Manchester United beat Leicester City 5-2 at Old Trafford on Wednesday to move on to the Carabao Cup quarterfinals.

This was Ruud van Nistelrooy’s first game as manager of the club after Erik ten Hag was fired and he took over temporarily.

And on Wednesday night, the players seemed to have a lot more freedom to play than they did when the former Ajax coach was in charge.

Casemiro and Manuel Ugarte, two midfielders who had problems with Ten Hag, stood out in the spotlight and sent a clear message to their old boss.

This season’s first goals for Bruno

The Brazilian scored two goals, and Alejandro Garnacho also scored, but fans will be most happy to see club captain Bruno Fernandes score again.

The Portuguese player scored twice; the first goal came from a deflected free kick, and the second was a clearance that he took advantage of to score after going around the goalkeeper.

Now that the season is over, the 30-year-old player with the most shots but no goals is no longer the star. Meanwhile, Van Nistelrooy will be hoping that he can do well in the Premier League as well.

The Portugal player touched the ball 78 times and made 86% of his passes. He made four key passes, which was the most amazing thing.

He had two shots that went in, two that were blocked, and one that went off goal. He also set up a big chance for his teammates.

Two of the captain’s three dribbles went through, and three of his four long balls found a partner.

Mars has a lot to show for Bruno

And, as usual, Fernandes was competitive until the end. He won all of his aerial duels, made one tackle, and cleared the ball once (all numbers from SofaScore).

The former star of Sporting Lisbon needs to reach the heights of previous seasons because Ruben Amorim, who is likely to take over, doesn’t have a place for him in his plans because of how he sets up his team.

Fernandes needs to make sure that the new manager has to either change things or make the attacking player the starter instead of someone else.

Van Nistelrooy will be counting on his leader to keep up these performances as he tries to help the team move back up the league table since Amorim’s arrival could be delayed.