Alan Pardew believes Michael Carrick made a significant error in dropping Bruno Fernandes for Manchester United's defeat to Bournemouth, saying the manager 'cut his nose to spite his face'.
Fernandes criticised Carrick's tactics following the 4-1 Champions League defeat to Como and was an unused substitute in the loss to the Cherries. Despite the midfielder's comments, Pardew told TalkSPORT he would have selected Fernandes.
Pardew's advice on handling the situation
Speaking to TalkSPORT, Pardew said: "I'm thinking I would have played him, personally. There is this other side of the football coin where you go, you don't cut off your nose to spite your face."
He added: "You could still be strong by playing him. You say, 'well, yes, I heard what he said. In my opinion, he's wrong and I'm still not finished.' There might be some discipline coming his way on the back of a win, if you know what I mean. So you could turn it around a little bit and still win as the manager, but I don't know what's gone on on the training ground."
Questions over the dressing room dynamic
Pardew also raised questions about the circumstances surrounding the decision, asking: "Has Fernandes disrespected Michael on the bus, on the training ground from that evening to this game? Was there an incident? Was he sort of going, 'the manager isn't good enough' in the background and the staff have told him?"
He acknowledged the limits of his knowledge, stating: "All those things I'm not privy to, and unless I was, I can't make that decision. I can only give you the foresight of what happens."
Drawing on past experience
Pardew referenced his own experience with Joey Barton at Newcastle United to illustrate his point. He recalled: "Joey Barton, when I first went to Newcastle, my first day, he said to me, 'you're not good enough to be manager here,' but I played him in the game that came up next against Liverpool and we won."
He continued: "Then we went on from there and we were fine. We worked together, he didn't need to apologise. Joey isn't the type to apologise. So that's an example where I could have just left Joey out. He's not with me, I'll leave him out. So you can use it, but you have to understand where you were. I watched Joey that week in training. He was on it, he was up for it. I could see that. So I knew that actually his playing side of it, he was going to give us something."
Pardew concluded that the decision to drop Fernandes, combined with the defeat, has created a bigger problem for Carrick: "And I think that the whole Fernandes one now is in leaving him out and losing the game now becomes even more of an issue."
