Jadon Sancho
Jadon Sancho

Manchester United legend Gary Neville has sided with Jadon Sancho on the Aston Villa incident, wherein the winger was instructing Bruno Fernandes to change his attitude on the pitch. United defeated Aston Villa 1-0 at Old Trafford on Sunday, with Fernandes scoring the game-winning goal in the 39th minute.

The hosts generated a flurry of chances in the first 45 minutes but frequently lacked the finishing touch, resulting in errant efforts and easy saves for Villa ‘keeper Emiliano Martinez. Fernandes clashed with Sancho after the Englishman failed to execute his duties during a sweeping United move in the first half, which grabbed all the headlines.

Jadon Sancho
Bruno Fernandes has been urged to take up the advice of teammate Jadon Sancho who yelled “stop moaning” at the Man United playmaker during the Aston Villa win. Credits: Twitter

Gary Neville tears into Bruno Fernandes after Jadon Sancho incident

Gary Neville was forthright in his assessment of Fernandes’ incident with Jadon Sancho during the Red Devils’ victory over Aston Villa. The Portuguese playmaker scored the game’s sole goal, although he was involved in two different incidents with his teammates during the 90-minute period.

Fernandes also clashed with Casemiro as when the midfield pair were spotted in a heated conversation at the end of the game, Harry Maguire came over to speak with the Portugal star during the row. Separately, during the first half, a video of Jadon Sancho appearing to tell Fernandes to “stop moaning” to the referee also went viral on social media.

Many fans and pundits have grown tired of Fernandes’ protests to officials during games, which appears to have rubbed off on Jadon Sancho when the stand-in skipper launched into another tirade against the referee during the win over Villa. Neville believed that now that Fernandes’ teammates were obviously agitated by the protests, he might reconsider his on-field behaviour. Neville said on his podcast:

“It sums Bruno Fernandes up. He’s Manchester United’s most effective player, he’s their best player. But I think every fan and probably every United player is thinking: just stop moaning! I moan a lot, but I didn’t do it on the pitch at my own players! So that’s probably the perfect summary of Bruno Fernandes. He’s a match-winner, when Manchester United don’t have him in the team they drop levels like you wouldn’t believe – and we’ve seen that recently against Sevilla.

“It’s an important win for Manchester United. Bruno Fernandes is a star. His assists and goals record is incredible from the position that he plays. He always wants the ball, he’s got the courage to take the ball, he always fights for everything in a game. But maybe one of his teammates or two do need to tell him to stop moaning now and then, and that probably to be fair is something he will take on board.”

Despite the fact that he has been wearing the armband in Maguire’s absence, the two clashes with Jadon Sancho and Casemiro will do little to reinforce the notion that Fernandes will ever be captain material. Fernandes has been one of the Red Devils’ top players this season, with 11 goals and 14 assists in 52 games across all competitions. Only Rashford has scored more goals than the playmaker this season (29 in 51 appearances).