8
They'll spend like they always have. We bought a backup for Bruno this season for instance, but he's been barely used.
That's the problem. We need to evolve. And I'm not saying get rid of Bruno or anything, but we need to put more emphasis on our teams general play instead of hoping an individual will produce brilliant stats like Bruno. If we cut down on just giving it to so-and-so in the hopes that they produce some magic, and focus on implementing a system that brings out a cohesive team, our players will still get impressive stats anyway because we'll create more as a result.
This is how the season will be reported for Bruno. It’s more the last few months in reality. Since December. So six months. There’s been the odd good game and his stats are unreal. But his performances haven’t been great at all bar the odd game here and there.
Mount is a top player mate. CL winner.
I don’t really understand the Jose comparison, but one thing I will say is he really isn’t as great as people make out. He plays bad a lot. Like a lot a lot. As in, pretty much every game. I can barely think of 5 good performances this season.
Real Madrid won the Champions League 4 times in 5 years playing a 4-3-3. City & Liverpool achieved nearly 100 point seasons 2 years in a row playing 4-3-3.
What is a 4 3 3 system to you, btw? I just need to know how you see it before I attempt to reply to that.
So is David May... wind your head in
G/A is all people look at these days. People were putting Rashford in the PL TOTY despite him having his worst season by far. Nobody actually watches football anymore, it’s just stats.
Alright. I would like that formation too in most games. But, we do not have the DM here. Also, whenever we play 4 2 3 1 with Pogba, Pogba stays higher to take some creativity role so it is similar.
Mount is an astonishing player. Ferguson would have loved him.
Brave shout. I fully agree with everything I’ve seen you say on the subject. No doubt statistically his numbers are phenomenal but I find myself watching him and getting really frustrated with him and the positions he takes up or the moves he doesn’t make. Throw in the mediocre passing and to me it adds up to not playing all that well.
Agreed.
You just can't look at the formation. The way they play matter. No team plays with a single DM operating alone like United fans suggest.
Nah, more like stats can just be used to disprove some really bad opinions, such as this criticism that Bruno is now overrated all of a sudden. For whatever strange reason if you want to ignore 50 actual goals and assists, fine, look at the underlying stats and he is still among the very very best attacking midfielders in terms of creativity, ball progression, involvement per game in both passes and touches per game, and adds a quantity of chances/shots/xG/goals for himself which many #10's can't reach. He's not a dribbler like David Silva and he has a 2% worse pass completion rate than De Bruyne (on marginally more passes!) though, so let's shit on him (even ignoring that Ole plays a direct style and Pep plays a possession style).
This thread
Crazy that he's played 79 games in the 11 months between the football restart last June and the Europa League final. Add in 3-7 games games for the Euros and he'll have played close 85 games in that period. For a guy as hard working as him, that's fecked. Also it's crazy how he's managed to avoid injuries (or play through them). Whatever the case, it's clear to me that we need to rotate him a bit more to keep him sharper, but generally he's undoubtedly a world class player for me. He's one of the most creative players in world football, he gets involved all the time, he scores loads of goals and of course the best penalty taker around. But take away his pens and he'd still be ridiculously productive (before people say it's only because of penalties without realizing he'd still have 15 goals for the season).
I get it, he has some sloppy passes now and then and his pass accuracy is in the low-mid 70's... but he more than makes up for a few misplaced passes per game with his on the ball impact, his productivity, and his work rate.
I love how people in here have been saying without his productivity he wouldn't be anything special. Ok so without his goals and assists? What would Ronaldo be without goals and assists? Messi? If you pretend like he missed his chances and his team mates missed the chances he set up for them and just look at underlying stats, he still blows it out of the park. Per 90 minutes, compared to all attacking midfielders and wingers in the big 5 leagues and European competitions over the past year, he ranks:
https://fbref.com/en/players/507c7bdf/Bruno-Fernandes
And so on. He's a fecking brilliant attacking midfielder when you take away the actual goals and assists if you think they are flukey, as he moves into great positions to receive the ball, always makes himself available, gets in great positions to move up the pitch regularly, and works hard defensively and runs constantly, stays fit, is an attackers dream in that he is always finding them in advanced positions more than almost anybody in Europe...
- 98th percentile in expected assists
- 71st percentile in non penalty expected goals
- 89th percentile in non penalty xG + xA
- 97th percentile in passes completed
- 96th percentile in key passes
- 99th percentile in passes in the final 3rd
- 96th percentile in passes into the penalty area
- 98th percentile in progressive passes
- 98th percentile in through balls completed between defenders
- 93rd percentile in "shot creating actions"
- 93rd percentile in attacking 3rd "pressures"
- 88th percentile in midfield 3rd "pressures"
- Respectable defensive stats (63rd for tackles and interceptions, 76 for clearances
- 99th percentile in touches per 90 minutes
- 78th and 84th for miscontrolling the ball and being dispossessed (so pretty good in comparison to all players on his area of the pitch)
- 98th percentile in receiving passes
- 87th percentile in progressive passes received
The guy is literally in the 98th percentile or above in so many key attacking and creativity underlying stats, which of course leads to a brilliant goal and assists count. But importantly is also at the top in touches per game showing he gets involved and acts like a midfielder still (compared to strikers who would have much fewer touches).
