Bruno Fernandes has credited a tactical reset under Michael Carrick for Manchester United\u2019s recent revival, insisting modest changes to formation and player roles have produced tangible results.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t the historically poor season the Portuguese had overseen in 2024\u201325, but consistency was still proving elusive and United had only won eight of 20 league matches. In contrast, Carrick has won seven of his first 10 and the Red Devils have climbed to third, with a buffer back to fifth and sixth.\u201d Fernandes pointed to the coach\u2019s adjustments as decisive. \u201cHe changed some players, the positions of some players, you try different formations and at the end of the day you start scoring goals,\u201d he told Men in Blazers.<\/p>\n
Ruben Amorim had persisted with a 3-4-1-2 that placed Fernandes in a deeper central midfield role. Carrick reverted to a 4-2-3-1 that better suits the squad, reinstating Kobbie Mainoo, who hadn\u2019t started a Premier League match in the first half of the season, and returning Fernandes to the No. 10 position.<\/p>\n
The move has boosted Fernandes\u2019s creativity and end product. He has 16 assists this season and sits on a run that could challenge the Premier League single-season assist mark of 20. \u201cIn terms of creating chances we were near the top when Ruben was here but we were not finishing that and then we were probably one of the best teams at not allowing teams in our box but when we did we would concede more goals,\u201d Fernandes added.<\/p>\n
Carrick\u2019s tenure has brought greater defensive solidity and an ability to grind out narrow wins. \u201cWe started to be more compact when we have to defend and understand we have moments when we have to suffer when we\u2019re not in an excellent moment, let\u2019s say,\u201d Fernandes said.<\/p>\n
Former United goalkeeper David de Gea, who was in England with Fiorentina for the quarterfinal first leg of the UEFA Conference League against Crystal Palace\u2014La Viola lost 3\u20130 in south London\u2014offered praise for Carrick. \u201cHe\u2019s doing unbelievable,\u201d De Gea told TNT Sports. \u201cHe\u2019s a great guy \u2026 he knows how the players feel, so it\u2019s easy to talk with him.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s doing an amazing job, United is winning a lot of games now. They\u2019re playing well and hopefully they can get the Champions League spot, and keep growing. Let\u2019s see United again in the high positions and fighting for trophies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speculation over Fernandes\u2019s future has cooled. He was linked with a move to Saudi Arabia last summer and appeared prepared to leave if the club wished. His contract, signed in 2024, runs to the end of next season with an option for a further 12 months that would extend it toward 2028. Fernandes was also asked during his Men in Blazers appearance about living in Manchester, having been settled in the north west of England longer than anywhere else in his pro career to date.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fernandes credits Carrick’s formation and personnel tweaks for United’s revival and his No.10 role….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11356,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1083,179,969],"tags":[342,1530,1047],"class_list":["post-11357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-man-utd","category-manchester-united","category-premier-league","tag-bruno-fernandes","tag-caretaker-manager","tag-champions-league"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11357\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}