Manchester United’s embarrassing 4-0 defeat to Brentford in August turned the club’s season around – at least that’s what it looks like at face value.
Since then, they have only lost two games in the Premier League and ahead of this weekend’s Manchester derby, they have the chance to be within one point of the side that inflicted one of those two defeats on them.
Fernandes was one of the players who started that game at the Brentford Community Stadium and in the aftermath of that performance, it was reported that Erik ten Hag used an old-school approach to punish his players less than 24 hours later.
Thomas Frank’s players outran the Reds by over 13km over the 90 minutes and that was the distance players had to make up at Carrington – a grueling run Ten Hag joined the players in making.
Now, with United flying and on an eight-game winning run, Fernandes has hailed the new manager and opened up on that now-infamous punishment.
“Why do we have to do it like this?” Ten Hag told the Manchester Evening News when looking back at that day at Carrington.
“When a manager does the punishment – because that’s what you have to call it, it was a punishment. Obviously it makes us feel he knows he was part of that bad result and he wants to make us understand we are together on this in a good way, in a bad way, in the good moments and in the bad moments.
“All of a sudden, you look backwards and you see your manager running with you. I don’t know exactly what the distance was but it was a big distance.”
SN’s verdict…
It’s easy to understand why Ten Hag’s decision to take part in the punishment would have left an impression on the players – the best possible way of showing that the boss also needs to show accountability.
Make no mistake about it – United’s start of the season was disastrous and it left supporters worried. It felt like United’s decline was a bottomless pit but Ten Hag has halted the drop and turned it all around.
In 2023, United have a feeling of optimism about them and it genuinely feels like nothing is beyond them.
