‘It motivates me’ – Fernandes fuelled by Keane’s United criticism

Bruno Fernandes has said that Roy Keane’s scathing criticism of his work rate at Manchester United has motivated him to improve for the club.

Fernandes was on target in United’s 3-0 win over Leicester City in the Premier League, while also providing the assists forRasmus Hojlund andAlejandro Garnacho’s goals.

For the ninth time across all competitions for United, Fernandes recorded three goal involvements in a match, with two of those have coming inhis last two matches against Leicester and Real Sociedad, as many instances as across his prior 201 matches combined for the Red Devils.

Indeed, hemoved onto 112 Premier League goal involvements for United, the 10th-most for the club in the top-flight, after moving above Ruud van Nistelrooy.

The Portuguese international also became the sixth Red Devils player to reach 50 assists in the competition, after Ryan Giggs (162), Wayne Rooney (93), David Beckham (80), Paul Scholes (55) and Eric Cantona (51).

Fernandes has been the Red Devils’ standout performer in a poor season at Old Trafford, netting 16 goals and providing 15 assists across all competitions this season.

But ex-United skipper Keane had a furious rant ontheStick To Footballpodcastlast month when he accused the Red Devils squad of being impostors, while alsoinsistingthat "talent is not enough"in regard to Fernandes, criticisinghis leadership as club captain and claiming he isn’t a fighter.

Fernandes has since impressed under Ruben Amorim since those comments, helping United to a 1-1 draw with title hopefuls Arsenal before following that up with a hat-trick against Real Sociedad to seal his team’s progression in the Europa League.

"I do things in my own way," Fernandestold Sky Sports.

"Obviously, it’s not nice to hear those things about you, but at the same time, it motivates you and, obviously, people think there are a lot of things you need to improve.

"Obviously, not everything I do everyone will like or think in the same way and I respect everyone’s opinion and I have huge respect for Roy Keane and I accept there’s a lot of margin for improvement in my game, in my leadership and everything I do in my life."