Manchester United legend Gordon Strachan has laid out some pointed criticism of the club’s star players.
Strachan has words for club captain Bruno Fernandes, trickster Antony and polarising defender Harry Maguire.
Bruno Fernandes doesn’t behave like a Manchester United captain
Strachan bluntly assessed Fernandes in an interview with Casinosite.nl:
“As a leader on the field you are meant to be everything that the club wants from a player.
“When you’re the captain you have to try to be the best player, you have to get the best out of everybody on the team. You have to be the best in training, set the best standards on and off the pitch but again this comes down to how brave are the people around you.
“If the people around you have low standards and don’t understand because we’re actually telling the world that some of these standards are acceptable.
“The lads on the commentary wouldn’t have had it in their day. There’s a young player on this team who is thinking ‘oh that’s part of life’. Well no it’s not part of life. What we’re talking about is a wonderful footballer, but he doesn’t do himself any favours.
“If he could just take away the play-acting he would be one of the best-loved footballers in world football.
“Think about that. But he needs people around him to tell him that it’s not acceptable. Be a leader. People follow his example so do you really want players all the way down to the youth system to follow that example?”
Antony thinks he’s Ronaldo, he will never be Ronaldo
When assessing £82m signing Antony’s first season at United, Strachan had this to say;
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“Well he has assets. He kind of reminds me of Ronaldo, although it’s never nice to throw another name in the mix. He seems to think he is, but I don’t think he’s anywhere near as good as Ronaldo. There’s too much work on the ball.
“When Ronaldo first got there, at that point you had people in the team who would tell Ronaldo the truth and say ‘excuse me, we don’t want you dancing about when you can cross it in earlier! Use your ability to get in good areas and produce something. We’re not here to see you.’ I think at that point Ronaldo took on board what Sir Alex was saying, what Roy Keane and Paul Scholes was saying. He understood what they wanted from him and he became this once in a lifetime player.I don’t think Antony can get anywhere near where Ronaldo reached but I think he’s got to ask himself; ‘am I doing this for myself or am I doing it for the team?’
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“If you’re genuinely doing it for the team then fine. If you’re doing it for yourself then cut it out. It’s the kind of thing Neymar does. He does it for himself. You never see the top players try and ridicule the players they’re playing with. They do it for the team with humility.
“Ronaldo picked it up really early and still understands that. The last couple of weeks we’ve seen magical things from him [Antony] but sometimes when life’s not great you have to be a good teammate first.”
Maguire needs to stand up to Ten Hag, he can’t keep being Manchester United’s ‘whipping boy’
Quizzed on what Harry Maguire needs to do, after a very difficult season for the defender, Strachan said;
“I think Harry has to have a conversion with Erik ten Hag and ask him ‘do you really want me?’ because he’s really taking some flak, albeit mostly on social media which is a horrible world to get involved in.
“For his own good he should want to go somewhere where the manager wants to play him as first choice. What he doesn’t want is to be this whipping boy when something goes wrong.
“He needs to decide what his future holds. I had a similar situation myself at the end of my time at Manchester United and ended up going to Leeds where I had a wonderful time. I think he deserves a break.”
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