Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes split penalty duties with Marcus Rashford during Saturday’s win over Everton.
Twice during the first half at Old Trafford, Alejandro Garnacho was felled by errant Toffees challenges to allow the Red Devils a huge chance to stride into a sizeable lead.
As per usual for United, Fernandes stepped up to bury the first after 12 minutes but he took the decision to allow Rashford to take the second, which he scored after 36 minutes.
It was not the first time that the Portuguese playmaker has backed his teammate in a bid to boost his confidence, having handed over a spot-kick in United’s trip to Everton in November.
Rashford scored that day for the second goal in a 3-0 win for his first Premier League goal in ten games, and history seemed to repeat itself in the return fixture as he was given the chance to score a first Old Trafford goal in two months.
Back at Goodison Park, Erik ten Hag praised Fernandes for offering out the penalty - but not everyone was a fan.
“He's giving toffee out there to Bruno for passing on the ball for the penalty,” complained pundit Roy Keane post-match in November.
The United legend appeared to be unhappy that his old team were commending themselves despite being off the pace in the fight for titles. Fernandes explained that Rashford “needed a little bit of confidence” and so was allowed to take the penalty.
Keane continued: “Absolute bloody rubbish. Absolute rubbish coming out with that.
“Manchester United are sixth now – if you went back a few years, if you were sixth you'd be embarrassed.
“But obviously they seem happy with sixth. They have a long way to go. Manchester United have to be competing with the best teams.”
In the TNT Sport studio on Saturday afternoon, Wayne Rooney admitted he would prefer to see Fernandes give up penalty duties permanently.
“I’d just love to see Marcus just take responsibility and say, ‘I’m taking the penalties’, when you’re a goalscorer you want to take every opportunity,” he said.
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“Marcus is a really good penalty taker. I know Bruno’s captain but you should have one - I don’t think you should have two penalty takers. When we played it was Cristiano [Ronaldo], Ruud van Nistelrooy, myself. I just want to see Marcus score goals, maybe I’m a bit biased!”
Speaking on Rashford’s penalty post-match, Ten Hag stated: “It shows the team spirit, we have more very good penalty takers; Bruno, Rashy, Casemiro.
“He also did this at Everton, at a very difficult time [for Rashford]. In this moment he’s good, he’s in the team. There’s a good spirit and he’s a good threat.”
