Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes has apologized for a poor performance against Bournemouth that lacked quality, effort, and aggression.

Erik ten Hag won the Carabao Cup in his first season as manager, but his second season has been a roller coaster with more lows than highs.

Bournemouth won at Old Trafford for the first time in their history on Saturday, leaving United lucky to escape with a 3-0 defeat.

It was a significant drop-off from Wednesday’s 2-1 win against Chelsea, prompting Ten Hag to confess that they are not good enough to compete regularly at the highest level.

“I’d like to sincerely apologize for my performance,” Fernandes stated. “Beginning with me was not acceptable.” I’m not referring to anyone else.

“But I think everyone in the locker room agrees that the performance was (not) at our level, and we need to perform much better.”

“It was underperforming in terms of quality, effort, and aggression, as opposed to the previous game against Chelsea.”

“If you don’t do your job, you’re not going to win the game.”

During a terrible season in which United has lost 11 of 23 games in all competitions, similar excuses and justifications have been heard.

They’ve won 11 games and drawn one, but the staggering number of losses has Ten Hag and his team under fire.

“I don’t know (why it was so different to Chelsea), but it’s been consistently like (this),” Fernandes was quoted as saying by MUTV. “When we win a game, we don’t perform as well in the following game.”

“I’m not sure if it’s a lack of concentration or focus or something else, but we have to be aware that after winning a game, we have to maintain that consistency of winning games.”

“Even sometimes (if we are) underperforming but getting the result.”

To avoid being thrown into chaos at the conclusion of a vital week, United must now press the reset button and find the proper mentality.

If the Red Devils beat Bayern Munich and Copenhagen and Galatasaray draw, they will move to the next round of the Champions League.

Then there’s the Premier League encounter against Liverpool next Sunday, which Fernandes will miss due to his fifth booking of the season against Bournemouth.

“Obviously, it’s a good thing (that we’re playing soon),” Fernandes explained. “Of course, we are aware that the next game will be extremely difficult.

“We need to win and obviously hope for a good result in the other game.”

“But first and foremost, we have to do our job, and thinking and understanding that this is going to be a difficult game for us.”

“But we are capable, more than able, to get the result.”

While United’s troubles are being thoroughly investigated, things are looking good on the south coast.

Bournemouth’s summer addition, Andoni Iraola, has led the club to a dramatic turnaround in recent weeks.

Dominic Solanke, Philip Billing, and Marcos Senesi scored in a game that will go down as one of the best ever for the Cherries.

Right-back with a long track record Adam Smith of BBC Radio Solent says, “I’d say it’s number one.”

“I mean, this is the Theatre of Dreams, and we’ve never won here.” We struggled since it was challenging at times. We were, however, playing Manchester United.

“I believe the lads will recall it for a long time.” Because we held a clean sheet, the score should have been 4-0. It was fantastic for the supporters.”