Manchester United’s league campaign got its latest blow, perhaps the strongest one, in their 0-3 home defeat to Tottenham.
The performance was arguably one of the worst under Erik ten Hag, but Bruno Fernandes’ red card didn’t make it any easier.
Spurs, playing with a one-man advantage, found it easy to slice through Manchester United, while limiting the opposition’s chances as well.
It led to pretty much a footballing lesson being taught to Ten Hag’s side as the supporters started leaving Old Trafford en masse before the full-time whistle.
Fernandes’ red card understandably got the majority of headlines after the game, with the player coming out himself to speak on it.
Gary Lineker and Micah Richards, meanwhile, have made a similar point on that decision, one that should have been clear to see for the referee.
Pundits on Bruno Fernandes’ red
Fernandes was hardly having a great game leading up to his dismissal and the sense of frustration was clear on his face.
The Portuguese is liable to moments of madness when things are going against him but generally, those moments are limited to wayward passing or ill-advised shooting.
In fact, this was the first time Fernandes got sent off at Old Trafford in his United career now reaching five years.
That points to a reputation dissonance in the minds of referees, who have clearly marked Fernandes out as someone who “plays dirty”.
Fernandes’ tackle on Maddison, while clearly a foul or even a yellow, had multiple mitigating factors that made it in no shape, way, or form, a sending-off.
Micah Richards and Gary Lineker made the same point on the Rest is Football podcast as they both noticed one thing about the tackle that should have spared Fernandes.
Richards said: ” I thought it was a yellow card. He tried to stop the play, didn’t he, and slipped. You know, on the first angle, it looked really bad, you know, the sort of the pace and it looked like he got him high above the knee area, but when you saw the replay, he got him on his shin pad, so I think a yellow card was the right decision on that one. He shouldn’t have been sent off.”
The argument of Fernandes clearly slipping while going for the tackle, giving it the perception of someone lunging wildly was shared by Lineker too.
He said: “I thought that. I thought that as well. I thought it was one that a yellow probably would have sufficed. He slipped a bit and stuck his leg out, but he wasn’t reckless or particularly dangerous, I don’t think.”
Bruno Fernandes is now set to miss multiple games for United after a straight red just as the fixture list was beginning to get daunting.
Enforced but needed break
Nobody would have wanted Fernandes to miss three games on the trot, and it is not a certainty that he will appear in the midweek European games, but this gives the player a much-needed break.
His form has arguably been going through the worst path since joining United and for once, it is clear that the same is affecting him.
The free-creating, hard-shooting, audacious attacking midfielder has been replaced by a shell of his former shelf.
He still keeps trying things, and working hard is in his genes, but when that doesn’t come off, and yet he still keeps doing it, Fernandes’ game is prone to looking ugly and mismanaged.
That is precisely the stage where his recent rut had reached so perhaps the three-game absence from the league will do him some good.
Ten Hag was never going to rest him anyway so this break, while enforced, was much-needed for the Portuguese “Magnifico”.
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