you think to yourself, “that’s not what Manchester United need from you my friend”.

‘Manchester United need a lot more than you going around trying to top people. He was lucky not to get sent off. But this is what it’s come to.’

Fernandes made a superb start to his Manchester United career following a big-money move from Sporting Lisbon in January 2020, scoring eight goals and making seven assists in his first 14 Premier League games.

The Portugal international continued to impressed last season with 30 goal involvements in 37 league appearances, but he has found success harder to come by this term, with just nine goals.

Last week, Premier League legend Graeme Souness claimed Fernandes was too ‘petulant’ to be a top player, telling The Times: ‘Ten Hag is walking into an absolute disaster.

‘On the pitch, it has been a car crash of a club in the decade since [Sir Alex Ferguson] left. That’s down to consistently terrible football decisions. Whoever made them has not been a football person.

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a webbrowser thatsupports HTML5video

‘Not one big-name signing since Fergie left has been an unqualified success. Bruno Fernandes comes closest, but he’s had one good season and one indifferent one.

‘To be a top player he has to cut out the petulance he shows towards his team-mates.’

Rio Ferdinand, meanwhile, views Fernandes as the one Manchester United signing who has improved at Old Trafford in the last decade.

‘I just feel that, when you look at it, Man United – you can talk about training grounds and all that stuff – but please, you’ve got to get the football stuff right,’ said Ferdinand on his Vibe with FIVE YouTube show.

‘You’ve got to get the culture at the football club right, you’ve got to get the players that you recruit right.

‘And if you look at the players that have been coming to this football club for the last eight or 10 years, if you were going to do a list of all of them on paper, how many of these players have come to this football club and actually grown in value or got better?’

When it was suggested that only one signing – Fernandes – had increased their reputation, Ferdinand continued: ‘I would 100 per cent agree with that.

‘I don’t know any others that have come and you actually go, “Oh he’s actually miles better! We’ll get more money for him now!” There’s none.

‘And that goes down to coaching, that goes down to recruitment, and so those areas need to be improved drastically for us to be able to improve.’

For more stories like this, check our sport page.

Follow Metro Sport for the latest news onFacebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Source: Read Full Article