Wayne Rooney hit out at Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes during the Red Devils’ remarkable comeback win vs AS Roma.
Man Utd headed into Tuesday’s match against Roma on a dire nine-game winless run, but they returned to winning ways against the Serie A giants with a stunning 3-2 victory.
It was a real game of two halves as Roma raced into a 2-0 lead in the first half and could have had a bigger lead.
However, Man Utd responded well after half-time, having scored three goals in 28 minutes to turn the game around and win 3-2 at Old Trafford.
Still, Rooney was critical of Fernandes for his role in Roma’s opening goal.
“Yeah, there’s been a lot of those lately but yeah, it did,” Rooney said on Amazon Prime when asked at half-time whether Man Utd had hit a “new low”.
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“You’re in the Champions League and with all the talk and criticism the team have got, you were expecting some sort of reaction. There was nothing, absolutely nothing.
“Roma took the ball and were more aggressive, no one on the United team put a tackle in. They were really struggling down the left-hand side.
“You just want to see something, some sort of fight and passion and desire to win the football game but there was nothing.
“For the first goal, if you’re playing in a system, when Dalot goes higher, Bruno should go into that position. He has to run back, you’re the captain of the football club, run back and take responsibility.
“You’re a team and you need to play as a team. If a teammate is out of position, even if you don’t want to be there or run back, you have to run back.
“I feel so sorry for the fans because they don’t know what to do. They’ve not been in this position for years, they don’t know whether to get behind the team or to get on their backs. I feel so sorry for them.
“The team have just run out of ideas. There’s no confidence or belief, the team is shot to bits.”
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“We have seen that passion and fight on the pitch…”
Rooney had kinder words for Fernandes after the match because there was a “complete opposite” performance in the two halves.
“The second-half was amazing, they were front-footed and they deserved to win the game in the end,” Rooney said post-match.
“The first half was terrible but we saw the passion and fight we wanted in the second half. The crowd got right behind the team and you felt like they could go on to win the game.”
On Fernandes, he added: “Bruno Fernandes has shown a bit of passion in defending himself on what he thought was right, but more importantly we have seen that passion and fight on the pitch because the first half was terrible. The first half had none of what we saw in the second half.
“No passion, no tackling, no getting to the ball, no aggression, and the complete opposite of the second half.
“And when that happens in the second half, you see the crowd get behind the team and you felt like they were going to win the game.”
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