Carrick stays in charge for Bournemouth but Rooney urges Fernandes rest

Michael Carrick will take charge of Manchester United's Premier League meeting with Bournemouth on Sunday, Sky Sports Football reports, though concern among club officials over the team's form continues to build.

The fixture arrives with Carrick's position under scrutiny following United's 4-1 Champions League defeat to Como in midweek, a result that left the club with their worst start to a season since 1986, according to Metro Football.

Bruno Fernandes was critical of Carrick's approach in the aftermath of that loss in Italy, but United have opted against disciplinary action against their captain. That stands in contrast to the club's response a week earlier, when Lisandro Martinez was fined over his own post-match comments following defeat to Atletico Madrid.

Wayne Rooney believes Fernandes should nonetheless be left out against Bournemouth, telling The United Stand that the midfielder looks short of his usual sharpness after a long campaign followed by a World Cup. The former United captain suggested Carrick could use the Portugal international's situation to engineer a reset, drawing a comparison with Alex Ferguson occasionally standing Cristiano Ronaldo down for brief spells to let him recharge.

Rooney argued a spell out of the side now could prevent Fernandes becoming increasingly frustrated and unable to perform at his best, saying the captain "needs to be taken out of the limelight a bit and come back fresher, otherwise he will just be running himself into the ground."

The warning comes despite Fernandes having enjoyed arguably his finest individual campaign last season, when he was named Premier League Player of the Year after scoring nine goals and setting up a record 21 for team-mates. His output has dropped sharply this term — four goals in total, three of them against promoted Ipswich Town back in August.

Rooney's broader assessment of the Como collapse was blunt. He said he felt "shock" and "disbelief" at the performance, and suggested the fallout from Martinez's comments had already begun to unsettle the group, predicting further unrest among players unwilling to accept responsibility.

He went further, accusing elements of the squad of selfishness and a readiness to deflect blame rather than confront their own form, likening their reaction to players discarding responsibility "like babies" when results do not go their way.

None of that assessment translates into an immediate change in the dugout. Sunday's visit of Bournemouth to Old Trafford has been described as pivotal for Carrick, with the manager's future expected to hinge in part on how his side respond after the heaviest defeat of their troubled start to the campaign.