"It's a decision from the staff to not press man-to-man and sometimes leave space behind and try to get the ball, wait for them, but sometimes when you give space to these teams they get confidence," he told HBO Max.

"It's not the first time, we started on the wrong foot, and they scored very early. Not much pressure on the ball, not many good movements with the ball, not many things going our way.

"Conceding early makes us go into game with a mood of defeat, it's difficult to get out of that, trying to be brave, to have the ball and make something happen. If we are not able to do that, it is going to be very difficult to get out of this situation."

When pressed further on Carrick's role in the defeat, Fernandes replied: "That's on the manager and staff to see, not me. Sometimes you have to be more brave under pressure, take the risk of pressing high and making them uncomfortable. As you saw with them [Como], the centre-back was coming to mark me in my own half. We need to do that as a team but we were unable to.

Youri Tielemans similarly aired his frustrations, but stopped short of extending them to the coaching staff, fronting up to a woeful performance.

"It was a very bad match from us," the Belgian conceded. "The fans come out here and we put out a non-performance like this, it's not good enough from us."

"I 100 per cent take responsibility for the overall team and the performance," he admitted. "That's where it stops. It stops with me.

"There was a lot going through my mind watching that. I always go over to the fans regardless. I was one of them. to spend your money and come and hope for something. I feel for the fans for sure."