Carrick challenges Bruno Fernandes’ “mentally crushed” Man Utd statement

Michael Carrick and Bruno Fernandes have made up after their Como disaster, but they don’t agree over “mentally crushed” Man Utd.

Recently, Bruno Fernandes gave a peek into the psyche of Man Utd players and their failure at the club by revealing a major reason behind their form.

He said that the weight of expectations at Old Trafford often sees the players get “mentally crushed” and trapped in a vicious cycle of low confidence, leading to bad results.

Michael Carrick has responded to those comments by taking no prisoners and throwing down the gauntlet for the Man Utd squad.

Michael Carrick asks Man Utd players to deal with it

As a former player at United who won basically everything there was to win at this club, Carrick can certainly talk about dealing with the pressure of playing here.

His ability as a manager is under intense scrutiny, but he’s far from a weakling mentally because he’s been in the position Fernandes talked about.

In fact, the serial winners of Sir Alex Ferguson were under even more pressure because at the time, even second place in the league wasn’t good enough.

Carrick was recently asked how the players should deal with the pressure of playing for United, and he brushed it off, saying that it comes with the territory of playing for United.

He said: “As a performance, elite athlete, we’re always striving for close to perfection. You never get perfect. You always want to be getting to that limit really and playing right on the edge and with that and I’d say a huge chunk of that is your mindset, your mentality, your confidence and that feeling that you have. So, it is coping with that, that’s a major part of it.”

Fernandes should take this as a direct response to his statement that the players feel mentally crushed under the pressure of not matching expectations.

At a club like United, pressure should be considered a privilege, as the players should think of themselves as vehicles of huge influence over the lives of billions of fans.

To say that they feel mentally crushed under that pressure instead of taking that challenge head-on is exactly why United are in this situation.

Carrick would know that better than most, and he needs to impart that wisdom at Carrington now.