Wayne Rooney slams Bruno Fernandes after Manchester United's comeback win over AS Roma

"For the first goal, if you’re playing in a system, when Dalot goes higher, Bruno should go into that position. He has to run back, you’re the captain of the football club, run back and take responsibility." Wayne Rooney said that to metro.co.uk after Manchester United's 3-2 win over AS Roma in Manchester United vs AS Roma, a match that left United 2-0 down at Old Trafford after 12 minutes.

Rooney's criticism of Fernandes

Rooney's point was aimed at one moment, but it cut deeper than that. He used Bruno Fernandes as the example for a wider complaint about responsibility, adding: "You’re a team and you need to play as a team. If a teammate is out of position, even if you don’t want to be there or run back, you have to run back."

Fernandes did not disappear from the game entirely. He has already scored 2 goals in 4 Champions League appearances this season, and he finished with a 7.29 rating, a goal and 5 key passes against Roma. The criticism was about the defensive work on the first half, not his overall quality on the night.

United's comeback and Carrick's pressure

The bigger context was the state of the match itself. Wayne Rooney said United had shown "nothing, absolutely nothing" before the break, and Alan Shearer said Michael Carrick had to "change and tweak things" after United were "all over the place" in the first half.

The response after half-time was dramatic. Matheus Cunha scored two goals in the space of three minutes, and Rooney later said, "The second-half was amazing, they were front-footed and they deserved to win the game in the end."

United's win also takes some heat off Carrick, even if the long-term judgment is still open. Shearer said, "Great credit to Michael Carrick because they were down and out at half-time," while other comments around the result stopped short of calling it a permanent fix. United are still 17th in the Premier League, which is why a comeback like this felt so loaded once the final whistle went.

The result was a 3-2 win, but the first half still sits at the centre of the story. Rooney singled out Fernandes' recovery run, and United's next league game will show whether the late surge carried any real momentum beyond one chaotic night.