Fernandes believes in Amorim's United plan
Bruno Fernandes said there is no reason for he and his Manchester United team-mates not to believe in Ruben Amorim's plan to turn the Red Devils' fortunes around this season.
Amorim enjoyed an encouraging week after overseeing a draw away to league leader Liverpool before knocking Arsenal out of the FA Cup with a hard-fought win.
United endured a difficult December, losing six games in all competitions, only the third month in which it had lost six games, after April 1926 (six) and September 1930 (seven).
It also conceded 18 goals in the final month of 2024, its most in a single month since March 1964 (also 18), putting Amorim under pressure so early into his tenure.
After a 2-0 defeat to Newcastle United, only Southampton (seven) had lost more games in all competitions among Premier League clubs than the Red Devils (six) since Amorim's arrival at Old Trafford.
The mood has partially lifted on a dark spell for United, which was just seven points off the drop zone and headed into the new year in its worst league position since 1989.
"It's really easy when you don't get results, when you don't get the performance, that you start losing belief in everything you've been doing," Fernandes said.
"But I think that was one of the good things we had as a team - we kept the belief in what we are doing, in what we've been training and where we want to go as a team, where the staff wants us to go as a team, what we want to improve as a team.
"And that is what is giving us now some more credit, because we've been doing the same things that people probably will think, 'oh, the manager has to change this back three or back five, it doesn't work. We need to go back four. We need one more striker.'
"You know, every time you lose, or every time something goes wrong, everyone has an opinion about what you should do differently. But obviously, the manager has his own idea and we understand.
"What we do really understand as players at the moment is that he really believes in this. So there is no way that it makes you not believe it.
"So everything he says to you, everything he tries to pass to you - him and his staff - he does it in a way that we really believe on what we are doing in.
"Even in games where you concede a goal, or you have a setback, he just wants us to understand that the things we're doing will bring results if we do it in the right way."
United's noted improvements have been in its intensity and defensive shape. But if there is one area Amorim still needs to see great strides from, it is in attack.
Just 44.7 per cent of its open-play shots in the top-flight this term have come while under challenge from within two metres (115/257) – only Liverpool (43.5 per cent) has a lower share.
Indeed, United has fired a higher proportion of its shots from outside the box than any other side so far (37 per ent), with a lack of a clinical edge proving to be their downfall.
The Red Devils have scored 22 goals in the Premier League this term, with only Crystal Palace (21), Ipswich Town (20), Everton (15) and Southampton (12) scoring fewer.
Fernandes has netted a team-high four of United's top-flight goals this season – level with Marcus Rashford – but said attacking improvements must come from all over the pitch.
"The manager has been telling us a lot that we have to score more goals," Fernandes said. "And that's true, because we are a team that has the capability of scoring goals.
"I know we have a lot of young players in front, but we have quality, and we have to score goals because Rasmus is capable of scoring goals. Josh is capable, Amad is capable.
"Garnacho Rashy, Antony, me and even the midfielders that sometimes play a bit deeper, like Kobbie or Manu or Casa or Christian, they're all players with goals in them.
"So we have a lot of players that have the capability of scoring goals. Like yesterday, Carlos came to talk with me - the assistant of the manager before the game - telling me that we needed more desire to run into the box, to make the run, to get in there.
"When we are on the counter, we need to run. And the goal comes a little bit from that. Garnacho recovers the ball, then Diogo jumps, then Garna gets the ball from Gabriel.
"And in my mind it was just like, 'just run as quick as you can to get into the box because you know Garna is quick and is going to get there before you.
"So you need to run as fast as you can because you need to score.' And that desire to defend our goal has to be the same desire to score goals.
"And this is something that the manager wants us to improve. And I think we have a lot to improve because we have so much quality in our team to score more goals than we've been showing. This is not really the level we have here."
