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Man Utd urged to repeat Harry Maguire decision after Bruno Fernandes action vs Tottenham
Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag has been sent a firm message about his skipper Bruno Fernandes.
Manchester United have been urged to strip Bruno Fernandes of the captaincy just like they did with Harry Maguire. Chris Sutton claims the midfielder is not a leader and says that was clear to see after the loss to Tottenham on Saturday.
Maguire was stripped of the armband by Erik ten Hag in July. The Dutchman felt it was the right decision to relieve the England star of the duties after he fell out of favour last season.
Fernandes has often skippered United in the past and was the obvious choice to be handed the job on a full-time basis. But Sutton is clearly not a fan of the decision.
Fernandes played the entirety of the 2-0 loss to Spurs at the weekend. After a promising first half for United, Tottenham started the second on top and the visitors were unable to bounce back from Pape Sarr's early goal.
United felt they should have been awarded a penalty in the first half when Alejandro Garnacho's shot hit the arm of Cristian Romero. Both the referee and VAR decided that the incident was not worthy of a spot-kick.
Fernandes criticised the decision after the match, claiming United were due an apology. He said: "I want to see if Jon Moss also comes to apologise to our dressing room like they said he did to the manager of Wolves."
But former Chelsea and Blackburn striker Sutton says Fernandes was wrong to call out the officials. He then gave a personal attack on the 28-year-old's leadership credentials.
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Sutton claimed that there is no way Fernandes should be United captain and says his comments on Saturday prove he isn't taking responsibility for his team's performances. Sutton said on the It's All Kicking Off podcast: "Absolutely not (the referee wasn't to blame).
"Bruno Fernandes first and foremost needs to sort himself out, his team out, before looking at referees and their decisions. Bruno Fernandes for me shouldn't be captain of Manchester United, absolutely not, he's not a leader. That basically sums him up.
"It's about taking responsibility as a captain and the bottom line is, the first two performances of the season for Manchester United they have looked like a testimonial team, like a team that's still stuck in pre-season and he needs to turn up and show better leadership qualities - not blaming referees."