Bruno Fernandes decided to step in and hand out touchline instructions against Newcastle

An animated Bruno Fernandes could be seen handing out touchline instructions to his Manchester United teammates during their Carabao Cup defeat to Newcastle.

The 29-year-old Portuguese midfielder was dropped to the subs bench with Marcus Rashford and Rasmus Hojlund for Wednesday night's clash at Old Trafford.

Erik ten Hag's side would concede three times in the opening hour as goals from Miguel Almiron, Lewis Hall and Joe Willock handed Newcastle a much-deserved three goal lead.

Fernandes, who was named United's captain in July after Harry Maguire was stripped of the armband, tried to make a contribution, despite his on-field absence.

As you can see from the fan footage below, he could be seen hurling instructions to his teammates as they continued to chase the game.

Bruno Fernandes trying to motivate and push the players off the sideline. pic.twitter.com/ynRjHJULuq

— Faz (@planetfaz) November 1, 2023

Fernandes would eventually replace Hannibal Mejbri in the 65th minute but his presence was ultimately ineffective.

After the full-time whistle, Erik ten Hag took full responsibility for the defeat and was asked if he felt United had the right characters to meet the standards at the club.

"We know this is not good enough," he told Sky Sports. "We have to take responsibility for it, I have to take responsibility for it. We don't give the performance, so I feel sorry for the fans. It is below our standards and we have to put it right.

"We have to recover from it but we have to quickly recover - Saturday is the next game (against Fulham), and we have to raise our standards. This is not good enough."

He added: "Players will stand up, they are sticking together - you have seen, they have tried. But we know this is not good enough, and as I said, I'm responsible for this, and we have to do this together."

On the subject of Fernandes, former United midfielder Roy Keane recently criticised the Portugal international for his constant "whinging", and even suggested that Fernandes should be stripped of the captaincy.

After the defeat to Manchester City last weekend, he said: "Today having watched him again I would take the captaincy off him 100 per cent. I know it's a big decision, obviously they changed the captaincy with Maguire, but Fernandes is not captain material.

"He is a talented player no doubt about it. But what I saw today - we've discussed many times before, it was last season at Liverpool - his whinging, his moaning and throwing his arms up in the air constantly.

"It really isn't acceptable. From what we saw today, I'm thinking I would take that off him. You have to start somewhere. We were talking about where do you start [fixing the problems] - the manager, board level.

"I would start with that because the manager is capable of doing that. Fernandes is a brilliant footballer but in terms of captain material he is the opposite to what I would want in a captain."

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