“I was surprised when I saw the clip” – Former Premier League referee claims Manchester United’s Bruno Fernandes could face retrospective ban after Southampton incident

Former Premier League referee Keith Hackett believes that Manchester United’s Bruno Fernandes was lucky to avoid a red card in the Premier League clash against Southampton on Sunday.

Hackett feels the Portuguese midfielder could have been sent in United's 1-1 draw against the Saints.

Bruno Fernandes lashed out at James Ward-Prowse following a tangle between the two players. The English midfielder was marking Fernandes rather physically as the two got involved in a second-half tussle. Hatchett described Fernandes’ attempted strike as “vicious” and said the FA had every right to take retrospective action.

Speaking to Football Insider, Hatchett said:

“Fernandes is lucky to escape a red card. That is an attempted strike. People often think you have to hit the person to get sent off. Attempting to strike an opponent is a red card offence and he’s swung out pretty viciously.”

He added:

“I was surprised when I saw the clip because I didn’t see it when watching the game. I presume the referee and VAR both missed it.”

Hatchett claimed that the FA could get involved in case the incident was missed by the match officials:

“It is one of those where Fernandes is at risk if the FA decide to ask the question. They might ask the referees if they’ve seen the incident and then go through a process."

He added:

“When an incident has not been seen by match officials, they can charge the player. Fernandes is on a tightrope in the next few hours. They will hopefully sort it today, as to whether they will take it further. Of course, for now it seems as if Bruno Fernandes has gotten away with the incident."

Manchester United’s struggles continue as difficult fixtures loom ahead

Manchester United’s recent struggles look to be as much a result of the players’ limitations as that of the manager. Manchester United have looked like two different teams in two halves in their last couple of games. They looked confident in possession in the first half but failed to make the most of their chances against both Burnley and Southampton.

Both games resulted in a second-half resurgence from the EPL teams lower than them in the table, leading to equalizers that United failed to recover from. Too many players seem to give up once things start going wrong.

The most obvious problems with the team continue to be defensive midfield and Harry Maguire. Maguire looks scared of being caught against skilful EPL attackers, something the league has no dearth of at the moment.

He has been caught off multiple times in the last two games alone and the club might have to dip into the transfer market in the summer again.

Manchester United are set to take on the likes of Manchester City, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur in the league in the coming weeks. They also have a UCL knockout round against Atletico Madrid to maneuver. There might be some difficult times ahead if their stars do not start firing in the coming weeks.