BRUNO HITS THE SUCKER PUNCH
United captain gives his beleaguered boss and struggling team a late shot in the arm
PLAY like you mean it, declared a hand-written banner among the away fans at Craven Cottage, and for more than 90 minutes Manchester United tried their best to ease the pressure on Erik ten Hag without success.
The problem with these United players is not that they do not care. They have not downed tools. They are just not very good — at least not at the moment.
They contributed to a spectacle of such mind-numbing mediocrity here that you began to think that all the will in the world would not be enough to save Ten Hag.
But this was a day when the result mattered so much more than the performance, and in the first minute of added time Bruno Fernandes conjured up a winning goal to give his manager some respite at the end of what has been an abysmal week.
No one copped for it more than Fernandes in the wake of a humbling Manchester derby defeat that preceded an equally embarrassing Carabao Cup exit at the hands of Newcastle reserves in midweek.
But when Ten Hag needed his skipper most, the man who fired a brilliant winner at Burnley to end a run of three straight defeats in September came up with the goods again.
This goal was not nearly as sweet as Fernandes’s volley from Jonny Evans’s pass at Turf Moor. In fact it was a bit of a shambles, and United had substitute Facundo Pellistri to thank for that.
The young Uruguayan showed admirable tenacity to chase down Antonee Robinson close to the byline. The ball ran loose to Tim Ream, who smacked it in to Pellistri. Joao Palhinha panicked too, hacking a clearance to Fernandes on the edge of the box.
The ball still bobbled around between Fernandes, Scott McTominay and Pellistri before the United skipper decided it was time to apply a little polish, sending two defenders the wrong way with a dummy before firing inside Bernd Leno’s left-hand post. The Fulham keeper got a hand to the ball but just could not keep it out.
Ten Hag threw his arms in the air in celebration, although he must know that United cannot keep relying on last-ditch heroics.
Fernandes led his team-mates over to the fans behind the goal where the banner had disappeared.
‘We saw it before the game,’ said McTominay. ‘The fans pay good money to come watch every week, and we want to repay them the best we can.
‘When everything’s going against you, you have to do it your own way and you’ve got to come together and fight like dogs sometimes.’ This was one of those days. No one epitomised it more than a groggy Harry Maguire, who recovered from an accidental blow to the head from Rodrigo Muniz in the opening seconds to lead the defensive effort.
Should he have continued? Ten Hag’s claim that Maguire’s problems in the second half were due to a hand injury only clouded the issue.
Aaron Wan-Bissaka also showed a huge improvement in his first start since midSeptember.
But when the defenders are your best performers, you know it’s not going very well. United created lots of pretty patterns with their passing, but there is a chronic shortage of ideas and penetration in this team.
Until the likes of Marcus Rashford, Rasmus Hojlund, Antony and Alejandro Garnacho start to contribute goals, United are going to struggle.
Rashford was absent here, Ten Hag putting it down to a leg injury sustained in United’s final training session on Friday rather than any fallout from the player’s postderby birthday celebrations in a city-centre nightclub, for which he apologised.
He has not done enough this season to be missed. Afterwards, the talk was of turning points and catalysts, but Fernandes was having none of it.
‘No, it’s about the team, it’s about what everyone does on the pitch,’
he said. ‘It has to build the confidence, but at the same time we have to understand we can still do better, we can deliver, we can do much more.’
It might have been a little easier had McTominay’s goal as early as the seventh minute been allowed to stand, but VAR spotted Maguire in an offside position stopping Muniz from challenging Garnacho before he provided the assist, and referee John Brooks agreed.
The two teams took it in turns to whack the ball high into the stands as if we were down the road at Twickenham. Alex Iwobi (twice) and Harry Wilson for Fulham, Diogo Dalot for United.
The lack of quality was best summed up by the woeful attempts at back-heels by Antony and Garnacho.
Andre Onana made back-to-back saves from Wilson and Palhinha as United wobbled after half-time. Fernandes finally forced Leno into a save of note with a free-kick seven minutes from time.
When the United captain took aim again, though, he made no mistake. FULHAM (4-2-3-1): Leno 6.5; Castagne 6.5, Bassey 7, Ream 6, Robinson 6.5; Wilson 7 (Cairney 90), Palhinha 6.5; Iwobi 6 (Jimenez 89), Pereira 6.5 (De Cordova Reid 81), Willian 6 (Lukic 76, 6); Muniz 5 (Vinicius 76, 6) Subs: Rodak, Reed, Ballo-Toure, De Fougerolles. Booked: Robinson, Palhinha, Iwobi, Wilson
MAN UTD (4-2-3-1): Onana 7; Wan-Bissaka 7, Maguire 8, Evans 6.5, Dalot 6; Eriksen 5 (Mount 79), McTominay 6.5; Antony 4 (Pellistri 64, 7), Fernandes 7, Garnacho 6 (Varane 90+3); Hojlund 5.5 (Martial 79, 5). Subs: Bayindir, Amrabat, Reguilon, Mainoo, Mejbri. Booked: Garnacho, Dalot
Referee: J Brooks 6