Manchester United\u2019s captaincy picture has become unclear after Michael Carrick declined to rule out removing Bruno Fernandes from the role in the wake of his public criticism. Carrick also insisted the squad is not split, but his response left the door open to change.<\/p>\n
Mart\u00ednez is understood to have been fined for his comments, although Sky Sports News state that no such punishment is planned for Fernandes. That remained the position until Carrick\u2019s guarded remarks in Friday\u2019s press conference.<\/p>\n
When asked directly whether Fernandes could be dropped or relieved of the armband, Carrick said: \u201cThe most important thing for me is the team and the dynamics in the squad. It is about the football club.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhatever the situation is I will always do what is best for the football club.\u201d<\/p>\n
Attention now turns to Sunday\u2019s match with Bournemouth, where United are trying to end a sequence of seven games without a win. Carrick\u2019s starting line-up may offer the first clue as to how he sees the issue.<\/p>\n
The club\u2019s leadership options remain limited, which has long fed concerns about the makeup of the dressing room. If Fernandes is relieved of the responsibility, Harry Maguire would be the likeliest replacement. Maguire was appointed captain by Ole Gunnar Solskj\u00e6r in 2020 before Erik ten Hag removed the role three years later and handed it to Fernandes.<\/p>\n
Other possibilities appear less straightforward. Luke Shaw could be considered when fit, while Lisandro Mart\u00ednez might also have been in the conversation had he not been the first to speak out against the club. Youri Tielemans arrived in the summer with experience of wearing the armband at Aston Villa, and Diogo Dalot, Noussair Mazraoui and Tom Heaton were all part of a leadership group under Ruben Amorim.<\/p>\n
The debate has already drawn a strong reaction from Wayne Rooney, who was concerned that Fernandes was not even the first United player to speak out. His sharp assessment of the pair included accusations of selfishness and doubts over their commitment to the club.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Carrick leaves Fernandes\u2019s captaincy uncertain, with Bournemouth next and United\u2019s leadership options thin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21910,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[739,179],"tags":[59],"class_list":["post-21911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bournemouth","category-manchester-united","tag-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21911","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=21911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}