‘Not very good’… TalkSPORT pundit says £47m Man United player just isn’t working hard enough right now 

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Tony Cascarino has criticised Manchester United skipper Bruno Fernandes for his work-rate off the ball.

Bruno Fernandes has arguably been Man United’s standout player during an underwhelming first half of the season.

The 29-year-old has racked up 11 goal involvements in 27 appearances from midfield, despite United’s struggles in the final third.

Ally McCoist believes the Portuguese midfielder has been let down by his teammates this season.

And while discussing the Scotsman’s recent claims about Fernandes, Cascarino has highlighted what he believes to be a weakness of the United captain’s game.

Cascarino says Fernandes isn’t working hard enough for United

Speaking on talkSPORT (8:07am 14/01/24), Cascarino said that Fernandes’ quality on the ball isn’t in question.

But he feels the midfielder has to work harder out of possession and pointed to Manchester City’s Phil Foden as an example.

“The one thing he does very badly, he’s not very good without the ball,” the pundit said. “Now, if you said to me with Phil Foden how good he can be, I’d say he’s really good without the ball as well.

“If you watched [Miguel] Almiron yesterday, he’s not at the top table, he’s not going to win the Premier League, in my opinion, with Newcastle. But he’s a player without the ball that runs his socks off.

“So Fernandes is a bit of an issue when you lose the ball. There are two parts to the game, how good you are with the ball and how good you are without it. He’s not very good at all without it.”

We’d have to disagree with Cascarino’s comments on Fernandes’ work-rate.

The £47 million man is often the United player who leads the press and in our opinion, he can’t be faulted for his work-rate off the ball.

Of course, he’s been known to throw his arms in the air in frustration on the odd occasion.

He faced heavy criticism last season as well as he appeared to give up chasing Stefan Bajcetic in the 7-0 thrashing at Anfield.

But for the most part, Fernandes runs himself into the ground for United while providing real quality on the ball.