{"id":54172,"date":"2025-04-27T07:23:10","date_gmt":"2025-04-27T07:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/54172\/"},"modified":"2025-04-27T07:23:10","modified_gmt":"2025-04-27T07:23:10","slug":"manchester-united-sent-bruno-fernandes-warning-as-pundits-all-make-same-bournemouth-prediction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/54172\/","title":{"rendered":"Manchester United sent Bruno Fernandes warning as pundits all make same Bournemouth prediction"},"content":{"rendered":"

Man United travel to Bournemouth in the Premier League and the pundits have had their say.Sport<\/a><\/p>\n

Sean McCormick<\/strong> Football Content Editor<\/p>\n

07:00, 27 Apr 2025<\/p>\n

\"ManchesterManchester United captain Bruno Fernandes(Image: 2025 Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Manchester United travel to the south coast on Sunday afternoon as they take on Bournemouth in the Premier League.<\/p>\n

United started the weekend in 14th place in the Premier League table and, in truth, their season domestically has been over since the beginning of March.<\/p>\n

Ruben Amorim’s side’s number one priority is winning this season’s Europa League and gaining entry into next season’s Champions League as a result.<\/p>\n

With Thursday’s semi-final first leg away at Athletic Bilbao on the horizon, Amorim is expected to make changes to his side to keep his key players fresh for their trip to Spain.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Bournemouth are well in the mix to finish in eighth place., which could well secure them UEFA Conference League football next season.<\/p>\n

Given the Cherries have something to play for and United don’t, leading Premier League pundits aren’t giving Amorim’s side much chance at the Vitality Stadium.<\/p>\n

Here’s how they believe United will fare:<\/p>\n

Chris Sutton<\/p>\n

The former Blackburn and Celtic forward told BBC Sport<\/a>: “Bournemouth hammered Manchester United 3-0 at Old Trafford<\/a> before Christmas<\/a> and they have to be heavy favourites to win this game too.<\/p>\n

“United travel to play Athletic Bilbao in the first leg of their Europa League<\/a> semi-final next Thursday, and Ruben Amorim has already spoken about how he will prioritise that competition over the Premier League<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“So, Amorim will play more younger players here and on top of that, although Bournemouth are not on a great run of results, they are still in better form than United are.<\/p>\n

“I am backing Bournemouth and it is going to be tough for United against Bilbao too. Bilbao got the better of Rangers in the last round and I am expecting two pretty tight games.<\/p>\n

“Rangers did have some opportunities, though, so United have got a chance if they can click going forward. Having the second leg at Old Trafford will help Amorim’s side, too.”<\/p>\n

Sutton’s prediction: <\/strong>Bournemouth 2-1 Manchester United<\/a><\/p>\n

Paul Merson<\/p>\n

The Sky Sports pundit told SportsKeeda<\/a>: “I know it sounds weird but this match means absolutely nothing to Manchester United. If Ruben Amorim uses his best players in this game, I would be shocked. If you are Manchester United, I think you should just forget about this trip to Bournemouth, write it off!<\/p>\n

“Amorim is 100 per cent right when he says the Europa League is the priority for Manchester United. They are just three games away from returning to the Champions League<\/a>. So it shouldn’t be a problem if they field a second string team against Bournemouth and get beaten in the process, which I think will happen. I mean, even with their first team, this is still a very tough game for Manchester United.<\/p>\n

“Bruno Fernandes should not start this game. He has played enough football this season and must be completely rested for the Europa League semi-final. They cannot risk him here and then complain later if he picks up a knock. If Manchester United miss out on Champions League football again, it will be extremely hard for them to rebuild their squad.<\/p>\n

“But if I had to pick an English team to win the Europa League now, it would still be Tottenham. Athletic Club will be a massive challenge for Manchester United. The fact that the final will be held in Bilbao is added motivation for the La Liga club.”<\/p>\n

Merson’s prediction:<\/strong> Bournemouth 2-0 Manchester United<\/p>\n

Alan Shearer<\/p>\n

The former Newcastle and England captain told Betfair<\/a>: “We all know with Man United, their season isn’t the Premier League, it’s now focused on Europe.”<\/p>\n

“They’ll continue to rotate and bring one or two kids in for games in the league and this is why they’ll lose these games.”<\/p>\n

Shearer’s prediction:<\/strong> Bournemouth to win<\/p>\n

Mark Lawrenson<\/p>\n

The former BBC pundit told Paddy Power<\/a>: “This is a Bournemouth win all day long. It\u2019s like The Forsyte Saga watching Manchester United. Ask your parents!”<\/p>\n

Lawrenson’s prediction:<\/strong> Bournemouth 2-0 Manchester United<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Man United travel to Bournemouth in the Premier League and the pundits have had their say.Sport Sean McCormick…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54173,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,873,393,4884,2465,423,101,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-54172","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-bruno-fernandes","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-manchester","13":"tag-manchester-united-fc","14":"tag-premier-league","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114408732297780543","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54172\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}