It doesn’t take a football expert to figure out that all is not well at Manchester United, just one look at the league table is enough to “decode” that!
As is always the case at a failing club, which Man Utd indisputably are at this point, there can be a toxic culture of blaming, cliques forming, and much more.
These add to an already prevalent air of counterproductive measures that serve to add to the mess, not wipe it away.
There’s more need than ever during such times of a leading figure to rally around and a respected Man Utd voice, Andy Mitten has named that figure at Old Trafford after speaking to people inside the club.
Andy Mitten’s fierce defence of Man Utd star
Amid a wretched season from all angles, it is understandable that not many players in the Man Utd squad will emerge from it with their reputation intact, let alone raised.
Amad, and probably Manuel Ugarte are the two consensus names, but even in those two, Ugarte is a new arrival who had no history to fall back on.
The third is increasingly clear too, with captain Bruno Fernandes turning up again when the team needs him the most, even if Roy Keane disagrees strongly!
Andy Mitten has now launched a fierce defence of the Man Utd captain, stressing his influence in trying to knit together a “complicated” dressing room that has seen so much upheaval without much success.
Mitten said: “When Bruno was given the captaincy I spoke to a lot of people inside the club. They said this is the right decision, because they know more than I do, ’cause they’re working with him every day.
“And got a pretty emphatic ‘Yes’. He’s the one who shows leadership. He’s the one who tries to knit together a complicated dressing room, where there have been cliques, where there have been different nationalities, different linguistic skills.
“Where, when everything doesn’t go to plan, there can be a blame culture. And it was put to me that Bruno tries. Tries. ’cause it isn’t easy. And it hasn’t been easy. And it’s still not easy either.”
Bruno Fernandes is indispensable
Despite criticisms over his body language at times, it is an unquestionable fact that this United team is a shell of its already-shallow self without Fernandes.
He’s the rare player who passes both the eye test and the statistical benchmarks, with his contribution often decisive.
More than that, it is his intangible ability to always run his socks off for the team, come up with the good when everyone’s struggling or taking initiative, which separates him from the rest of the squad.
Somebody like Roy Keane might quip in his signature manner that “That’s his job!” but the reality is that if everyone did their job like Bruno Fernandes, there would be no criticism of Fernandes either because the team would be flying in every competition under any head coach.
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