[roonster09]

I agree with the first part.

Unfortunately, midfielders usually don't have free roles, so he should be playing a a forward so that our midfield isn't hampered, and he can keep up with his stats.

He plays most passes per game than any of our midfielders. Maybe midfielders should step up instead of blaming our best player.

We even played 4 midfielders yesterday, not sure how many more you want for us to dominate possession or help in build up play.

We are not built for slow possession game, Even Ole said what he expects from his midfielders. Go for forward pass, at worst you lose possession and it shouldn't be a problem as we should press and win the ball. This is what Ole said year ago, Bruno is typical Ole template player.

 

[Amar__]

Any other player would be hooked at half time. He also shouldn't act like that when being taken off.

 

[Escobar]

Bruno looks a bit shattered to me. The names is a warrior and hates the idea is sitting down, but he could use a game or two off.

Fatigue seems to be the main problem for me. Not just his body, but also mentally. He's been here for a year and I'm sure it cost him so much energy to help the team to be where we are now!

 

[Vaibhav Raj]

He will be back in form again, there's no doubt about that. He has too good of a shooting technique and knack for spotting attacking passes to remain unproductive for long periods.

Maybe it is just me who feels like it but he looks like he is doubling down on his first time passes, moving around a whole lot less with the ball. In his first few matches, he was playing good short passes and engaging in one-twos. Now it is all "ball leaves my feet and most advanced attacker is through on goal". He is seeing a pass in his head and rushing it badly. Counter attacks have to be measured and precise to be fruitful or else they just result in increased frustration and lack of control. On days when the team is struggling for control in a game, his current rushed style hurting the team, there's no doubt about that.

The technique is there and the vision is there. That's for all to see and there stats backing it all up. He just needs to slightly tweak his attempted assist pass volume and maybe, at times, focus on keeping the ball moving.

 

[GueRed]

praying his form picks up soon.

the last few weeks he's been fecking rubbish

yesterday looked like a pub player..

 

[kirk buttercup]

Maybe he was told To go out yesterday and Play that Killer Pass. We only needed one or two to stick and they had a makeshift Back centre halve pairing . It didn't come off so made him look Poor. Or maybe he was Just a bit off Because players have off days .

 

[Jeppers7]

Maybe he was told To go out yesterday and Play that Killer Pass. We only needed one or two to stick and they had a makeshift Back centre halve pairing . It didn't come off so made him look Poor. Or maybe he was Just a bit off Because players have off days .

I think definitely tactical, we looked to play the killer pass as soon as we found a Bruno or Pogba.

Also yes you’re absolutely spot on, no big deal all players have off spells....Bruno like every other player has ups and downs and he’s currently going through a period where he isn’t playing well at all.

 

[roonster09]

Maybe he was told To go out yesterday and Play that Killer Pass. We only needed one or two to stick and they had a makeshift Back centre halve pairing . It didn't come off so made him look Poor. Or maybe he was Just a bit off Because players have off days .

Not just yesterday, that was always the case with all our players. Guess every player have different level of freedom. Ole even said it last year that he wants his midfielders to play forward pass quickly instead of tippy tappy nonsense. He even said at worst we lose possession, which means we have to press and win it back. Our game plays out just like how Ole said in the interview.

 

[youngrell]

Nah im not having that he did not carry our biggest threat
Our biggest threat were counter attacks taht if anything he nullified with rushing his passes

All the praise for that move need to go to shaw for busting a gut to make the overlap for that play to even happen

I'm all ears if you can tell me which player was our biggest threat, then? Because I can't remember Rashford even having a shot, Martial was pinned back quite deep and Pogba was losing the ball in very similar fashion throughout, too.

As I have said countless times, Bruno was very poor compared to his usual standards but the reaction is way OTT. Some fans want him dropped for big games FFS.

