Erik ten Hag insists that Bruno Fernandes was "acting like a captain" against Bournemouth after being spotted having an angry exchange with Manchester United team-mate Andre Onana.
Fernandes, 29, was United's savour by scoring twice on Saturday, as the Red Devils salvaged a 2-2 draw after a dire performance on the south coast. But even before United had even gone 1-0 down to Dominic Solanke's 16th-minute opener, the Portuguese midfielder was seen bickering with his goalkeeper about his goal kicks.
Onana stood his ground and Ten Hag told Fernandes to cool it. The Red Devils skipper refused, though, ending the debate by wagging his finger at his boss.
Speaking to Match of the Day after Saturday's to-and-fro draw, Ten Hag was asked about Fernandes and his lively showing. "Scoring twice, very creative, it's true he gives a lot of energy to the team," the United manager replied.
"He is acting as a captain, bringing the energy and we are very pleased with this. We are all disappointed but he expresses that feeling. We have to win our games and we have dropped too many unnecessary points in the last few games."
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Ten Hag - who also admitted in a separate interview that the Red Devils shouldn't have been awarded their second-half penalty, which Fernandes scored - went on to bemoan United's all-round display. Having won just one Premier League game in their last seven, the Dutchman admitted: "We know we have to win.
"We want to battle, to compete for the top positions. You see the game, we struggled first half, [Harry] Maguire was struggling but he overcame because we needed him to. The second half was much better, the good thing is we fought back twice from a losing position.
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Bruno Fernandes scored both of Manchester United's goal at Bournemouth (Matthew Peters/Manchester United via Getty Images)"The team spirit is good. By the end it could've been more composed and calm and we could've played more chances out. The opponent was struggling because they gave so much energy in the first half and there were so many gaps but we didn't benefit from it."
Bournemouth were given a penalty of their own deep into injury time which looked to have handed them the opportunity to snatch a win. The decision was soon overturned by VAR, though, as Willy Kambwala's challenge on Ryan Christie was adjudged to have taken place out of the box.
"It was not a penalty, definitely not," Ten Hag affirmed. "We conceded - in the last four games - three penalties, and all of them were debatable."
The Red Devils must now turn their attention to the FA Cup, facing Coventry next Sunday in a semi-final clash at Wembley.
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