Ok, I just rewatched the game and to be honest, I don't quite get all the criticism he gets now. He's started a bit shaky, but as the game went on, he had few successful interceptions and played well all round, he even had one beautiful dribble ffs! He's limited, but so was Javi Garcia and I can't accept the moaners that say he's much worse than Javi Garcia (who constantly spouted shit on Garcia while he was here), who was of course very good last season, but it's not like he would have changed yesterday's game on his own. I would say Fernando was the last of our issues; Fernandinho should have started alongside him, but it's not his fault that he didn't.
I do not know what people actually expect from him anymore, quite clearly we didn't buy him to be a starter, and yes he's been poor for most of the season, but it's still early days to completely write him off (see Garcia, again). One could argue that why we even bothered to sign him when we've got Garcia who just about settled in last year, but I can see the reasoning behind the fact that we tried to change that element in our squad. He was highly rated in Porto (not just by our scouts) and he's surley much more dynamic than Garcia with at least as good passing range as the Spaniard. His reactions seem too slow though still, which is a concern of course.
Even if he will not improve and won't be an upgrade on Garcia, can't we just accept it somehow? These things, i.e., bad signings happen all the time at any club. Although, I hope this is not the case, and he'll become better.