Bruno Fernandes questions Michael Carrick's tactics after Man Utd's 4-1 humiliation at Como

Photo: Bryan Berlin (CC BY-SA 4.0), via Wikimedia Commons (Bruno Fernandes pictured on Portugal duty, July 2026 — illustrative)

I have never seen it quite like this. Manchester United's captain, on live television, pointing the finger at his own manager's tactics — minutes after a 4-1 Champions League humiliation by Como, a side that was playing in Italy's fourth tier seven years ago. That is where Manchester United are right now: Bruno Fernandes telling TNT Sports the pressing plan was "a decision from the staff" and that it was "on the manager and on the staff to see it, not on me."

Michael Carrick, to his credit, didn't dodge it. Asked about his captain's comments, he hit straight back: the problem wasn't the tactics, it was the running. As Sky Sports reported, it was one of the most extraordinary post-match exchanges English football has produced in years.

What happened in Como

It was over almost before it began. Como opened the scoring inside two minutes — Nico Paz striking at the 118-second mark — and United simply fell apart at the Stadio Giuseppe Sinigaglia. Anastasios Douvikas made it 2-0 just after half-time, Paz added a third, and Jacobo Ramon's header completed the rout. Joshua Zirkzee's stoppage-time consolation barely changed the story.

The numbers were damning. Como completed 594 passes — the most by any team against Manchester United in a Champions League game since Barcelona in April 2019. And there is a grim record: United are the first English side ever to concede inside the opening two minutes of back-to-back major European games — 47 seconds against Atletico Madrid, then 118 seconds against Como. Reuters reported that the result leaves Carrick under even heavier scrutiny, with United now winless in seven matches.

Fernandes' extraordinary interview

"It's a decision from the staff to not press man-to-man and sometimes leave a little space in behind and try to get the ball in the first moment, to wait for them, to give them the ball," Fernandes told TNT Sports. "But sometimes when you give space to these teams they get confidence."

He didn't stop there. In a separate interview with Sky in Italy, the 32-year-old widened his aim to the entire culture of the club: "We're not in the past, we need to look in the future... We focus too much at looking at what the club did in the past. We're not that anymore. The club and the players need to understand that." Given Carrick is the embodiment of those glory years as a player, that was pointed.

Fernandes, hooked in the 67th minute and spotted shaking his head at the bench, is now the second senior United player in eight days to go public — Lisandro Martinez had blasted the club's recruitment, singling out technical director Jason Wilcox, after the Atletico Madrid defeat. That is a dressing room talking through television cameras. It never ends well.

Carrick hits back

The manager's response was blunt. "We half pressed man-to-man in the second half and ended up conceding a goal from that," Carrick said. "Whatever tactics you play, if you don't run back, you ain't going to win."

He was visibly angry, as the cameras showed. "I'm really angry," he said. "For us to play in that way is not acceptable." He apologised to United's travelling support and took responsibility — "it stops with me" — but made clear the application of the players had been the bigger sin. "You can't turn it on and off and you can't choose when you want to perform," he told TNT Sports.

What happens next

The Times was brutal in its verdict, noting that if Carrick survives to take charge of Sunday's Bournemouth game, "he will have done well." United have two wins from eleven matches. Bournemouth visit Old Trafford on Sunday, live on Sky Sports, and it is hard to see how the winless streak ends there unless something fundamental changes.

Here's my honest view: the captain criticising the tactics in public while the manager criticises the running in public is a manager-player relationship breaking down in real time. Something has to give. Whether it's Carrick's job or Fernandes' captaincy, Como wasn't just a bad night — it was the night United's latest crisis stopped being about results and became about something much harder to fix.

Sources

• Sky Sports: Bruno Fernandes criticises coaches as Michael Carrick questions players after Champions League loss to Como — 22 Oct 2026: full match detail, Fernandes and Carrick quotes, 594 passes stat, winless-in-seven, Bournemouth fixture.
• Reuters: Fernandes questions United's tactics after Como hammering — 21 Oct 2026: confirms the TNT Sports interview, Zirkzee's consolation goal, the early-goal record, scrutiny on Carrick.
• The Times: Manchester United suffer humiliating loss at Como — 22 Oct 2026: match analysis, Paz's starring role, Carrick's job under threat.