Bruno Fernandes is exhausted; his legs felt a little heavy and his mind consumed by the “suffering” required to knock Arsenal out of the FA Cup on penalties, having been a man for less than 62 minutes.
It's no wonder that the Manchester United captain entered their training base in Carrington weakened: he was a scorer, the first in the shootout, and his role as a deliverer of “flowers” – honors, recognition and thanks – to deserving teammates was tied to his relentless play.
After the win at the Emirates, Bruno shifted the focus from himself to a colossal display from Altay Bayindir, who produced a goalkeeping masterclass, especially from the spot, and Joshua Zirkzee's redemption arc.
“I want everyone to be happy. I want everyone to feel a part, to feel included,” says Fernandes Sky Sports News the morning after the previous victory.
Bruno Fernandes celebrates after putting Manchester United ahead of Arsenal
“When you're in a good moment, a high moment, I prefer to give it to other players – not because I don't want to have that moment, because obviously every player wants to have his credit, his flowers and his moments of joy – but this is just a way of which I live my life.
“I really think that for a team to be successful, everyone needs to be at the same level of happiness. Even knowing that some players will play less than others, you have to find a way to encourage them at certain times to feel that they are as important as I am. “
Fernandes was particularly pleased for Zirkzee, who in the 33rd minute of the defeat against Newcastle endured the embarrassment of being booed by his own fans but scored the decisive penalty to keep the defending champions in the tournament.
“The script has been there for a long time,” laughs Bruno. “You know, when you're a good person, when you do the right things, you can have bad moments, but in the end everything will work out great.
“It was a staff decision to pick five players to have a penalty and they put Josh last. And the only thing I could think of was to tell the players that the script was over. So everything was done from that moment against Newcastle who has arranged for us, in this moment, to give Josh his moment and recognition and his flowers.
“We can talk about whatever people want to talk about, like 'penalties, it's easy.' That's how we got a penalty (in normal time) from Martin Odegaard who has yet to miss a penalty in his professional career up there and it gives us the win.”
Joshua Zirkzee celebrates after scoring the decisive penalty in Manchester United's shootout against Arsenal
It was more than a story of triumph for United, with the 'how' and 'who' giving further evidence to Ruben Amorim's theory that the problem is not his system, but effort and application.
The way his side worked the ball against Arsenal and increased their resolve, not losing when Diogo Dalot was sent off, was encouraging. Matched by a fighting draw at Anfield in a game they could have stolen at the death against Liverpool, United look to be painting the portrait of a resurgence.
Bruno, however, warns that the brushstrokes against each team, not just the club's rivals, will decide whether the picture is complete or an artificial illusion.
“We can't look at the names, we can't look at the badges, we can't look at the table, whoever is ahead or below us. We just have to look at ourselves and realize that we are playing for a huge club and we have to set a standard for ourselves that this is the place where we want to be the minimum and where we have to go to get the best out of everyone.”
Tempers flare between Kai Havertz and Harry Maguire
Resistance against Liverpool and Arsenal followed a long spell at Carrington to work on Amorim's plan. Interestingly, Bruno is moving towards an increase in psychological elements as a greater explanation for those performances.
“It always helps when you have time to train and prepare a little more for games,” he offers. “It's important, but I think these two games have been more about – and the manager has told us this – more about the passion, the desire, everything you bring to the game in terms of how much you want to win the game.
“I think everyone is really aware of what they want and ask of us both positionally and tactically and everything. I think now we are getting to the level that he wants in terms of effort, with running and passion and the desire to win. So I think we have a lot more to do let's improve in both aspects and I'm pretty sure we're on the right track.
“But now we've got a big game that everyone can look at in a different way and probably look at it from the outside and say, 'United are in a good moment now. They've got Southampton at home. They're going to beat them for sure, but we can't think that way because Southampton are fighting for their lives.
“They want to stay in the Premier League and they really need the points. But we have to turn this around and look at ourselves and say we really, really, really need the points more than them. We have to think 'we need the points more from them' and that must be our goal for every game we go through, the opponent needs them so much, but us more than them.”
