Even though Fernandes liked the attitude of United staying in the Champions League game, he felt that the team could have hurt Bayern more.
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Manchester United were unable to put an end to their losing run, as they were edged out by Bayern Munich in their Champions League Group A opener. However, this time United did not go down without a fight. They gave Bayern a real scare at the end before losing 4-3 at the Allianz Arena. There were plenty of positives to take for United despite losing the game. The never-give-up attitude would have pleased the supporters.
Besides, Manchester United are in the middle of a severe injury crisis, with plenty of their first-team regulars on the sidelines. Despite going to Bayern with a depleted squad, they still managed to put up a real fight. However, United skipper Bruno Fernandes is not ready to make the injuries as an excuse in their loss. He believed the team had enough players on the pitch to do much better.
“We don’t have to think about the injured players. We have enough players to give a response on the pitch. Obviously, we want everyone fit, as many players as possible, and we know we have some important players injured, but that’s not an excuse not to win games,” Bruno told TNT Sports.
Even though Fernandes liked the attitude of United staying in the Champions League game, he felt that the team could have hurt Bayern more. “Obviously, it’s really difficult to take this one. We knew it was going to be tough to play against Bayern. We knew they’re such a great team. When you give so much space to them, and time to them, they’re going to hurt you. We start the game, then 1-0 down, 2-0 down,” he explained.
He added: “We came back in the second half, to 2-1, and we concede an early goal. Again we came back, to 3-2, and we concede again. Overall, we stayed in the game but could have hurt them a little bit more, had a bit more patience on the ball. There were many good things to take from the game but it wasn’t enough to win the game.”
The Manchester United skipper then went on to explain the tactics behind the team selection. It was almost the same team from the Brighton defeat in the Premier League at the weekend except for Facundo Pellistri coming into the Starting XI in place of Scott McTominay. “We want to be on the ball. We knew Bayern were going to press high in the first few minutes. When they play at home, they were always like this,” he added.
“We try to keep on the ball and find spaces where we could hurt them. We had a big chance in the beginning, we could go 1-0 [up], but we didn’t score. After, Bayern had that chance and they scored. It’s always difficult to come from behind against Bayern. We know how tough and how strong they are. Overall, we did good things but there are many things to improve still.”
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