Ex-Liverpool star drops damning verdict on how Bruno Fernandes captains Man Utd

Former Liverpool striker, Emile Heskey, has delivered a damning verdict on Bruno Fernandes and specifically the way he captains Manchester United.

Fernandes hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons last week when publicly calling out the tactics deployed by Michael Carrick in the 4-1 thumping in Como.

Many in the media have insisted the Man Utd skipper should have voiced those grievances in-house, and not aired his dirty laundry in public at a time when his manager was and still is under intense pressure and scrutiny.

And according to former Liverpool and England frontman, Emile Heskey, Fernandes and the captain’s armband are a match made in hell.

Speaking to BestBettingSites, Heskey declared: “I’m not overly sure Bruno Fernandes is a captain in the traditional sense; he’s probably a vice-captain.

“You need a captain who you can rely on, someone you can go to with any problems, like John Terry, Steve Walsh, or Gary McAllister. Proper captains.

“Rio Ferdinand or John Terry would back you up, but they’d also put you on notice that you need to be working.

“They’re the first ones to do things right, rather than just getting on your back and throwing their arms all over the place.

“In my opinion, Bruno needs to concentrate more on his football rather than being the captain.”

Bruno Fernandes took the easy way out post-Como – Emile Heskey

Heskey was then quizzed on whether he believed Fernandes’ outburst post-Como was justified.

He responded; “As a player, you can cop out sometimes. Looking back to when I was playing, the game changes and you’ve got to change with it.

“You look at what the match needs, it might need a bit of pressure, and you’ve got to figure that out on the pitch.

“You can’t just keep looking over at your manager saying, “Oh, he said don’t do this.” You might have to challenge your manager and say, “We can’t do this, we’ve got to go and press.” You’re on the pitch and you have to take ownership, especially as a captain.

“If I’m a forward and the ball keeps coming back, my centre-back, someone like Matt Elliott or Steve Walsh, would be screaming at me to get hold of the [expletive] ball because we’re struggling.

“He’d be screaming at me to get into the corners, press them down, and not give them time on the ball, and we’d all adjust to that.

“It’s too easy, especially at the top end, to keep blaming the manager. On the pitch, the 11 players can change stuff because what the manager sees from the sideline is totally different from the reality on the pitch.”

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