Wayne Rooney lambasted Manchester United‘s players in the wake of explosive comments made by Lisandro Martinez and Bruno Fernandes, describing the group as ‘selfish’ and ‘like babies’ amid a dismal run of form.
Team captain Fernandes openly questioned Michael Carrick‘s tactics after a woeful 4-1 defeat to Como on Wednesday evening, one week after Martinez criticised the board’s transfer strategy after a first limp showing on the road in Europe against Atletico Madrid.
Man United legend Rooney admitted that the moment he heard Martinez’s comments, he knew it was an ‘absolute nightmare’ scenario, destined to ‘rip the dressing room apart’.
‘That was the start,’ Rooney explained on the United Stand podcast. ‘We’ve seen it now with Bruno and you’re going to see it with more players because they don’t want to take responsibility.
‘You can say whether Bruno was right or wrong in what he said but you have to take responsibility on the pitch. You have to take responsibility as a group of players.
‘These players, they’re selfish. They don’t care about their team-mates, don’t care about the manager, the staff or the fans, they care about themselves. If they’re not getting what’s right for them, they’re like babies and just throw their toys out of the pram and go and deflect the blame on to anyone else but themselves.’
Wayne Rooney described Man United’s players as ‘selfish’ and ‘like babies’ in the wake of their 4-1 defeat to Como
Bruno Fernandes appeared to hit out at his manager Michael Carrick’s tactics after the loss
Rooney added that he believed that Fernandes had made his comments because of his unwillingness to ‘face’ a personal drop-off in his form this season, instead opting to put ‘pressure on someone else’.
‘If he looks at himself in the mirror, if Martinez and all of them looked at themselves in the mirror, they’ll find what’s looking back at them is them, and that’s not good enough,’ he continued. ‘They need to show more.’
Fernandes had shrugged off questions of Man United’s passivity and instead directed it towards his manager in the aftermath of defeat beside Lake Como on Wednesday.
‘It’s a decision from the staff to not press man to man and sometimes leave space behind and try to get the ball, wait for them, but sometimes when you give space to these teams they get confidence,’ he said.
Asked if he meant that Carrick got his tactics wrong, Fernandes added: ‘That’s on the manager and staff to say, not me.
‘Sometimes you have to be more brave under pressure, take the risk of pressing high and making them uncomfortable. As you saw with Como, the centre back was coming to mark me in my own half. We need to do that as a team but we were unable to.’
When his comments were put to Carrick in his post-match press conference, the former midfielder suggested that there was an issue with his players’ willingness to run.
‘We actually were half-pressed man-to-man in the second half and then conceded a goal from that,’ he said. ‘There’s a little bit on whatever system you play, whatever tactics you play, but if you don’t run – you don’t run forward and you don’t run back – you aren’t going to win.’
On their performance more widely, the former United midfielder said: ‘It was more than disappointing. I think everyone has to take responsibility for that.
‘I’ll 100 per cent take responsibility for the overall team and performance; that stops with me and I accept that. But as a supporter of this club for so long and I care so much about this club, to see a performance like that is unacceptable.’
Man United were outplayed on a dreadful rainswept Champions League night on Wednesday
His team-mate Youri Tielemans admitted that the squad had been lacking effort in every area, and outplayed by Como.
‘It’s a combination of everything: tactical, technical, effort. We need to try do better at everything,’ he said after the match.
‘It’s the same message as we’ve had the last few weeks. We can be here and talk about it, but we have to show it on the pitch. We can only apologise to the fans who travelled, the fans who watched us from home and support us. They’re disappointed and we’re disappointed.
‘The only thing we can do is try to show something on the pitch, which we haven’t done over the last few weeks.’
Man United have three days before facing their next opponents Bournemouth in Premier League action this weekend and Rooney implored his former team-mate to ‘come out fighting’ amid widespread speculation that his days in the dugout might be numbered.
Giving his own advice, he told Carrick he should show players ‘there’s no more Mr Nice Guy’.
‘There are certain things you’ve got to do to protect them players, but you have to come out fighting for yourself because those players will drag you down and it’s going to be you who’s going to lose your job over it,’ he stressed.
Man United’s civil war is not limited to the dressing room: Daily Mail Sport reported on Thursday that there are growing tensions between director of football Jason Wilcox and director of recruitment Christopher Vivell over the next manager of the club – should Carrick be replaced.
Vivell is understood to be pushing hard for Julian Nagelsmann to be the leading candidate, with the 39-year-old out of work following a disastrous World Cup in charge of Germany.
Chelsea assessed Nagelsmann as a potential manager when Vivell was technical director in west London and his admiration remains.
But sources have suggested that Wilcox, who is Vivell’s boss in the chain of command, prefers a Premier League proven manager, with Eddie Howe, Fabian Hurzeler, Unai Emery and Antonio Conte, who have all come up on a shortlist, a tick in that category.
Hurzeler does not have a release clause in his Brighton contract and so would require enormous compensation. There is well-placed scepticism as to whether any move would even be remotely possible, regardless of how well liked he is inside Old Trafford.
Carrick is set to be in charge at least until after Man United’s pre-Premier League weekend press conference, which is set to take place on Friday.
After facing the Cherries at Old Trafford on Sunday, Man United will also play host to Roma at the beginning of next month, after a test away at Chelsea.
A final home match against Aston Villa will come before the next two-week international break in November.
