Bruno Fernandes has hailed Kobbie Mainoo and Alejandro Garnacho for their influence on the first-team – but warned his other team-mates about being over-reliant on them.
There is a sense of over-reliance on Mainoo and Garnacho. It can also be viewed as a positive because that over-reliance wouldn’t exist if these two young players weren’t special.
It has been a dire season for United, but the two academy graduates have often been a silver lining for under-fire manager Erik ten Hag.
In Wednesday night’s 4-2 win over Sheffield United, Ethan Wheatley became United’s 250th academy graduate after being handed his first-team debut.
Fernandes praised the club’s incredible academy but also argued that senior players need to ‘step up’ to take some of the responsibility from the younger lads in the dressing room.
“I think the team needs to step up in certain moments to also make them feel confident to have their bad moments, their bad games, or even to let them have less pressure on themselves to be the players that have to make the different in certain moments,” Fernandes told ManUtd.com.
“At this club, you are used to having young players coming through the Academy and you’re used to the club buying young players that they feel can have a future at the club. You just mentioned two of them,’ he said, responding to a question about Mainoo and Garnacho.
“They’ve been playing most and they’ve been doing well. They’ve been doing great things.
‘But, when the team is playing better, it’s going to create an even better place for them to [continue their] development and to be a better player. To be in a better place, being more confident, having more trust and playing even better.
“Even if they’re doing well, I think there is always space for improvement for everyone, but obviously when the team improves, everyone else improves individually.
“I think they’ve been really good; they’ve been improving themselves. It’s just the first steps. They need to keep going, because obviously the expectations are going to grow, game by game, season by season.
“And we all know that at this club that they all expect a lot from the youngest, even more when they come from the Academy, because it’s part of the history of the club, and they have a big responsibility on their shoulders.”
It’s up to the senior players to lead by example and not all of them have been doing that. Fernandes deserves credit because he gives 100% effort every time he steps on the pitch. He even with a broken hand on Wednesday night.
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