Manchester United legend Paul Scholes has questioned Bruno Fernandes despite the captain's key role in the win over Omonia Nicosia.
Fernandes has been a regular starter under new boss Erik ten Hag and has worn the armband in Harry Maguire's absence. That continued in Cyprus in the Europa League on Thursday night, with Fernandes lining up in attacking midfield.
And the Portugal international helped to inspire a second-half comeback after Omonia had taken a surprise lead in the first-half. Though he was playing further forward, Fernandes found himself picking up the ball just outside the box eight minutes after the break.
After jogging forward a few metres, Fernandes looked up to see Marcus Rashford in space on the left. He then proceeded to send a sublime ball forward to the Englishman, who took a touch before firing in the equaliser.
While it was Fernandes who provided the crucial assist, Scholes had questions over his deeper positioning. And the former midfielder also believes that Fernandes' place in the starting line-up is under threat for Sunday's clash with Everton.
"Great pass, not sure what he’s [Fernandes] doing so deep, great pass. As Owen said, it was as lively as we’ve seen Marcus, it wasn’t a great touch, Cristiano makes a brilliant run which creates the run," Scholes told BT Sport.
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"It’s too often you see Marcus when he gets in that position he tries to burst the ball, burst the net, but for this one occasion, it’s a nice, cute finish and he’s shown a bit of composure which he hasn’t done in the past.
"The interesting thing [on Sunday] will be Eriksen and Bruno what he does with them, he brought Bruno off after an hour, he’s been a little bit ineffective the last few weeks. Maybe it will be Casemiro, Fred, McTominay and possibly Eriksen. It could be time for Bruno to have rest on Sunday."
Fernandes was taken off on the hour mark, with Rashford going on to score one more goal and assist another in what turned into a thrilling second-half. Despite United claiming the win, Scholes is not getting carried away following the humiliation in the Manchester derby.
"It’s a win in the end, when you’ve got a substitutes bench as strong as that, that’s what you want, you want them to come on and change the game and that’s exactly what happened in the second half," he added.
"Rashford had a decent game, Martial scored a good goal, Cristiano will be frustrated as well but you have to look at them defensively, everytime Omonia came forward, United looked a little bit shaky.
"They’ll be pleased with the chances created, scored enough to win the game but should’ve been five or six. We was always confident they would come back into the game, they had plenty of chances and you always thought they’d come back and get the win.
"It wasn’t a convincing win which you’d expect but give Omonia credit, they had chances themselves, defended well, keeper made some good saves. The only thing to come out of it is they won the game."
