Are Bruno’s Hollywood passes no longer coming off because we no longer have pacy players to get on the end of them?

The Oracle

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Last season we had several pacy forward players:
  • Dan James
  • Martial
  • Greenwood
  • Rashford (when he used to bust a gut for the team)
Now that three of those four players aren’t here, and the fourth one has downed tools, that is a lot of pace missing from our forward play – is it any wonder that none of our players get on the end of Bruno’s Hollywood passes anymore?

We no longer have any pacy forwards left in the team to get on the end of them!
 
They aren’t coming off because they are in the main, poor passes.

They are also now not coming off because you are now tired of them not coming off. Before you got to this point, they were not coming off either, but you were likely praising the attempt. Now you are just tired.

Some of them came off before, and some of them still come off now. He’s still created a lot of chances this season. We can’t finish though.
 
Bruno plays a lot of risky passes and although it's fair to say a lot don't come off, it's these sorts of passes that when the forward reads it right they end up giving him his impressive assists stats (before this season). Even when he was in good form he didn't seem to link with Ronaldo as effectively so maybe there is something in the absence of any competent and pacey forwards in our squad and Bruno's lack of influence.
 
The Oracle said:
Last season we had several pacy forward players:
  • Dan James
  • Martial
  • Greenwood
  • Rashford (when he used to bust a gut for the team)
Now that three of those four players aren’t here, and the fourth one has downed tools, that is a lot of pace missing from our forward play – is it any wonder that none of our players get on the end of Bruno’s Hollywood passes anymore?

We no longer have any pacy forwards left in the team to get on the end of them!
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I agree with you. He still creates a lot too. Unfortunately as a team, we are finding it very hard to coordinate our attacks under Rangnick, even more so that under Ole, and its showing. The link up between our players is almost non-existent at the moment. Everything from the spacing, to our width, to the movement off the ball is a all a bit rough at the moment. Our games literally feel like our main and only goal is to win back the ball or stop the opposition passing through us. There is hardly any expression in our play at the moment. Despite this, by most statistical metrics, bruno has been our second best outfield players after Ronaldo, so I don't understand the sudden negativity towards a player of his stature.
 
m1tch said:
Bruno plays a lot of risky passes and although it's fair to say a lot don't come off, it's these sorts of passes that when the forward reads it right they end up giving him his impressive assists stats (before this season). Even when he was in good form he didn't seem to link with Ronaldo as effectively so maybe there is something in the absence of any competent and pacey forwards in our squad and Bruno's lack of influence.
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He wasn't just lumping them up. They had to do with his vision. Last season and the one before, Bruno was literally dragging us creatively. he had to play risky passes, as no one else was willing to do so. he was constantly moving all over the pitch trying to make things happen. Its sad how his proactiveness in both his attacking play and his pressing has now become a stick to beat him with. Mata played for years with us, passively linking up, but without really creating anything. Yet people were so willing to have excuse after excuse, blaming the team structure or different managers for his lack of success. Bruno, our first real producer since Fergie leaves, has a slump in form and despite dragging us, he's being thrown away by some of our fans.
 
I dont think he was ever that outstanding in long passes IMO.

Most of his 'long' passes are usally targeted on the body rather than space (more crosses than classic long balls).
 
No more Hollywood pass, because none of our attacking players are running behind the defenders. They just standstill 5m in front of you, so every pass is sideway backward until intercepted. And even if the pass is successful, our attackers would take on 3 defenders like they did against Everton.

Laziness, unwilling to sweat, uninterested, are probably the reason behind, not because we have no pacy strikers.
 
It's probably several overlapping factors. One is we no longer play deep enough. Makes it all the more disappointing he's playing the same way rather than becoming more measured. Surely surely there's more in his locker than forcing it.

Another might be scouting and opponent acclimatization, it's now well known that it's his most used weapon. People will of course downplay it but it's the same as certain players who like to cut inside, you look at goals of their first season and realise just how naive defenders were to the fact. I always thought Valencia was a victim of the opposite, once they figured out he was always going back on the outside he would never see another completed cross. Injuries didn't help his quickness as well so it's never just one factor.
 
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Greck said:
It's probably several overlapping factors. One is we now longer play deep enough. Makes it all the more disappointing he's playing the same way rather than becoming more measured. Surely surely there's more in his locker than forcing it.

