Manchester United forward Bruno Fernandes sits down for an exclusive talk with Sky Sports ahead of Sunday's Carabao Cup final with Newcastle United at Wembley; watch Man Utd vs Newcastle on Sunday, live on Sky Sports Football from 3pm; kick-off 4.30pm
Sunday 26 February 2023 17:32, UK
Bruno Fernandes can say he knew. It was the end of Erik ten Hag's second week at Carrington - the first with the internationals returning to the training ground after a summer break - when the midfielder flagged to senior team-mates: 'we are right now, we have him, and he gives us the highest standards.'
Manchester United are the only club in Europe's top leagues alive in the mix for four trophies. On Thursday night, they vanquished Barcelona 4-3 on aggregate in scenes that saw trophy-laden Raphael Varane and Casemiro celebrate play-off victory in the continent's secondary competition as though it were prime silverware.
It is not about what it was, but what it means and where it shows the club are going. First, to Wembley to contest the Carabao Cup final against Newcastle but something special - something strong - is brewing under Ten Hag.
It all circles back to the start, to those high standards, to a manager unwavering in his principles and unquestionable in his authority.
In an exclusive interview with Sky Sports News, Bruno Fernandes invites us on a journey into the Ten Hag process.
Bruno, from the outside Manchester United feels like a completely different club under Erik ten Hag. Give us an understanding of that from the inside…
He brought his ideas, the discipline during the training sessions, during the week, during the games. Obviously I think the most important change is the results and confidence is much higher now at this moment. We believe that the process that we are going through is the right one. I think everyone has the right belief. Everyone is following the ideas that the coach has brought to the club, to the team.
You speak about his ideas, there's also been what feels like a change of culture in terms of discipline and higher standards and players taking greater responsibility…
He demands a lot from us. He knows what we are capable of doing and that's why he demands. So I think everyone understood that you have to be in his line. You have to follow his rules. If not, it will not be good for you. So I think everyone understood that straight from the pre-season. He was really strong with his words. There in Thailand, in Australia was really tough training sessions. No one could quit from running, no one could stop. And I think everyone understood the standards that is set for us. And, and from there on, we have to follow that.
You speak about demands and the strictness, but is it fun to be a United player again? To walk through these doors?
No, it's always fun to be a Manchester United player. It's always a pleasure, but obviously when you get the results, it's always better. You come with a smile to the training ground. Obviously now we are in a great run with the results, great results. It's it's fantastic to be in the position we are now and obviously for everyone, it's much easier when you win games. I think the lack of confidence last season was pretty visible in everyone. And now you can see that everyone is pretty confident everyone that plays and even that doesn't play. The ones that come on, they have been a massive difference for us. So I think the atmosphere obviously is much better because of the results.
You've highlighted this stronger United dressing room and the confidence in the team - everything seems like it's come together at the right time to create this?
Straight away in the pre-season, he showed us the direction he wants to go, the rules he wants us to follow, the ideas of football, I think all that make us straight away, give a step forward from the pre-season. The first two results wasn't the ones we we wanted, but after that I think was a really big improvement from the team. You get that amazing victory against Liverpool with the big atmosphere at the stadium and you understand the push of the fans, the belief of the fans. You can feel now how much the fans believe in you, how much they - even during games that are more tough to score goals or it's more difficult to try to get our chances - they always believe until the last moment that we can win.
And and it's something that we, we have built because it's difficult for fans like last season. We understood because for us it was really frustrating. We understand the fans' side and obviously this year we can feel and we can understand how much they have belief in us. How much they understand the process, how much they want to carry on with this. Even in tough moments, like it was when we went to the Emirates and we lost against Arsenal, you could feel that the fans were not disappointed. Disappointed with the result obviously, but really proud of the process and really having a great belief that what is coming will be really good for us. So I think it's something that is now in the club with a better environment and atmosphere. The belief between players, club, staff and the fans is being built and is even much bigger now.
You can definitely feel it, but you referenced there, those two heavy defeats at the start of the season - were there any doubts or anxiety and how did the team and the manager deal with that?
