Paul Scholes blasts Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes over 'stupid' fouls in Champions League collapse

Old Trafford icon laments another defensive horror show in the six-goal thriller against Galatasaray
George Flood30 November 2023

Manchester United legend Paul Scholes has called on Bruno Fernandes to "take responsibility" for his own mistakes after the Champions League collapse against Galatasaray.

United's hopes of progressing through to the last-16 in Europe's elite club competition have been left hanging by a thread with only one matchday left to go in Group A, despite them twice holding a two-goal lead in Wednesday evening's thrilling clash in Istanbul.

Two further high-profile errors from goalkeeper Andre Onana proved extremely costly on the night, but even then Erik ten Hag's side still wasted hatfuls of chances to grab the all-important fourth goal to secure a crucial victory on the continent.

Such a frustrating display at both ends of the pitch led to some stern and honest post-match words from captain Fernandes, who implored his United team-mates to step up and take responsibility for their own individual mistakes in a no-nonsense interview with TNT Sports.

The Portuguese - who assisted Alejandro Garnacho's early opener in Turkey and then scored a brilliant goal of his own before hitting the post late on - also urged United's stars to put the team's needs above their own when pushing for goals, also lamenting the "very bad" goals they conceded and missed chances plus their need for much better game management.

However, such a reflective speech was given short shrift by Old Trafford hero Scholes, who told Fernandes to acknowledge his own errors that contributed to Galatasaray twice being handed important lifelines.

Paul Scholes wants Bruno Fernandes to take responsibility for his own mistakes
Getty Images

"I know in his interview he is talking about mistakes, but he made two big mistakes tonight by giving two stupid fouls away that lead to two goals," Scholes said in his role as a pundit on TNT Sports.

"The full team, including himself as the captain, have to take responsibility - it's a game they should win.

"They just cannot keep clean sheets - the defence is all over the place, the keeper is making mistakes, Bruno giving away cheap free-kicks.

"It makes the game difficult for them every time and they don't need to do that."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in