Tim Sherwood reckons the arrival of Cristiano Ronaldo at Manchester United has put extra pressure on Bruno Fernandes and contributed to his crucial penalty miss today.
United suffered a 1-0 defeat against Villa at Old Trafford courtesy of Kortney Hause’s late header.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side were handed a lifeline in stoppage time though after being awarded a penalty and it was down to Fernandes to step up and secure the home side a point.
But instead of calmly slotting the ball past Emiliano Martinez, Fernandes uncharesticaly went for power and blazed the ball over the bar.
Much of the talk since Ronaldo’s return to United has been about who will be on penalty duty and for the first time this season the situation played out in front of a packed Old Trafford crowd.
But former Villa boss Sherwood feels the midfielder’s crucial miss could now see Ronaldo take any further spot-kicks going forward.
Asked what Fernandes’ chances are of taking further penalties, Sherwood said: ‘Very little I would say.
‘He threw the ball to Ronaldo in an international game and Ronaldo missed one so he’s done him a favour there.
‘Listen, he don’t miss that. You’ve never, ever seen him blast the ball over the cross bar.
‘He always waits for the goalkeeper to go down and rolls it in the other corner.
‘It’s the pressure now of someone else. The main man is here. Ronaldo [being] there 100% is distorting his thinking there.
‘He knows he’s got one chance and one chance only and I think we’ve just seen it go by.’
Solskjaer may now need to make a concrete decision on who will be the designated penalty taker but the Norwegian was more concerned with how Villa’s players reacted to the spot-kick being awarded.
Goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez was seen trying to distract Fernandes by talking to Ronaldo and Solskjaer aired his frustrations at full-time.
‘It is such a fine line between heaven and hell,’ said Solskjaer afterwards.
‘Bruno is such a good penalty taker and you would back him with your mortgage.
‘What I don’t like is how they crowded the referee and the penalty spot. They got what they wanted.’
MORE : Emi Martinez taunts Cristiano Ronaldo before Bruno Fernandes misses Man Utd penalty
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