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'Everyone is aware' - Bruno Fernandes pinpoints Manchester United's biggest weakness

-Credit:Reach Publishing Services Limited
-Credit:Reach Publishing Services Limited


Bruno Fernandes warned Manchester United must do more in the final third of the pitch after defeat to Crystal Palace.

United made a bright start to the game and Kobbie Mainoo hit the post, but Crystal Palace hung on in the opening exchanges and grew in confidence as the contest progressed.

Palace broke the deadlock shortly after the hour mark through Jean-Philippe Mateta, who was in the right place to finish a rebound that had fallen his way after the ball came back off the crossbar.

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United attempted to respond to that setback but looked toothless again. Ruben Amorim's side have struggled to score goals this season and Palace made sure of the result in the 89th minute of the match when Mateta netted his brace, finding the net with another simple finish.

The in-form Mateta was a handful throughout the afternoon and he fired Palace to an away victory at Old Trafford.

Fernandes spoke to MUTV after the game and said: "We spoke after the games we won. We said everything we did in the past would be forgotten if we don't win the next one and that's the case today.

"We need points in the Premier League, everyone is aware of that. It's a different competition and we need to win, but unfortunately today, we didn't get the three points.

"We lacked a little bit of aggression to get into the final third and [lacked] something to score goals. With the players we have in front, we need to have more goals and create more, take players on and get chances from that. We did have some chances but we didn't have as many as we should have.

"You build with results and when you win games, you get more confidence. We won the last three games and everyone was confident, so for us now, it's a setback and we need to understand that we've doing some good things and even today, we showed some good things.

"The result doesn't show that, but we can still achieve a lot doing the things we've been doing."

United are 13th in the Premier League and just 12 points above the relegation zone.