Last weekend, Manchester United suffered their first defeat in 2024 against Fulham at Old Trafford, and Bruno Fernandes was at the center of attention. Not (just) because of the weak performance he gave, but because of the detail that caught everyone’s eye.In the second half, after the duel with Saša Lukić, the Portuguese found himself on the grass and rolled around for about ten seconds, demanding the referee to call a foul, and when he realized that he would not get it, he got up and asked his teammates to pass him the ball.”Captain leads by example”, “Captain of Manchester United”, were the most common comments on social media, often by the fans of the club from Old Trafford themselves, who condemned Fernandes for trying to “fake” an injury and get a foul. The said video was also shared by the admin of Fulham’s official account on the social media platform TikTok with the caption “We’re glad he’s OK” and a rolling eyes emoji.##NAJAVA_MECA_7910270##The coach of Manchester United did not know about the existence of the aforementioned post, and when journalists showed it to him at today’s press conference, he asked the London club to apologize to his captain.”I didn’t know about that, but if that’s the case, it’s not right. It’s absolutely not right for the club to publish something like that, completely wrong. They should apologize for that,” said the Dutchman.Although he played the game with Fulham until the end, and then spent all ninety minutes and some on the field against Nottingham Forest last night,at United they believe that Lukić’s tackle is responsible for the injury that Fernandes has been ‘carrying’ since then, and Ten Hag is asking the referees to protect the Portuguese.Bruno Fernandes has been labelled a ‘cheat’ and ‘pathetic’ after a clip of the Manchester United captain writhing around in agony to try and win a free-kick.pic.twitter.com/iOHEbHlW4Z— WideScores.com (@widescores_com) February 25, 2024 “Bruno is a very passionate footballer, very creative, he creates the most chances in the Premier League and you can see the opponents targeting him, especially on Saturday after he got hit. I think the referee should have protected him. I thought that was definitely a foul and I think it’s wrong for the media and people on social platforms to blame him for that. That’s why opponents target him later. That’s why the referee should protect him,” said Ten Hag.
