Fernandes took over the captain's armband for Portugal when Ronaldo was absent due to injury during the international break but will hope to be reunited with his former club team-mate at the World Cup finals this summer.
When it comes to other ex-Reds he really respects, Bruno reiterated an affection for Roy Keane and Paul Scholes, while appreciating the qualities of his current boss, Carrick.
"Obviously, I think, at the club, for me, luckily the club had a lot of good midfielders to look up to," he recalled. "I think, from my time, probably I would say Roy Keane and Paul Scholes were the main pillars of the team.
"Then later on, I would say, not because he's my manager now, but I have said this before already, Michael Carrick is someone I would have loved to play together with. Just because I have trained with him, when he was with Ole [Gunnar Solskjaer] at the time.