Oh, and for those obsessing over pass accuracy:
Negligible difference between Bruno and De Bruyne in pass accuracy, while both are at the very best rank in the world for all the ball progressive passing and creative stats possible, while also being very good in terms of individual xG as well. Like what more do you want? 2% more pass accuracy? So tighten up 1 pass per game? Get the feck out of here. You take into account that almost the entirety of our creativity revolves around him and the others behind tend to play it safe, and he does a good job at keeping up with the demand we need from him at that position. Add in that he's played 79 games since the football restart... and well, you have a world class player.
- Jack Grealish - 78.8% from 43.29 passes per 90 (34.1 completed)
- Kevin de Bruyne - 75.5% from 64.29 passes per 90 (48.5 completed)
- Bruno Fernandes - 73.5% from 65.31 passes per 90 (48 completed)
- Thomas Muller - 73.3% from 49.76 passes per 90 (36.5 completed)
i award you the Internet. Post of the year so far.This thread
Crazy that he's played 79 games in the 11 months between the football restart last June and the Europa League final. Add in 3-7 games games for the Euros and he'll have played close 85 games in that period. For a guy as hard working as him, that's fecked. Also it's crazy how he's managed to avoid injuries (or play through them). Whatever the case, it's clear to me that we need to rotate him a bit more to keep him sharper, but generally he's undoubtedly a world class player for me. He's one of the most creative players in world football, he gets involved all the time, he scores loads of goals and of course the best penalty taker around. But take away his pens and he'd still be ridiculously productive (before people say it's only because of penalties without realizing he'd still have 15 goals for the season).
I get it, he has some sloppy passes now and then and his pass accuracy is in the low-mid 70's... but he more than makes up for a few misplaced passes per game with his on the ball impact, his productivity, and his work rate.
I love how people in here have been saying without his productivity he wouldn't be anything special. Ok so without his goals and assists? What would Ronaldo be without goals and assists? Messi? If you pretend like he missed his chances and his team mates missed the chances he set up for them and just look at underlying stats, he still blows it out of the park. Per 90 minutes, compared to all attacking midfielders and wingers in the big 5 leagues and European competitions over the past year, he ranks:
https://fbref.com/en/players/507c7bdf/Bruno-Fernandes
And so on. He's a fecking brilliant attacking midfielder when you take away the actual goals and assists if you think they are flukey, as he moves into great positions to receive the ball, always makes himself available, gets in great positions to move up the pitch regularly, and works hard defensively and runs constantly, stays fit, is an attackers dream in that he is always finding them in advanced positions more than almost anybody in Europe...
- 98th percentile in expected assists
- 71st percentile in non penalty expected goals
- 89th percentile in non penalty xG + xA
- 97th percentile in passes completed
- 96th percentile in key passes
- 99th percentile in passes in the final 3rd
- 96th percentile in passes into the penalty area
- 98th percentile in progressive passes
- 98th percentile in through balls completed between defenders
- 93rd percentile in "shot creating actions"
- 93rd percentile in attacking 3rd "pressures"
- 88th percentile in midfield 3rd "pressures"
- Respectable defensive stats (63rd for tackles and interceptions, 76 for clearances
- 99th percentile in touches per 90 minutes
- 78th and 84th for miscontrolling the ball and being dispossessed (so pretty good in comparison to all players on his area of the pitch)
- 98th percentile in receiving passes
- 87th percentile in progressive passes received
The guy is literally in the 98th percentile or above in so many key attacking and creativity underlying stats, which of course leads to a brilliant goal and assists count. But importantly is also at the top in touches per game showing he gets involved and acts like a midfielder still (compared to strikers who would have much fewer touches).
Oh, and for those obsessing over pass accuracy:
Negligible difference between Bruno and De Bruyne in pass accuracy, while both are at the very best rank in the world for all the ball progressive passing and creative stats possible, while also being very good in terms of individual xG as well. Like what more do you want? 2% more pass accuracy? So tighten up 1 pass per game? Get the feck out of here. You take into account that almost the entirety of our creativity revolves around him and the others behind tend to play it safe, and he does a good job at keeping up with the demand we need from him at that position. Add in that he's played 79 games since the football restart... and well, you have a world class player.
- Jack Grealish - 78.8% from 43.29 passes per 90 (34.1 completed)
- Kevin de Bruyne - 75.5% from 64.29 passes per 90 (48.5 completed)
- Bruno Fernandes - 73.5% from 65.31 passes per 90 (48 completed)
- Thomas Muller - 73.3% from 49.76 passes per 90 (36.5 completed)
All that is well and good but if Bruno fails to stand out in some of our biggest games then there is a basis to say he's overrated. I'm not saying he's overrated personally but there is a discussion to be had. He's our talisman and in some of our most important games over the last year he has completed disappeared.
He's not been rested enough same as Rashford etc - hopefully the squad will allow that next season.
Ronaldo missed a penalty vs Chelsea in CL final. Was he and his 40+ goals overrated?
You could've picked many bad examples but congrats to you on using the worst possible example.
The biggest players all have less impact than normal in the biggest games compared to the rest, as you'd imagine. International football, meh, wouldn't put that as much of a marker for who is world class, as we all know Klose was 10x the player for Germany than he was at club level, as was Podolski.
Thing is, one can add that in all those poor games, a vast majority of the attack and midfield or so were poor.
