The Portuguese playmaker was handed the captain’s armband for a crunch clash with arch-rivals after seeing Harry Maguire ruled out
Bruno Fernandes saw a “dream come true” in Manchester United’s 4-2 defeat to Liverpool, with the Portuguese midfielder captaining the Red Devils for the first time in a Premier League fixture.
With Harry Maguire ruled out through injury, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer passed the armband to a talismanic presence further up the field.
Fernandes was unable to inspire United to victory over their arch-rivals at Old Trafford but, having already led the side in a Champions League clash with Paris Saint-Germain earlier in the season, was delighted to take on added responsibility.
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What has been said?
Fernandes told MUTV on following in some iconic footsteps as United skipper: “I think everyone knows it’s the biggest honour to have the armband in the game for the club.
“I’m another one. I am proud of that. As I said, like after Paris, it’s a dream come true.”
What went wrong against Liverpool?
Solskjaer’s side got off to the perfect start in a rearranged fixture with old adversaries, with Fernandes seeing an early effort deflect off Nat Phillips on its way into the back of the net.
Liverpool, though, were to stage a stirring fightback and led 3-1 two minutes into the second half.
Marcus Rashford briefly offered the Red Devils hope, but Mohamed Salah ended the game as a contest with a breakaway goal in the final minute of the 90.
Fernandes admits that United have plenty to work on after being downed on home soil, with there obvious areas for them to address heading towards the 2021-22 campaign.
He said: “We played side to side, we tried to do what we trained at. When you go down, playing 45 minutes against a team like Liverpool, we tried to push a little bit more and create danger.
“We gave more space to them, and they took that space and we conceded another two goals. Everyone was disappointed in the dressing room because we made mistakes but we’ll learn from that and we have to keep improving. We are not at our best yet.”
Fernandes added: “We started well, we score, we created more chances after that.
“After we concede… We concede two goals from set-pieces and we know we have to work on that. We concede many goals this season from set-pieces.
“As I said, we are disappointed in the dressing room and we have to improve, we have to be better and we have to do it in the next game against Fulham to secure second place.”
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