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Jamie Weir and Sam Blitz deliver the verdict from a classic FA Cup match where Manchester United went on penalties after Arsenal missed several big chances
United has certainly been brought back to life, to action, to a sense of pride. At Anfield, Lisandro Martinez pointed to his head to explain the difference to the team. Bruno's verses about mentality and intention are from the same book. Was Amorim's actual relegation check the spark?
“No, no, no,” laughs Bruno before returning to serious mode. “Obviously I know what the manager meant with that and what Licha (Martinez) said is right – it's about mentality. You go to a game against Liverpool and you know, it's a big game. You'll be ready for every detail. Your mind will remember every detail. what the manager told you, every thing they do, every thing we trained.
“And probably in some games where you don't play against big teams and you think you don't have to be so aware and you probably switch off mentally for five seconds. And in the Premier League, five seconds is too much against any team and Southampton are one of those matches in which I don't want any of us to switch off for five seconds because they have good players, they have qualities.
“They could get more points than they have in the table. I'm not saying that they are a big team. That they are a team that is better than us and that we don't need to win the game. We need to win the game. We should be worried about every moment and every second throughout the game, because if we do that, and then the way we prepare for the game, tactically and technically, if we do what we've been doing; I'm pretty sure we're going to win the game.”
Altay Bayindir celebrates after saving Kai Havertz's penalty
United's notable improvements were in their intensity and defensive form. If there's one area where Amorim still needs to see big strides, it's on offense.
“The manager told us a lot that we need to score more goals,” Bruno nods. “And that's true because we are a team that has the ability to score goals. I know we have a lot of young players up front, but we have quality and we have to score goals because Rasmus is capable of scoring goals. Josh is capable, Amad is capable, Garnacho Rashy, Antony, me and even the midfielders who sometimes play a bit deeper like Kobbie or Manu or Casa or Christian, they are all players with goals in them.
“So we have a lot of players who have the ability to score goals. Like yesterday, Carlos came to talk to me – the assistant coach before the game – and told me that we need more desire to get into the box, to make runs, to get into counter, we need to run and that leads to a goal, then Diogo jumps from Gabriel And in my mind it was like, 'just run as fast as you can to get into the box because you know Garna is fast and will get there before you you have to score.' And that desire to defend our goal must be the same desire to score goals and that's something the coach wants us to improve on the goals we've been showing. This is not really the level we have.”
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Highlights of the Premier League match between Liverpool and Manchester United
The clouds have partly lifted over a dark spell for United, who were just seven points off the relegation zone and head into the new year in their worst league position since 1989.
“It's really easy when you don't get results, when you don't perform, you start to lose faith in everything you do,” says Bruno, adding: “but I think that was one of the good things we had as a team – we kept faith in what we we're doing, in what we've been training and where we want to go as a team, where the staff wants us to go as a team, what we want to improve as a team.
“And that's what gives us a bit more credit now because we've been doing the same things that people are probably going to think, 'oh, the manager has got to change this back three or five, it's not working. We've got to go back four. We need more one attacker.'
“You know, every time you lose or every time something goes wrong, everybody has a different opinion on what you should do. But obviously the manager has his own idea and we understand. What we as players really understand at the moment is that he really believes this, so there's no way it's going to make you disbelieve.
“So everything he tells you, everything he tries to convey to you – to him and his staff – he does it in a way that we really believe in what we're doing. Even in games where you concede a goal or have a goal.” setback or whatever, he just wants us to understand that the things we do will bring results if we do it the right way.
“And that's the most important thing we've had in this period of not getting results, it's been difficult. As you said, it's really difficult here when you're not winning games, but it's massive and brilliant when you're winning here too.
“So we just have to realize that if we can keep this level up, this performance and obviously get the results, the fans will be behind us. There will be a lot of pressure for us, like yesterday – 8,000 at the Emirates.
“And we have to bring back what we had in the past where every team that came here felt the fear that at any moment United could score a goal or hurt him. And we have to bring that back to the communion with the fans, with the patience that we need have as a team to believe in the process. We need the fans to have the same patience, to believe in the players, because they've seen it every three days and we're going to do it and we need them to be behind us to do it.”
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