Another might be scouting and opponent acclimatization, it's now well known that it's his most used weapon. People will of course downplay it but it's the same as certain players who like to cut inside, you look at goals of their first season and realise just how naive defenders were to the fact. I always thought Valencia was a victim of the opposite, once they figured out he was always going back on the outside he would never see another completed cross. Injuries didn't help his quickness as well so it's never just one factor.
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Yeah a few factors for sure. Like the OP says, we don't have those players stretching teams, which were mainly James and Rashford (of old). The arrival of Ronnie, which not only seems to have dented his confidence, but it's obviously changed our setup in terms of how we play. Like you say, people are wise to his game now (which was a case in point with Greenwood, who seemed to terrorise defenders when he was first brought into the team). And, it seems, just bad decision making. He's certainly has the technical ability required, but he plays hero-ball even inside his own penalty area, so he really needs a coach to help him adapt his game to the needs of the collective. Given that he's just signed a new deal, it'll be one of the first items on ten Hag's agenda, fixing Bruno.
 
Yes. Having 3 pacy players with a player such as him behind was a good balanced formula for creating overloads and dangerous attacks. The only thing we lacked was control in midfield and someone that could keep the ball and switch the play from deep. Eventually form has run out for all of those guys, lately Fernandes included.
 
Is Bruno not performing because he's actually not that special and makes dumb choices or because mercury is no longer and retrograde and his rising scorpion is not longer in his moon in venus?

tough one this one
 
Possibly. But a great passer has more tools to hurt teams with than just trying to the same trick again regardless of situation or team mate.
 
Bastian said:
Yeah a few factors for sure. Like the OP says, we don't have those players stretching teams, which were mainly James and Rashford (of old). The arrival of Ronnie, which not only seems to have dented his confidence, but it's obviously changed our setup in terms of how we play. Like you say, people are wise to his game now (which was a case in point with Greenwood, who seemed to terrorise defenders when he was first brought into the team). And, it seems, just bad decision making. He's certainly has the technical ability required, but he plays hero-ball even inside his own penalty area, so he really needs a coach to help him adapt his game to the needs of the collective. Given that he's just signed a new deal, it'll be one of the first items on ten Hag's agenda, fixing Bruno.
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I don't really expect ETH to fix anyone especially if stories about his ruthlessness hold. At 27 Bruno is already in his prime. If we're modernising our teambuilding efforts then the idea of making it work with set names must be done away with. Like his mentor Pep he will look at player profile and if they don't fit they'll fall out of favour quick. There are too many of these players who just need a proper manager, right teammate and right weather, then you look at the attributes making them fail and wonder how ETH is supposed to do that. People are wanting him to fix even AWB. A lot of our players are specifically anti-possession players.
 
A lot of his passes always don't come off, but there's an argument they have become less effective without those outlets.
 
Greck said:
I don't really expect ETH to fix anyone especially if stories about his ruthlessness hold. At 27 Bruno is already in his prime. If we're modernising our teambuilding efforts then the idea of making it work with set names must be done away with. Like his mentor Pep he will look at player profile and if they don't fit they'll fall out of favour quick. There are too many of these players who just need a proper manager, right teammate and right weather, then you look at the attributes making them fail and wonder how ETH is supposed to do that. People are wanting him to fix even AWB.
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We just gave him a huge new deal. Look at what Pep did with Aguero.
 
Bastian said:
We just gave him a huge new deal. Look at what Pep did with Aguero.
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That won't bother ETH one bit. There was some Ajax fan alluding to how ETH has no problem marginalising signings or something similar. The capital outlay doesn't faze him. This is why we should have waited when we knew we were going after ETH.
 
Yes probably.

What’s changed most for me though is his routine short passing; I don’t remember him being as bad at these when he arrived as he is now. Maybe he’s trying too hard?
 
In part but as one poster above said he should adapt his game, not try the same over and over again.
 
Real Name said:
In part but as one poster above said he should adapt his game, not try the same over and over again.
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I'm not sure his game is a problem. He is an active no.10, plus his general play was always good for us prior to this season. His movement combination plays and through balls were really good. I think the issue is that fue to us as a team not having any creativity outside of him and the inability of our midfield to move the ball forward quickly enough, he's having to play theee long balls to connect to our forward line. People will tell you that Rangnick's football is on par with Ole's, it's not. It might be tighter in the middle and we do attempt to press more, but our movement and spacing of our attack has been terrible. Our attackers are struggling as a result of this.
 
Greck said:
It's probably several overlapping factors. One is we no longer play deep enough. Makes it all the more disappointing he's playing the same way rather than becoming more measured. Surely surely there's more in his locker than forcing it.

