Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes has insisted he has no issues with people criticising his attitude on the pitch.
Fernandes’s suitability for a leadership role has been regularly questioned in the media, with many arguing the Portugal international complains too much for somebody in such an important role, but manager Ruben Amorim has always batted away calls to demote Fernandes.
Criticism of his character is nothing new for Fernandes who, ahead of Sunday’s derby against Manchester City, confessed he is not afraid to let his passion for football overflow at times.
“Everything I include myself in I just like to go with myself at full,” Fernandes told BBC Sport. “I don’t like doing things at half. Football was the main thing and I always wanted to go full for it.
“What you see on the pitch is what Bruno is like—the passion I put into everything. I am much more calm away from the pitch—I don’t have the emotions on the skin as much as I have on the pitch. But still very passionate in everything I do.”
He continued: “People have an opinion about me and I can’t change that. That’s the way people want to judge you about what they see on the pitch or the television or interviews. I can’t change that.
“They have the freedom to think the way they want about me as I have the freedom to think about them. I don’t judge people until I know them. They can have an opinion about me, that’s fine—we all have an opinion and that’s why life is so good and so different. If we all think the same way it would be so boring.”
Offering an insight into his approach, Fernandes explained the challenges that come with assuming a leadership role in the United dressing room.
“During the game I just think about the goal we have for the game which is to win,” he said. “I remember every step that we have trained and that my teammates have to do and I remember every position they have to do.
“When I go to a training session I focus not only on what I have to do but what is around me because it can change, I have to play a different position or a teammate could not be aware of where he has to be or which position he should stay.
“On set-pieces, I know exactly where everyone has to be. The only nervous thing is getting everything into my memory so I can remember in the game every step. Also, when I’m on the ball I know every movement my teammates have to do. To be aware of, ‘I’m on the ball here so this is what we trained’—but you have to think that in a split second. It gets automatic because I think about that during the week until the game. When you think so many times about something your muscle memory works by itself.”
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as ‘So Boring’—Bruno Fernandes Hits Back at Critics of Man Utd Captaincy.