VAR ‘atrocious’ and Fernandes ‘poor’ as ‘excruciating’ display lamented by Man Utd insider
Manchester United insider Laurie Whitwell has labelled VAR as ‘atrocious’ and Bruno Fernandes as ‘poor’ in the club’s ‘excruciating’ loss to Brentford on Saturday.
United have lost three of their six Premier League games so far this season. Currently, they sit 12th in the league, below Brentford, who turned them over on Saturday.
The Bees scored twice in the opening 20 minutes, and though United new boy Benjamin Sesko promisingly scored his first goal for the club not long after the second was conceded, Brentford came back with a third before the end of the game.
The fallout from the loss includes many calling for Ruben Amorim’s head, with another tactically deficient performance.
United insider for The Athletic, Whitwell, called out VAR for its role in the United loss, but felt the result was deserved.
He wrote on X: ‘Atrocious use of VAR. Clear red card for denial of goal-scoring opportunity, no effort to play the ball by [Nathan] Collins, yet four minutes wasted only for officials to avoid making the decision. Then subs. Poor penalty Fernandes, who has shown he can be affected by delays.’
Indeed, Fernandes had missed a penalty in August after colliding with the referee as he stepped back to take a spot kick, and this time around, after a long delay, he placed it along the ground and not in the corner, comfortable for Caoimhin Kelleher to save.
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In a follow-up post, Whitwell called the performance from United ‘excruciating’ and suggested they were ‘bullied’ by long passes.
Fellow football writer Henry Winter had his say on the Red Devils’ performance. He largely gave Brentford their dues, but also knew that the ‘focus’ would be on another United defeat.
He said: ‘Their invisible midfield (Fernandes is a 10, lack defensive awareness), individual mistakes, the missed penalty, the lack of fight and leadership on-field and off, and persistence with a system that doesn’t suit them. Painful watching them. United deserved to lose. But Brentford should be taking the headlines.’
Many of the criticisms of United, both after this match, this season and generally during Amorim’s time in charge, have been that the system does not get the best out of their players.
Micah Richards claimed it had the United defence confused, leading to two of the goals Brentford scored, as he labelled the performance of the side “shambolic.”
READ MORE: Amorim system causes ‘100 per cent confusion’ as ‘shambolic’ Man Utd pair slammed – Richards