In the first game against Brighton, we had the first chances to score. We didn't score. Brighton goes there one time and they had the goal and you could feel the ghosts from the past. You know, like we are playing well, but all of a sudden we concede the goal from nothing. That first game was really tough to have. I think more than Brentford, because Brentford, we know we did some mistakes individual ones, some group ones, other ones. You know, the, the intention, the intensity was not there. The desire, the passion, they had all that more than us. But the Brighton game for me was the one that hurts the most. Like you had that feeling that you're playing good, you are in the good moment and all of a sudden, you concede a goal.
But I've seen this, I've seen this many times. I think the turnaround of our season is the Liverpool game. The atmosphere was buzzing. I think the first tackle of Licha [Lisandro Martinez] makes straight the fans go up and you could feel straight away there that everyone understood it has to be our moment. That it has to be our turnaround, to be the game that we win and make things change. And I think from that game on we did a pretty good run until City - obviously we had that bad result. But after that it was unbelievable until Arsenal. We know how tough is the Premier League and we have lost against the two teams that are in front of us. So we have beat them and we have lost against them. We want to win both games against them, but was not possible. At home we showed that we are a different team and we can beat them.
Did you expect this transformation to happen so soon under Ten Hag?
The process is still on and we have to understand that it's still a long way for us because we want to achieve much bigger things and obviously the manager demands that from us. I have been talking with him sometimes and he's always saying that he has the same desire as me. He is not happy with being behind anyone. So that's a good thing. He brought that culture that we can't be happy to be behind anyone and whenever we are in front, we can't be happy to be with a smaller gap. I think that's a great thing to have because we can't be satisfied playing for Man United and not winning trophies and not being in the position of winning trophies.
But as I said it is a process. It's six or seven months now and things are going pretty quickly - I think from outside probably more because people never thought that United will be in this position at this time because all the changes, because the new manager, because the results in the beginning… But obviously it's up to us, up to our qualities, up to what we have been doing really well and so is is about us now to carry on because it's easy to forget the good results we have done whenever you lose a game. So it's us about us to carry on in doing our best because we don't want people to forget how good we are.
You speak about how good United are and the qualities of the players that have been added - Casemiro, Martinez… - have really helped with that…
When someone comes in, he always brings something new, he brings something different because all the players are different. I think with with that two players that you mentioned, they brought a good mentality, a good quality. Obviously I think Christian (Eriksen) was also playing really well, but I think a part of the ones that came in is also about the ones that step forward and did a step to understand that we are not reaching our levels yet. So we can do much better. I think everyone this season is being much better than we was last season, starting with me. I think everyone is being pretty much more confident, more performing wise, more consistent and doing what is needed for the team to win.
Because sometimes you have to suffer, sometimes you have to run more, sometimes you have to touch less the ball. And that is the also the demands from the manager. The intensity he wants, the runs he wants, the idea of football he wants. I think he brought the people he understood that will fit in his ideas and I think everyone is fitting really well. So everyone is pretty satisfied for the moment, but we are not happy yet because we didn't achieved nothing yet. So it's still a long way to go, but I think we are in a good way.
The manager has been quite clear in saying he wants you guys to focus just on the football regardless of whatever off-field distractions are happening and there have been a few for United. How do you guys do that?
For me it's not difficult because I try to focus on my game. I try to focus on whatever I can do inside the buildings here, inside the stadium, inside the pitch, because it's everything that we can control is ourselves, it's the best we can do. So we know the surroundings, we know the voices. It's impossible to not know at this moment. We are in a place where it's easy to talk about United because we know it makes a lot of noise talking about the club. But I think if you keep doing the right things, if you keep the momentum, if you keep the results, it will always be less and less the noise. So it's about us doing our job, doing our best, and trying to keep the results as as they are.
We talk about Manchester United in a final, but then Newcastle have waited even longer to reach this point. What have you made of your opponents so far this season?
Oh, I think everyone knows that Newcastle is being probably the biggest surprise of the season. Not because of their qualities, because the quality has been always there, but because last season they struggle to stay in the Premier League and this season they're doing really well. So I think everyone knows that it a pretty strong and intense team. They haven't conceded many goals this season. I think probably the best or the second best in Europe with less goals conceded. But it's more about us. It's more about what we can do toward them, what we can we can do in our intensity levels, passion levels and quality-wise. Because we know that we'll be a pretty difficult final whoever the opponent will be. It's always difficult because it's a final, the desire, the passion to win a trophy is always at the highest.
Watch Man Utd vs Newcastle on Sunday, live on Sky Sports Football from 3pm; kick-off 4.30pm