Kudos to Shaw for creating the chance, agree with you there.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

We all rate Fernandes very highly considering his impact but genuine question - is he a midfielder or an attacker? He doesn't seem to get as involved with the buildup as even Lampard used to. His end product is superb but we need to keep in mind his role when upgrading our midfield 2.

 

[roonster09]

We all rate Fernandes very highly considering his impact but genuine question - is he a midfielder or an attacker? He doesn't seem to get as involved with the buildup as even Lampard used to. His end product is superb but we need to keep in mind his role when upgrading our midfield 2.

Only Magurie and Lindelof played more passes per game than Bruno for us, which shows he is always involved in the build up play.

If you take per 90 mins stats then Bruno plays 59 passes, Pogba 60, Fred 62, Matic 75. Barely anything at all between our regular first choice midfielders (fred, pogba, Bruno)

 

[Andersons Dietician]

We all rate Fernandes very highly considering his impact but genuine question - is he a midfielder or an attacker? He doesn't seem to get as involved with the buildup as even Lampard used to. His end product is superb but we need to keep in mind his role when upgrading our midfield 2.

He pretty much plays as a striker. I want to see him getting more involved and actually stepping in to our midfield at times and just get his foot on the ball. I think this is why Pogba will come from the left as instead of Martial filling the space Bruno vacates it’ll be Pogba.

 

[The Original]

Only Magurie and Lindelof played more passes per game than Bruno for us, which shows he is always involved in the build up play.

If you take per 90 mins stats then Bruno plays 59 passes, Pogba 60, Fred 62, Matic 75. Barely anything at all between our regular first choice midfielders (fred, pogba, Bruno)

The question shouldn't be how many passes he is making, should be how effective he is with the passes in the build-up. While he plays on average as many passes as the others, he's much too inaccurate when compared to any other top player in his position.

 

[roonster09]

The question shouldn't be how many passes he is making, should be how effective he is with the passes in the build-up. While he plays on average as many passes as the others, he's much too inaccurate when compared to any other top player in his position.

Well the point was how much he was involved, stats that show how much he is involved is number of passes attempted. How effective he is with possession or how loose he is with possession is a different argument.

His passing accuracy is around 76%, KdB's was around 77-78% before Pep took over, now it's in 82-83%.

If we get a manager who values possession a lot, his passing accuracy will obviously improve but with manager like Ole who is more direct in the attack, it will always be the same.

 

[Sylar]

It wasnt his best game. I do think he needs a rest (or should look to him to start the bench the next game and introduce him if needed). It might help him a lot.

His movement was really good yesterday, especially when it came to the chance that Allisson saved. I think he himself was disappointed in some of the balls he put through (but some were really good and offside after offside negated that).

 

[tenpoless]

For those who think he should be replaced, you deserve Pereira playing as a number 10.

I hope all of you have a nightmare at night, having to watch a front three of:

Lukaku
Pereira Fellaini

coached by Moyes

 

[Beaucoup]

We are a counter attacking team so the risky pass is almost always on when we gain possession. What he needs to stop doing is playing off one touch in the middle third when he has time and space, however that's down to the coaches to sort out.

 

[The Original]

For those who think he should be replaced, you deserve Pereira playing as a number 10.

I hope all of you have a nightmare at night, having to watch a front three of:

Lukaku
Pereira Fellaini

coached by Moyes

Because Bruno and Pereira are the only two 10s in the world?

 

[Dike_Manc]

I don't know really. He has had an amazing effect on us going forward... but he played poorly in 3 consecutive games prior to the Liverpool game. And before the game, when seriously contemplating where the game could be won or lost us, I was pretty sure he would have a bad game and he did.
De Bryne highlights how a player can be creative and reasonable at the same time. Bruno's just mental. Hope he gets a well deserved rest and we see what van de Beek has to offer.

 

[Mcking]

With Pogba hitting form, I think we should drop him sometimes and have Pogba in his position. Can't believe he lasted that much in the Liverpool game.

