Fernandes benched then backed: Carrick’s captain call amid Man United crisis

MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Under-pressure Manchester United manager Michael Carrick is retaining Bruno Fernandes as captain, despite dropping the Portugal star during a crisis at the beleaguered Premier League giant.Fernandes criticized Carrick's tactics after a heavy Champions League defeat at Como last week, and was named as a substitute and never got on the field in the 3-0 home loss to Bournemouth on Sunday.Those two results left Carrick's job under massive threat but United decided to give its former midfielder the chance to turn things around, starting against Chelsea in the Premier League on Saturday lunchtime.Carrick and Fernandes held talks this week to clear the air and the manager was asked on Thursday if he considered giving the captaincy to Harry Maguire — who wore the armband against Bournemouth — on a permanent basis.“No. There's no decision to be made on that,” Carrick said.“He's the captain of our football club,” he added about Fernandes, English soccer's player of the