Man Utd told to sack Fernandes as captain due to five moments

Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag has been encouraged to strip Bruno Fernandes of the club vice-captaincy after his poor performance for the Red Devils during the 7-0 thumping by Liverpool on Sunday. The Portugal international engaged in a number of theatrics during the encounter, including pushing the linesman and asking to be subbed, with BBC pundit Chris Sutton calling on him to receive harsh punishments as a result.

United were humiliated at Anfield in one of the most surprising results of the Premier League season as Liverpool ran riot and hit them for seven. Cody Gakpo, Mo Salah and Darwin Nunez each scored twice before Roberto Firmino added the final gloss to the scoreline with the seventh.

Few players came in for as much criticism after the game as Fernandes. The 28-year-old captained United in the absence of Harry Maguire, as he has done on multiple occasions this season, but his display of leadership left a lot to be desired.

Sutton was one of the biggest critics of his display and now believes he should be stripped of the armband for five unprofessional moments at Anfield.

In his column for the Daily Mail, Sutton wrote: “Bruno Fernandes shoved the referee’s assistant. He acted as if his nose had exploded when caught in the chest by Ibrahima Konate. He dived to try to win a penalty from Alisson. He refused to track Stefan Bajcetic when beaten. He waved his arms in the air when Erik ten Hag did not substitute him.

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“This was shameful, embarrassing, disgraceful, whatever word you can conjure up. It is bad enough you are getting obliterated at Liverpool, but then you see the guy wearing the armband having a go at Ten Hag for not substituting him. Is he really the leader that everybody else is supposed to follow?

“Whatever you think of Harry Maguire, the club captain, you would not catch him behaving like this on the pitch. Ten Hag dealt with the Cristiano Ronaldo problem.

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“Now he needs to deal with Fernandes, starting with deciding whether he deserves to wear the armband in Thursday’s Europa League clash with Real Betis. I don’t think he does. Liverpool were fantastic and United were foul, and nobody embodied their deplorable display more than Fernandes.”

Sutton was not the only person to call out Fernandes after the match, with Gary Neville describing him as ‘unprofessional’ on Sky Sports, although he was also one of the players to front up to the cameras after the defeat.

It remains to be seen how Ten Hag will deal with Fernandes going forwards but stripping him of the vice-captaincy is unlikely to be unpopular with the United fanbase after his display at Anfield.