Erik ten Hag has challenged the Manchester United team to emulate their captain Bruno Fernandes in order to further establish a winning culture at the organization.
After sustaining an ankle injury during United’s FA Cup semifinal victory over Brighton at Wembley on Sunday, the midfielder wore a protective boot Wednesday night. He later recovered to captain the team in Thursday’s 2-2 draw with Tottenham.
After Jadon Sancho gave the visitors the lead in north London, Fernandes assisted Marcus Rashford in scoring.
However, Spurs came back to earn a point after trailing 2-0 at the half thanks to goals from Pedro Porro and Son Heung-min.
In the battle for fourth place in the Premier League, the outcome put United six points ahead of Spurs with two games remaining.
In addition, United, which has already won the League Cup this year, has the opportunity to win both domestic cup competitions when they play Manchester City in the FA Cup final at Wembley in June.
Meanwhile, United manager Ten Hag claimed that Fernandes’ attitude could serve as a lesson for all of his players.
It was difficult; Bruno deserves a lot of credit. He made every effort to become healthy since he dreads missing this game.
“I believe that he is the epitome of what it means to struggle and make sacrifices in order to perform at the highest level and to succeed.
Thus, he once more demonstrated there what a great captain he is and how he has accepted responsibility even when he is not fully healthy.
But he was effective and crucial in this game as well. In hopes that the squad can emulate him rather than learn from him.
Following their collapse against Sevilla in the first leg of their Europa League quarterfinal, United’s draw with Spurs marked the second time in two weeks that they had let a two-goal lead slip away.
They then suffered a humiliating 3-0 loss in the return match in Spain, ending their chances of winning a European trophy this season.
In the course of this season, United has also suffered a humiliating 7-0 loss to Liverpool, but as Ten Hag noted, they have also defeated the top two teams in the Premier League and the league leaders in La Liga.
“We had some games I like,” Ten Hag said. I believe that the 2-0 victory against (Nottingham) Forest two weeks ago was almost ideal. You can tell that playing Forest is difficult, and you can also see Brighton and Liverpool suffering. On our end, that was a really strong performance.
“I would have to think about which more games we have. I particularly believe that City (playing at home) dominated the match. Arsenal had more than we had, and in both games, we were excellent. We played in a lot of games when we dominated.
“Barcelona, Betis. As a result, we had several games when we played excellent football, he said.