Roy Keane is overlooking a big problem with call to strip Bruno Fernandes of Manchester United captaincy

Bruno Fernandes was by no means the worst performer in Manchester United's derby defeat, but the buck stops with the captain on days when such a lack of leadership is present on the pitch.

The fact that no United player made an appearance in the media mixed zone after the match said a lot in itself. United players typically only speak to the written press after a defeat to set the record straight or to apologise for an abject performance. City's win was emphatic, though it was also hardly a surprise.

Perhaps if Pep Guardiola's side had plundered five or six, then a United player would have issued a rallying call and a message of defiance to the supporters.

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Even if that had been the case, talk is cheap. United will be judged not on what they say off the pitch but on how well they perform on it. Just look at Fernandes.

After the match, United legend Roy Keane once again led the calls for the Portuguese playmaker to be stripped of the armband, citing his poor behaviour as reason enough for him to be dethroned.

"I would take the captaincy off him 100 per cent," Sky Sports pundit Keane said on Super Sunday. "I know it's a big decision, obviously they changed the captaincy with Maguire, but Fernandes is not captain material.

"He is a talented player no doubt about it. But what I saw today - we've discussed many times before, it was last season at Liverpool - his whinging, his moaning and throwing his arms up in the air constantly."

Keane makes solid points about Fernandes' eligibility, even if his idea of what a captain should be is slightly distorted by his nostalgia for a past era of the game.

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