Another might be scouting and opponent acclimatization, it's now well known that it's his most used weapon. People will of course downplay it but it's the same as certain players who like to cut inside, you look at goals of their first season and realise just how naive defenders were to the fact. I always thought Valencia was a victim of the opposite, once they figured out he was always going back on the outside he would never see another completed cross. Injuries didn't help his quickness as well so it's never just one factor.
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This is very harsh on Valencia, who remained a threat because he improved greatly on his crosses from deeper (well, his booting the ball hard as he could at a height where one touch could easily send it in).
 
tjb said:
I'm not sure his game is a problem. He is an active no.10, plus his general play was always good for us prior to this season. His movement combination plays and through balls were really good. I think the issue is that fue to us as a team not having any creativity outside of him and the inability of our midfield to move the ball forward quickly enough, he's having to play theee long balls to connect to our forward line. People will tell you that Rangnick's football is on par with Ole's, it's not. It might be tighter in the middle and we do attempt to press more, but our movement and spacing of our attack has been terrible. Our attackers are struggling as a result of this.
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Hopefully ETH will know what to do with him and what players to bring to make the best of the way Bruno plays.
 
I remember Ole saying something along the lines of he let Bruno play where he wants, and play those sorts of passes whenever because even though we sometimes lose possession, occasionally they work out.

Don’t get me wrong Bruno was incredible for us last season but in my mind that is tactically a piss poor thing to do, and shows the level we are at coaching wise.
 
From what I have heard of Ajax fans, Ten Hag likes to have players running in behind without the ball, making spaces. There are alot of facets of Ten Hag's game that will suit Bruno.

We have seen Bruno make runs into the box, we have seen Bruno pick the ball and find runs into the box. With a system that allows for more possession, it will allow Bruno to get on the ball alot more and create chances. At the moment, we are so bad, the team uses all its energy getting the ball back, with the ball we have no idea what to do.
 
romufc said:
From what I have heard of Ajax fans, Ten Hag likes to have players running in behind without the ball, making spaces. There are alot of facets of Ten Hag's game that will suit Bruno.

We have seen Bruno make runs into the box, we have seen Bruno pick the ball and find runs into the box. With a system that allows for more possession, it will allow Bruno to get on the ball alot more and create chances. At the moment, we are so bad, the team uses all its energy getting the ball back, with the ball we have no idea what to do.
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People also forget, Bruno is a great scorer from midfield as well. ETH is not as strict in his system as someone like Pep. There is room for consistent risk taking. Ziyech and Tadic have been massive parts of his teams, both can be termed as mercurial. In addition to that, the no.10 in ETH's teams are usually not the link up players that people seem to think ETH wants there. They are usually expected to stay high and be part of the attack. Bruno would actually bring far more to the role than anything ETH has ever worked with prior.
 
Ziyech and Tadic are wide playmakers who can play outwide and come in field because they have the ability to carry and dribble the ball. That's Fernandes' weakest trait to his game by far. He's hopeless when he's isolated against a defender. Maybe he can operate in the role I believe Berghuis(?) operates in, I don't really know how he plays.
 
Think he could be used as wide playmaker that roams inside and would allow us to have more attacking full backs, not sure he will work in ETH's system unless he really changes him game
 
Why would you pass the ball in a way that doesn't suit your teammates?
 
I’d say it certainly helps him if there are runners around, as it creates space for him and it also provides risky forward passing opportunities (so he doesn’t need to play as many safe short passes which he’s bad at).

Last season it felt like half of our opportunities were coming from his two-man game with Rashford.
 
tjb said:
Bruno, our first real producer since Fergie leaves, has a slump in form and despite dragging us, he's being thrown away by some of our fans.
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Some of the fans are just looking for scapegoats without actually understanding what's happening with Utd, some of these fans just want instant results and glory. They aren't willing to understand that signing random players and random managers isn't the solution to fix United's problems, I am sure Bruno and some of our other players will play world-class football under the right manager and with an actual team, but that won't happen as soon as we get a new manager, it's going to take time.
 
If we look at his underlying per 90 stats his expected assists are slightly down on last season (0.32 vs 0.27) but the biggest difference is just the rate they're being converted at. Last season he was getting 0.35 assists from that 0.32 xA, this season he's getting 0.20 assists from 0.27xA.

So to that extent he's been slightly unlucky not to get a bit more output from what he has created.
 
sullydnl said:
If we look at his underlying per 90 stats his expected assists are slightly down on last season (0.32 vs 0.27) but the biggest difference is just the rate they're being converted at. Last season he was getting 0.35 assists from that 0.32 xA, this season he's getting 0.20 assists from 0.27xA.

So to that extent he's been slightly unlucky not to get a bit more output from what he has created.
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He hasn't been unlucky. Last season our goals scored were way above our expected goals.
 
I said the same thing in his performance thread. Sancho, Ronaldo and whatever version of Rashford we have now prefer the ball played to feet and Bruno's passes aren't accurate enough. They aren't looking to run onto long balls anymore, like Martial wasn't last year.

Only solution I see is either Bruno adapts his game, or we buy some attackers who like to run.
 
the team is low on confidence which is probably the cause

it's definitely not that the players aren't as fast, that makes feckall sense
 
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