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Fulham boss, Marco Silva, has defended Erik ten Hag’s reaction to a TikTok video posted by Fulham of Bruno Fernandes during the match at Old Trafford last Saturday.
However, the Portuguese manager has stopped short of apologising for the Cottagers’ decision to post it after the game.
The post was a video of Bruno Fernandes falling to the ground in agony but then jumping up moments later to maintain a United attack as they looked in vain for a winning goal, before eventually conceding in the 97th minute to lose the match.
The video was accompanied by the caption, “so glad he’s okay”, along with a rolling eyes emoji, suggesting that the midfielder’s injury was not so genuine.
However, the player was listed as a doubt before the FA Cup tie against Nottingham Forest and despite playing, was seen limping away from the stadium.
Speaking at a press conference,Ten Hag was furious with the incident and demanded an apology from the West London side.
Elaborating on the issue the Dutch coach commented, “I did not know about this video. If they did this I would say it is not right. It is absolutely not right. It is not right for a club to make such statements. They should apologise for this”.
The Fulham coach has now responded to Ten Hag’s statements during his own pre-match press conference (via The Mirror) ahead of his side’s match against Brighton.
“I am not a big fan of social media but as you would expect I am aware of this”.
The 46 year old claimed he understood the Man United manager’s reaction and claimed he would have done the same thing, were he in the same scenario.
“It was a reaction from Ten Hag. When a manager defends a football player I think it is a normal situation. With one of our players, I am going to defend them to the last.
“We all noticed that Ten Hag said he had not seen the post. He was speaking after a question from a journalist. I haven’t heard the question – I don’t know how the journalist put that question”.
“For a manager in that moment, if you say to me that 10 minutes ago if any club said something about my player, I am going to defend my player even if I haven’t seen it. That is the situation”.
However, the numerous times the manager mentioned that Ten Hag had not seen the video, suggests he was implying the video was not that serious either, in defence of his own club’s actions.
The Lisbon-born coach also asserted that a lot of the noise around the incident was connected to the story being about a club the size of United.
“Ten Hag defends his player. I can understand that. All the other noise around and all that stuff comes because it is Man United. I understand everything – it is because it is Manchester United. If it were Marco Silva reacting in one way, it would probably be finished in 10 seconds after”.
The Portuguese manager also took the chance to defend his compatriot.
Speaking on Bruno Fernandes he claimed, “He is a top quality player and a top professional. You are not a Manchester United captain if you don’t have all the whole package in the same box and be such an important player. This is important to say”.
However, despite the sympathy an apology was not forthcoming from the boss or the club, who insist they meant no offence to the Red Devils or their captain.
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