The Albany Gazette - Carragher says Fernandes benching was intended as public punishment

Jamie Carragher believes Michael Carrick never intended to use Bruno Fernandes against Bournemouth and left the Manchester United captain on the bench as punishment.

The Manchester United captain watched on at Old Trafford as Carrick’s team were beaten 3-0 by the Cherries and the manager did not call upon the Portugal star.

The Red Devils have won just one of their eight Premier League matches so far and sit 16th in the table, having also lost their last two Champions League matches.

It is very rare for Fernandes to be left out of the starting XI, but the Portuguese spoke out against his manager and coaching staff after the 4-1 defeat to Como in midweek.

Carrick insisted before the game that he only dropped Fernandes to the bench for footballing reasons, but Carragher felt it was a form of punishment for the player as the manager did not bring him on and never intended to.

‘I don’t think he was ever going to bring him on,’ Carragher said on Sky Sports. ‘I think it was a deliberate decision just to leave him on the bench and almost try to embarrass him a little bit in front of the supporters…I don’t know.

‘I don’t think Michael Carrick ever had an intention of bringing him on at all. That sub was never going to happen.’

Asked about why he made the substitutions he did sending on Joshua Zirkzee, Matheus Cunha, Shea Lacey and Lisandro Martinez but not Fernandes – Carrick said: ‘There’s always times in games when you’re trying to make decisions to change the course of play, trying to make a difference at times. Those were the decisions we made.’

Carrick added: ‘He’s fit and available but we decided to pick the team we did. Unfortunately for everyone, we didn’t manage to get the right result. There’s always times when you’re trying to make decisions that make a difference.’

Carragher expects Carrick to be out of a job in the very near future and feels the manager will want to move on.

‘It’s become untenable,’ said Carragher. ‘Carrick wants to be changed. He doesn’t want to be sat in the dugout with those players.

‘Can you imagine going into the training ground tomorrow with Bruno Fernandes after not bringing him on? It’s a rancid dressing room.

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‘He wants to be put out of his misery tonight.’

United legend Gary Neville said on commentary: ‘It is going to get ridiculously difficult for Michael Carrick to be Manchester United manager moving forward. That’s the problem the club have got.It is horrible to say that.

‘I did think that last season that the club should have gone for the best manager they could have got and not given the job to Michael Carrick. Because I felt this might happen, not this quickly but this has gone very, very sour very quickly and the club is a mess.’

Carrick said of his own future: ‘It’s a tough situation. What is next? I don’t know. I’ll always do what’s best for this football club. I don’t change that now. I love what I do. I love the responsibility. But we’ll have to wait and see.’

(P.Davis--TAG)