Manchester United were well beaten by Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium and skipper Bruno Fernandes issued two demands they need to fix immediately
Bruno Fernandes called for Manchester United to be braver and take more risks with their play after they fell to a meek 3-0 derby defeat to Manchester City.
United were well beaten at the Etihad Stadium, where Phil Foden – who admitted City were inspired by the sad death of legendary boxer and City superfan Ricky Hatton – headed home the opener before a second half brace from Erling Haaland.
The Red Devils were never really in the game from the moment they fell behind, and captain Fernandes says they need to improve in at least two areas.
“No it’s not hard [to find positives],” Fernandes told Sky Sports. “You have to look at what we did well and it’s not enough because you want to win football games.
“What we did today was not enough to get a result and that’s what we’ll take from this game. Obviously look at what we have to do better and look to the next game.
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“We need to score goals and not concede. We keep creating chances but were not able to score as much as we wanted. We have to be more in control. We concede three goals we could have avoided.
“When we go we have to take more risks and be more brave with the last line. When we pass to our centre-backs they go three against three and squeeze so much. The space is very narrow.”
Fernandes went on to try and put the result into perspective, with United having taken just four points from their opening four matches of the season, their worst start to a Premier League campaign since the very first one in 1992-93.
“The result is very bad, very bad on us but I think it’s two ways of looking at this game,” continued Fernandes. “The goals could have been avoided. On the ball we were very positive, very brave, we were playing the ball forward. When we created chances we could have been more clean.
“We wanted what City got and that’s the three points. City were smart to get the goals in the way they did, they have a very good team and good players.”
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