Rooney: Man Utd’s players are “like babies”, and Fernandes needs a break from the firing line

Wayne Rooney has called Manchester United’s players “selfish” after the 4-1 defeat at Como, but his advice on Bruno Fernandes is to rest the captain rather than punish him. Jamie Carragher, speaking earlier in the day, wants the captain held to account for criticising the manager in public.

Rooney: a squad that will not take responsibility

Speaking on The United Stand podcast, as reported by Goal and Metro, Rooney said he saw the dressing-room problem starting with Lisandro Martinez. “When Martinez came out, I said this is an absolute nightmare because it will rip the dressing room apart,” he said. “We’ve seen it now with Bruno and you’re going to see it with more players.”

His diagnosis is about attitude rather than tactics. “These players, they’re selfish,” Rooney said. “They’re like babies and just throw their toys out of the pram and go and deflect the blame on to anyone else but themselves.” He allowed that Fernandes could be right or wrong in what he said about the pressing, but argued that the players still had to take responsibility on the pitch and as a group.

He also pointed to Fernandes’s form. Rooney called it “probably the worst run of form he’s had since he’s been at the club” and suggested it was no coincidence that the captain was “putting pressure on someone else”.

The remedy: a week off

This is where Rooney parts company with the harder line. According to Metro, he would take Fernandes out of the team for Sunday’s visit of Bournemouth. “I think it’s at a point now where he might need a little break,” he said. He cited the length of last season and then a long World Cup, and said the midfielder no longer looks to have “that sharpness or that bite”.

Rooney drew on his own career. He remembered Sir Alex Ferguson giving Cristiano Ronaldo the odd week off, and argued that Fernandes needs “to be taken out of the limelight a bit and come back fresher”. The alternative, he warned, is that the captain runs himself into the ground and becomes more frustrated.

Carragher: it is a question of conduct

Carragher reached a different place from the same starting point. Speaking on CBS Sports, as reported by Sky Sports, he said Martinez was “bang out of order” for calling out the hierarchy and added: “For Bruno Fernandes to do that, it is a disgrace.” He said he was “delighted” that Carrick brought the captain off and “had a pop back at him”.

Where Rooney sees a tired player, Carragher sees a captain whose attitude “is not right at all”. We set out his case, and Paul Merson’s argument that sacking the manager would change nothing, in our earlier piece.

What the club has done

Goal reports that United decided against stripping Fernandes of the armband or fining him, while Martinez was fined and made to apologise publicly after his remarks following the Atletico Madrid defeat. Metro says the Como result left United with their poorest start to a season since 1986.

That uneven treatment is part of what Rooney is reacting to. A player who was fined for criticising the club’s hierarchy sits beside a captain who criticised the staff’s pressing instructions and was not, and the squad can see the difference. The two accounts of the Como game are laid out in Press or run?.

Where the argument sits

The two pundits agree that something is wrong with the culture. They disagree about what to do next. Rooney’s view is protective: give the captain space and he may come back sharper. Carragher’s is disciplinary: a captain who undermines his manager in a television interview has crossed a line, whatever his form.

Both are opinions, and neither can be tested until Sunday. If Carrick leaves Fernandes out against Bournemouth, he will have taken Rooney’s advice, and the manager’s own explanation will say whether he sees it as rest or as a message. If the captain starts, Carragher’s point about authority will be harder to dismiss.