Roy Keane informed he's got Bruno Fernandes all wrong by former Man United team-mate

Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes has been praised for his leadership qualities by a former team-mate, despite some strong criticism from ex-skipper Roy Keane

Brandon Williams has defended Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes after praising his conduct both on and off the pitch.

The Portuguese midfielder was strongly criticised by ex-United captain Roy Keane in February, despite his outstanding form this season. During a heated debate with Ian Wright on The Overlap podcast, Keane described Fernandes as a talented player but said that "talent is not enough", taking aim at his leadership skills in particular.

The 30-year-old responded by saying he would use the criticism as fuel to try and prove Keane wrong, but insisted he would be true to himself in the captain's role. Former United full-back Williams has now jumped in to back Fernandes, who he described as "by a mile" the best player he played with at Old Trafford.

In an interview on Ben Foster's Fozcast podcast, the 24-year-old also hit back at controversy over Fernandes' on-field body language, calling him a "very good leader".

Williams said: "I love Bruno and he's the best player I've played with by a mile. When I'm saying played with, I mean on a consistent basis. [Paul] Pogba's in there as the best in training. He can do everything, but I've just played with Bruno more.

"It's the way he conducts himself off the pitch and on the pitch as well and how he speaks to you. Everyone always moans at him for throwing his hands up and moaning at players but that's just him. That's how he gets his points across to players and he's a very good leader."

Williams came up through United's academy and first broke into the first team under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in 2019. He made 36 appearances during his debut season and was regarded as a bright young prospect.

However, his career has since taken a dramatic slump and he has not played a competitive game since December 2023, when he was on loan at Ipswich. Williams has been on a break from football since being released by United last summer and is currently awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to dangerous driving last month.

He admitted he considered quitting football completely at one point, hitting rock bottom after falling out with friends and becoming disconnected from his family.

Williams said: "At that point, it was just getting too much for me. It was just problems with friends going behind my back and stabbing me in the back. It caused a big thing. I was ignoring my family and I wasn't really speaking to them. They were really worried about me. My friends were as well and they could see it wasn't right.

"I basically go into a mode where I just don't care. I have this switch where I don't care about anything - I don't care what happens and I don't care what I do. They wanted me to get back to football, but they could see that I fell out of love with it and I didn't want to do it."

Despite his troubles, Williams is looking to make a return to the game after returning to training. While he admitted he has not spoken to his agent in around a year, he said he had not been short of offers from clubs.

Williams said: "Even since August, I've had loads of teams trying to get me from America, Europe, England and the Championship. I've had loads of teams, but I've just not been ready.

"I was prepared to have a break but I just didn't know how long that break was going to be. Looking back now, I don't know where I'd be if I didn't have the break. It actually hurts me watching football at the minute because I just want to be there."