 

[Tom Van Persie]

We're running him into the ground he needs a rest.

 

[#07]

We're running him into the ground he needs a rest.

Yup. Its reminiscent of the end of last season. Isn't this why we bought Van de Beek, so we could rest Bruno without having to rely on Pereira?

 

[mav_9me]

We're running him into the ground he needs a rest.

To me it's as simple as that

 

[Tom Van Persie]

Yup. Its reminiscent of the end of last season. Isn't this why we bought Van de Beek, so we could rest Bruno without having to rely on Pereira?

Exactly but it doesn't seem like Ole fully trusts van de Beek yet and tbf whenever Bruno has been rested like West Ham away we've ended up bringing him off the bench to bail us out.

Next two fixtures are Fulham on Wednesday and Liverpool in the FA Cup on Sunday. Ole needs to give him at least one of these matches off.

 

[BusbyMalone]

I would possibly give him rest against Fulham and play Donny there. I thought he was awful yesterday and was poor against Burnley. Saying that he did come close with a freekick and also had a decent effort that was well saved by Allison. He is very careless in possession, which you can accept to a certain extent depending on the opposition your facing. Continually giving it back to Liverpool yesterday when he had it wasn't doing us any favours, though.

The guy is our best player so there's no sense in going in on him too hard. Just let him have this week off.

 

[Stacks]

Because he tries to force it too much sometimes, in these tighter games when we have less of the ball, and are set up to contain/counter he has fewer chances to pull it off so he needs to be more careful in possession. think some are being over the top with criticism. In our big games this year, virtually no one has turned up for neither us nor our opposition. Liverpool's attack was pretty poor. Bruno does need to improve his decision making and trying to force some dumb passes. That said he nearly won the game again with a close FK, keeper save and did the nice flick to Rashford to play him in for a 2 on 2 counter then Rashford ran diagonally and fluffed the counter attack chance.

he's been here for just a year so I think its a bit soon to label "not a big game player"

 

[Adisa]

Needs to take better care of the ball. Gives the ball away in unacceptable positions too often.

 

[Champagne Football]

Roy Keane keeps having a go at him for not turning up in big games, but we're basically a one-man team right now. Bruno is the difference in 90% of the games we win. We rely too heavy on him and he looked shattered tired against Liverpool. He needs more rest urgently.

You can compare how much we rely on him to the Liverpool team of Steven Gerrard, The Southampton team of Matt Le Tissier, the Newcastle team of Shearer or the Crystal Palace team of Zaha 2 years ago when Zaha was on fire.

Tottenham have 2 World Class match winners, and we only have 1 plus the odd big game from Rashford and Pogba who chip in once in a while. Already Son looks shattered tired at Spurs from Jose relying so heavily on him, but at least they have Kane still on a hot streak.

 

[SATA]

I hope Ole showed him the door or kicked a boot at him when he threw up a strop in his substitution. I can’t stand a player when he acts like that, star player or not. The team always comes first

 

[tomaldinho1]

praying his form picks up soon.

the last few weeks he's been fecking rubbish

yesterday looked like a pub player..

He was atrociously bad. Great player but, my goodness, when he's not on it he's awful.

 

[cyberman]

If Ole rotates for cup games then play him v Fulham and hell have a rest for Sheff Utd. Pretty soon its 1 game a week if we rotate out for EL games.

 

[romufc]

Need to play him against Fulham and rest him against Liverpool, give VDB a chance in that game.

VDB will take care of the ball and if he has a good game, it would put pressure on Bruno.

If he can take care of the ball in certain areas, he could be unplayable.

 

[Champagne Football]

I'm all for VDB replacing Bruno for the cup tie.

Ole needs to show Bruno he can be replaced while also giving him a rest.

It's not good to see a strop. It's a body language that suggests the player feels they are too big for the club, the ego is taking over. We've seen it with Neymar at Paris, Tevez at City and is similar to the behaviour of Pogba's agent every time he gets dropped.

