Fernandes: Man Utd should not focus on other teams

Manchester United midfielder Bruno Fernandes is not worrying about the form of other teams, instead calling on the squad to take responsibility for their disappointments.

United’s four-match winning streak in the Premier League came to an end with a 6-3 defeat to Manchester City on Sunday – the fourth loss in all competitions for Erik ten Hag’s side this season.

That left United nine points behind early pacesetters Arsenal in the league, albeit with a game in hand, and eight points behind their cross-city rivals.

Attention now switches to the Europa League, where United face Omonia Nicosia on Thursday, and Fernandes believes the focus should be on their games – while suggesting in recent years there has been too much comparison with other sides.

“The responsibility is playing for this massive club and everyone has to feel that responsibility, it doesn’t matter who has the armband on the pitch,” he said.

Switching our attention to Thursday’s #UEL tie.#MUFC pic.twitter.com/jFjZICDZEE

— Manchester United (@ManUtd) October 4, 2022

“There is still a long way to go but we know what we want to achieve. We know what the manager wants from us as a team, but we’ve got to get back to good results and we have a chance to do that straight away tomorrow.

“We don’t focus on anyone else. We focus on ourselves. That has been a problem for the club in previous years that we want to compare ourselves with other teams, but we can’t do that.

“We have to look at ourselves and look at the problems and what we can improve. We can’t think about Arsenal, Liverpool or other teams. We just have to win every game that is in our hands.

“We saw our mistakes in that defeat [at Manchester City] and we have to make sure we don’t do them again. It was a bad game, we conceded six goals, but we have to get ourselves back on the winning track.”