Fernandes gamble leaves Carrick to carry the can for United’s institutional failures | Will Unwin

Leaving out his captain was doomed to fail but so are the club under the current leadership and the fans at Old Trafford know that all too well

Dropping your captain, who has held the team together for most of the past five years, is a bold move from a man whose job is on the line. It was very much a make-or-break decision from Michael Carrick to leave out Bruno Fernandes against Bournemouth. It did not work and Carrick knew the consequences if it failed and will probably pay the price for it, but he should not be alone.

Carrick said the decision to drop the Portuguese playmaker was purely based on football reasons but criticising his manager after the desperate defeat to Como cannot have helped. Clearly Carrick disagreed with his captain’s comments on the lack of pressing in the Champions League fixture. It was somewhat telling that Lisandro Martínez kept his place despite pointing out the director of football, Jason Wilcox, was a hindrance to the club the previous week.

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