Essentially, ever since Sir Alex Ferguson left in 2013, life for Manchester United players has been more about the downs than the ups.
Indeed, manager after manager has arrived at Old Trafford and failed to ever truly steady the ship.
Last season, with his triumph in the League Cup, Erik ten Hag looked as though he could finally be the right man for the job. He did well enough, in fact, to also get the Red Devils back in the Champions League. It turns out, however, they were perhaps not quite ready to have a crack at that competition.
Indeed, after their opening three fixtures, United had picked up just three points, having won once and lost twice. It was a poor start but the prospect of qualifying from Group A wasn’t yet out of reach. Although they would likely need a positive result against Copenhagen.
Man United collapse vs Copenhagen
Well, on Wednesday night it looked as though they were set for that much-needed victory when two goals from Rasmus Højlund put Man United up 2-0 inside the first half an hour. What could go wrong from there…
Elation quickly turned to misery when Marcus Rashford was given a controversial red card after his poor challenge. This was in the 42nd minute and by half time the home team were level thanks to efforts from Mohamed Elyounoussi and Diogo Gonçalves. Bruno Fernandes actually then put United up 3-2 – prompting some premature celebrations from Alejandro Garnacho – but they couldn’t hold onto that lead.
Diogo Dalot switched off at the back post allowing Lukas Lerager to level the scores again, before the ironically named Roony Bardghji smashed in a late winner to send Copenhagen fans into a state of delirium. As a consequence of the defeat, the Red Devils sit bottom of Group A, with just two games left to play against Bayern Munich and Galatasaray.
If that wasn’t bad enough, their form in the Premier League isn’t anything to write home about either. After all, they have just 18 points in 11 games leaving them eighth in the table. This most recent Champions League defeat means Man United have now lost nine times in all competitions this season, meaning they’ve made their worst start to a campaign since the last time they were relegated way back in the 1973/74 season.
To put it simply, life right now for everyone involved with Man United is just suffering. Visualising that perfectly was club captain Bruno Fernandes, who was spotted on camera looking completely dejected after the game in Denmark. He sits slumped on some staircase behind the scenes, completely shell-shocked as if he can’t believe what just happened.
Bruno 💔 pic.twitter.com/meBJsJlY4Z
— Fredrik A. Filtvedt (@FAFiltvedt) November 9, 2023
Bruno Fernandes slammed for ‘whining’ too much
Despite his obvious disappointment, it doesn’t seem as though the opposition players have a lot of sympathy for Fernandes. For instance, after clashing with the Portuguese midfielder during the game, Elyounoussi slammed his rival for ‘whining’ too much throughout the game,telling the press (via Daily Mail):
“I think everyone who has seen United and who has seen him knows that he is a player who is always with the referees complaining and whining. I tried to get him away from the referee. I said: ‘It’s done’. It was nothing more than that. I don’t like players who go forward and try to influence the referees.”