Erik ten Hag thought Bruno Fernandes was “the best player on the pitch” in Manchester United’s 4-1 Europa League win over Real Betis. United all but secured a quarter-final spot in the Europa League with a resounding round-of-16 first leg victory at Old Trafford, scoring three second-half goals four days on from the 7-0 drubbing by Liverpool. Fernandes, who has donned the armband for the majority of the season with club captain Harry Maguire a rare starter, was widely criticised for his lack of leadership at Anfield and his theatrical reaction to a challenge by Ibrahima Konate. The Portuguese created Antony’s winning goal against Betis in the 52nd minute and put United 3-1 up six minutes later on a night Fernandes returned to his favoured role as the No.10.
Erik ten Hag said: “I think he was the best player on the pitch. It shows his personality, he played a little deeper role tonight, I asked him to do, and I think he was brilliant. He was the leader in making the game from the back in possession, making the rhythm of the game, a lot of good passes in between the lines and from there we created a lot of chances.”
Fernandes was booked for a late foul on Betis goalkeeper Claudio Bravo amid suggestions the challenge warranted expulsion.
Erik ten Hag added: “It’s his strength and his passion but you are right, sometimes he has to control that. He has to bring it, that is his strength and when it’s too much it becomes a weakness, that’s true. He knows that and there are always small margins. It’s his strength and his passion but you are right, sometimes he has to control that, he has to bring it, it is his strength and when it’s too much it becomes a weakness, that’s true, he knows that and there are always small margins.”
United could still win two more trophies in a season they have already ended their silverware drought with the League Cup and host Fulham three days after the return leg with Betis in Seville next week. Ten Hag challenged the starters involved in the Anfield aberration by naming an unchanged side against Betis and Marcus Rashford and Wout Weghorst, both guilty of transgressions against Liverpool, bookended United’s four-goal haul against the sixth-placed La Liga side.
Erik ten Hag said: “We said we have to reset. We have to bounce back and we played quite good. First half, we should have been up 3-0 also but we made one mistake and then you go 1-1 into half-time but we bounce back in the second half and it was a really good performance in the second half. We made mistakes and we got hammered [against Liverpool] because we didn’t control the standards we have and we showed complacency and you can never do that in top football.”
