Man Utd: Ten Hag ‘sackable offence’ entirely justified for Fernandes numbers

‘Sackable offence’ was the verdict of one F365er as Erik ten Hag brought on Bruno Fernandes for the final half-hour of the cruise against Barnsley while there were those on social media decrying the unsportsmanlike behaviour of bringing on a man who promptly created six chances in that half-hour because Bruno Fernandes v League One opposition = ludicrous.

But on this occasion I am in Ten Hag’s corner.

There have been precious few moments of genuine, unadulterated joy for Manchester United over the last 12 months as they have lurched from mega-crisis to mini-crisis and back again.

Already this season, the 3-0 defeat to Liverpool was perfectly timed for United crisis talk to fill the void of the first week of the international window. It was a Godsend to those who edit mildly popular football websites, but it must have been draining to those within the club.

Then, eventually, came the 3-0 win at Southampton but that was so initially underwhelming that those of us forced to watch that opening 35 minutes could not bring ourselves to heap praise on the manager.

So it’s perfectly understandable that when Manchester United are steamrolling over the opposition – however one-sided the contest – Ten Hag has given in to Fernandes’ giddiness to get involved. Footballers are ludicrously motivated by numbers (this is a collection of people who genuinely beef about their ratings on a video game, FFS) and having seen Marcus Rashford, Alejandro Garnacho and even Antony boost theirs, Fernandes was itching.

And the morning after the night before, Fernandes will join thousands of Manchester United fans grasping at the positivity of goal involvement statistics which look pretty damned impressive. Those socials will #donumbers because Manchester United #didnumbers.

Alejandro Garnacho – 7 G/A in 6 games

Marcus Rashford – 4 G/A in 6 games

Bruno Fernandes – 4 G/A in 6 games

Christian Eriksen – 3 G/A in 3 gamespic.twitter.com/gaxNh4fXOy

— Frank🧠🇳🇱 (fan) (@TenHagEra) September 18, 2024

Ten Hag might not be thinking about @TenHagEra on X, but he will absolutely be thinking about the vibes of the Ten Hag era at Carrington, and after telling an impressed Rio Ferdinand last week about training-ground positivity even in the wake of the Liverpool defeat, imagine how a 7-0 win feels.

Yes it’s ‘only Barnsley’ but this time last year, United were losing 3-1 at home to Brighton after a run of games that would have surely cost Ten Hag his job if the club’s current senior management was in place. Right now, they have scored 10 goals in two games and they face a winnable home fixture with Crystal Palace. Whatever the opposition, that feels good.

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There is obviously something jarring about Manchester United celebrating victory over Barnsley louder than Liverpool fans hailed their heroes for winning in Milan, but the clubs are on different trajectories. Undoubtedly key to United being back in that same elite bracket are fixing the fragile confidence of Rashford, the bruised ego of Garnacho and the FOMO of Fernandes as he watched his teammates boost their numbers.

Ten Hag didn’t need to bring on Fernandes and probably didn’t need to start Rashford while Joshua Zirkzee is still looking to find his feet at Manchester United, but he absolutely needs his best attacking players to be happy, confident and full of momentum, and that was too often in short supply last season.

So on this occasion the bald fraud gets a pass.