Bruno Fernandes has admitted Manchester United need to respond quickly after their disappointing 2-0 defeat to Hull City on the opening weekend of the Premier League season.
Manchester United were beaten by two first-half goals from Hull defenders Semi Ajayi and Nobel Mendy, leaving Michael Carrick’s side with nothing to show for a difficult afternoon at the MKM Stadium.
For United’s captain, there is no point dwelling on what happened. The focus now has to be on getting a reaction in their first home game.
Bruno demands a response from United
Speaking to MUTV, Fernandes admitted the next fixture has become even more important after United failed to take anything from Hull.
“Obviously, the first home game will be massive for us, and even more now that we didn’t win the game away at Hull City.
“So we’re three points behind what we wanted, so we really need a result in the next one.”
There is still a full week for United to work on the problems that were exposed in the opening game. Fernandes believes that time has to be used properly.
“We need to work on whatever didn’t work out for us today, we need to get better, we need to prepare ourselves for the next game.”
The captain isn’t interested in making excuses for the result either.
“There’s not much I can say that will change the result today, but there’s a lot we can do in the next one to change that.”
Hull City showed that being newly promoted doesn’t mean a team will simply sit back and allow United to dictate the game.
Manchester United need to handle the Premier League better
Bruno Fernandes felt United had enough possession but didn’t do enough with it when they reached the final third.
“We had a lot of the ball but we were not very decisive and this is even in the last third to score the goal to get a little bit of a chance and get a goal to ourselves.”
The captain also gave credit to Hull for making life difficult around their own penalty area.
“But we have to give credit to them, they defended their box very well.”
There was another warning in Fernandes’ comments. United cannot expect promoted sides to give them an easier afternoon.
“We know every game will be tough in the Premier League, it doesn’t matter if they are a newly promoted team or another team.”
Hull’s aggression and their threat from set pieces were obvious throughout the game, and United knew that was likely to be the case before kick-off.
“They will be aggressive, the grounds will be against us, we need to prepare for that, we know many teams will use set-pieces as one of their strengths.”
Unfortunately for United, that preparation wasn’t enough. They conceded twice from set pieces and struggled to create the kind of clear opportunities needed to change the game.
Bruno Fernandes himself had a poor outing. He was unable to produce his usual influence. Hull did a good job of keeping United’s captain away from dangerous areas, He created very few chances and was unable to dictate the game like his usual self. Readmanutd.com gave Bruno Fernandes a disappointing 4 rating for his lacklustre performances.
Bruno Fernandes has rallied the team for a response against Ipswich now in their first home game of the season next week.
