Paul Parker wanted him dropped before Leeds. Carrick kept him in. On Sunday at Elland Road, Fernandes picked up a yellow card inside 17 minutes, dragged a chance wide after the hour, and Manchester United walked away with another 1-1 draw, the third in a row, extending the winless league run to five.
The 32-year-old is still United’s captain, still the man last season’s teammates voted PFA Player of the Year after an assist haul that broke Thierry Henry and Kevin De Bruyne’s shared Premier League record. The problem is that the player on the pitch at Elland Road looked nothing like him.
‘He doesn’t do enough’
Parker, the former United defender, had told Caughtoffside before the trip to Leeds that Carrick needed to be brave.
“They haven’t got someone who’s leading, Fernandes just doesn’t do enough and he’s had a poor season,” Parker said.
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“He gets frustrated too easily, and he takes it out on his teammates, and at the moment, you need everything together. So, I would leave out Fernandes and try to get as many legs on that pitch as possible.”
The numbers do not help the captain’s case. Fernandes has lost possession 106 times in the Premier League this season, more than any other outfield player in the division according to WhoScored. His last goal or assist for United came back on 10 September.
23 minutes for a first pass
Sky Sports’ Laura Hunter, writing on the morning of the Leeds game, picked out the moment that framed the issue most starkly against Tottenham a week earlier. “It took Fernandes a remarkable 23 minutes to complete his first pass,” she wrote, adding that in the recent Atletico Madrid tie Wayne Rooney had told viewers at half-time:
“Maybe they need to take Bruno off because he’s not having the best game.”
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Carrick, who took the job on a permanent basis after guiding United to third last season, has so far refused to leave him out. He has instead moved Fernandes around the pitch, deploying him on the left at Elland Road inside a reshaped back three.
Asked about his captain earlier this month, Carrick kept the public line calm.
“Right now it’s not a major deal, he’s in good shape and he was really bright this morning, looking forward to the game,” he said.
Why the Rashford parallel stings
The reason the Rashford comparison carries weight at Old Trafford is that United fans watched the same drip of body-language shots and dropping output turn into a full breakdown last time. Marcus Rashford was frozen out by Ruben Amorim at the end of 2024, loaned to Aston Villa in February 2025 and spent 2025-26 at Barcelona, whose decision not to pay the reported £26m fee left his United future in open air.
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Fernandes’ situation is not identical. His contract runs until the end of this season with a one-year club option, and nobody at United is briefing that he is on the way out. But the trajectory, from untouchable to a player a club legend wants benched inside a month, is close enough to be uncomfortable.
United’s next match is at home to Brighton on Saturday, 24 October.
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