 

[lex talionis]

Fatigue seems to be the main problem for me. Not just his body, but also mentally. He's been here for a year and I'm sure it cost him so much energy to help the team to be where we are now!

It really is just fatigue. Caftards are being a bit too harsh on Bruno’s performance against Liverpool, whose job primarily is chance creation and scoring. His free kick was just inches off and late in the game he had a glorious chance.

You rightly mention mental fatigue. We’re at the top of the league and I’m sure Bruno will want to play through this, but he needs a mental break as well as letting his body recover. No idea how that would be accomplished.

 

[bosnian_red]

I'm all for VDB replacing Bruno for the cup tie.

Ole needs to show Bruno he can be replaced while also giving him a rest.

It's not good to see a strop. It's a body language that suggests the player feels they are too big for the club, the ego is taking over. We've seen it with Neymar at Paris, Tevez at City and is similar to the behaviour of Pogba's agent every time he gets dropped.

I think the strop was more him seeing McTominay was injured and thinking the sub should wait in case McTominay needs to come off.

 

[Adam-Utd]

Any other player would be hooked at half time. He also shouldn't act like that when being taken off.

He wasn't complaining because he got subbed - he was saying that Mctominay just went down injured and wasn't even back on the pitch yet.

He was pointing saying give it 1 more minute in case he couldnt continue - this was our last sub.

IMO he was completely right to be thinking that way, but obviously Scott had told them he was ok to continue.

He's full of adrenaline too lets not forget, I'd much rather he react this way than run off the pitch smiling and high fiving everybody.

 

[The_Midfielder]

He needs. a rest.. Rest him against fulham.
VDbis not fit to lace his boots

 

[Ash_G]

Because he tries to force it too much sometimes, in these tighter games when we have less of the ball, and are set up to contain/counter he has fewer chances to pull it off so he needs to be more careful in possession. think some are being over the top with criticism. In our big games this year, virtually no one has turned up for neither us nor our opposition. Liverpool's attack was pretty poor. Bruno does need to improve his decision making and trying to force some dumb passes. That said he nearly won the game again with a close FK, keeper save and did the nice flick to Rashford to play him in for a 2 on 2 counter then Rashford ran diagonally and fluffed the counter attack chance.

he's been here for just a year so I think its a bit soon to label "not a big game player"

Agree with this more or less.

I do think there's a piece that is something Bruno needs to work on re trying to force it/over complicate things which in the bigger games are more of an issue than others but we shouldn't forget that he is still adapting to the PL and probably still learning about these games. I do think Bruno needs some some sort of break as we'll need him over the whole 2nd half of the season so need to give him a rest. Would be good for him and the team as well imo to show we can win without him.

I think it's also an important point that generally so far this season most of the attack has been out of form. Martial clearly not hitting heights of last year, I think Rashford's numbers cover issues in his play, Greenwood struggling etc. A lot of weight is on Bruno's shoulders and when he has a poor game it stands out as no one else is really stepping up to cover for him. I do think that's something Ole needs to figure out as City looked to have picked up some serious form. You have to assume that eventually Liverpool's attack will re-find it's mojo.

 

[Amar__]

He wasn't complaining because he got subbed - he was saying that Mctominay just went down injured and wasn't even back on the pitch yet.

He was pointing saying give it 1 more minute in case he couldnt continue - this was our last sub.

IMO he was completely right to be thinking that way, but obviously Scott had told them he was ok to continue.

He's full of adrenaline too lets not forget, I'd much rather he react this way than run off the pitch smiling and high fiving everybody.

He shouldn't react like that, he was absolutely livid.

 

[Adam-Utd]

He shouldn't react like that, he was absolutely livid.

if you've ever played football before and are full of adrenaline you'll know it happens sometimes.

He wasn't flaming anybody in particular, probably more frustrated at himself.

I absolutely love that attitude. He has the same fire Rooney used to.