Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes called on his team-mates to ‘be more aggressive’ and stop making the ‘same mistakes as we did last season’ after they were battered and bruised in a 2-0 defeat to Hull City.
United ran out their new £85million midfield pairing of Andrey Santos and Youri Tielemans and had all of their stars available, except for Amad, Mason Mount and Matthijs de Ligt.
But many of United’s mistakes were painfully familiar and captain Fernandes is tired of seeing them over and over again away from home.
‘Same mistakes as we did last season every away game,’ Fernandes bemoaned afterwards.
‘We give too much of the ball to them. In the first 20 minutes the goalkeeper had more touches on the ball… too much time.
‘We need to press a little bit more, be more aggressive, and set-plays – we need to work on it, to be more aggressive and try not to concede these types of goals.
Bruno Fernandes has warned Man United must stop making the ‘same mistakes as last season’ after the Red Devils fell to a 2-0 defeat to newly promoted Hull City in their opening match
Hull scored twice from set pieces in the first half to make a dream return to the Premier League
BBC pundit Alan Shearer expressed concerns that Man United ‘didn’t look fit’ during the defeat
‘We knew before the game that [set-pieces] would be a big part of their game.’
Hull City boss Sergej Jakirovic explained afterwards that the switch to a back five was done after spotting gaps behind Manchester United’s full-backs and it worked to great effect.
That switch, which caught United out, only added to Fernandes’ frustrations.
‘They played a full pre-season with a back four,’ Fernandes added.
‘They went against us with a back five, also to have some height, also for these moments [at set-pieces] because they could get a chance from it and defend well from our set-pieces. The most frustrating thing is that we lost the game.’
BBC pundit Alan Shearer expressed concerns over Manchester United’s physical conditioning following the defeat, with the England and Newcastle legend suggesting the Red Devils ‘did not look fit’ in the season opener.
‘I haven’t seen Manchester United in pre-season,’ Shearer said on on BBC Radio 5 Live.
‘I saw them in this game and they didn’t look fit, they didn’t look ready to play 90 minutes of intense, high pressure, high energy football.
‘There was only one team that looked fit there and it wasn’t Manchester United.’
United’s passiveness played into Hull City’s hands and the eventual outcome was a dream come true for captain Lewie Coyle.
‘Before we went to bed last night we couldn’t have dreamt it any better,’ Coyle said.
‘It’ll be a shock to people, I’m not saying it’s how I thought it would go, but this team’s got something special in terms of character, resilience, and we know what we’re doing.
‘We know we’re going to get chances on the break. You’re against a fantastic side and we know that’s the minimum it’s going to take.
‘So, so proud of the boys for what we achieved last year. We’re not just here to make the numbers up – we’re here to stay in this division. What an incredible start for the boys.’
