[MattofManchester]

I disagree. The way Bruno plays for Portugal and the way he plays for United are different. I don't think it's their cohesion that's the problem.

I think the problem is his crisis of confidence. He's always trying to be everywhere, trying to do too much. He wants to create the goal, he wants to make space, he wants to be a passing option. This is why he goes all over the fecking pitch. Unlike many of our other players, he is putitng himself forward to try and do something instead of hiding. However, it is hurting him in the opposite sense.
Probably part of the reason he's missing chances this season is the lack of confidence and always trying to force it.

 

[Mainoldo]

About to handicap our next manager before they even join.

We are just going to be a mediocre club for ages.. whilst blind poster slowly catch up.

The whole contract is unnecessary and in a way forces the new manager to fit him in. Then people wonder why we are so poorly run and can't remove players from the squad.

Imagine if we gave Lukaku a new contract in his end of Ole season after getting us through the PSG tie. But for some reason the poster can see past that logic. Bruno is looked at like some Demi-God.

 

[romufc]

Liverpool's Director of Research, Ian Graham:

You cannot post this. It goes against the agenda that is being built around him.

 

[ForeverRed1]

Its just a very silly take from certain fans. Yes, he is not on form at the moment, but calling him a bang average player shows how well people know football.

In my mind football is about scoring goals and creating chances, if we have a solid back 6 and Bruno playing passing to forwards making forward runs, he will create chances, its a fact. Imagine having a bad season and still up there with Salah, Trent in terms of chances created.

Ofcourse, he can improve as a player, he needs to work on things but I reckon he can rediscover form.

I’m pretty sure he’s created the most chances from open play, no? And that’s his worst season. I love the guy and he shows more passion in his little finger than 90% of our squad.

 

[Stacks]

Its just a very silly take from certain fans. Yes, he is not on form at the moment, but calling him a bang average player shows how well people know football.

In my mind football is about scoring goals and creating chances, if we have a solid back 6 and Bruno playing passing to forwards making forward runs, he will create chances, its a fact. Imagine having a bad season and still up there with Salah, Trent in terms of chances created.

Ofcourse, he can improve as a player, he needs to work on things but I reckon he can rediscover form.

Then your mind is wrong. Football is about keeping possession. Even the rule book says this

 

[Stacks]

Liverpool's Director of Research, Ian Graham:

delete this now

 

[NoPace]

Then your mind is wrong. Football is about keeping possession. Even the rule book says this

It's about keeping possession to create opportunities for a player like Bruno to hit a killer pass while staying in a good shape to deal with the counters from when he loses it.

 

[UNITED ACADEMY]

Surprisingly it's not. https://www.manutd.com/en/news/detail/man-utd-complete-the-signing-of-bruno-fernandes-from-sporting

He actually signed a 5 and half year contract with further 1 year option to extend, which we hold not him (its our default), back in Jan 2020. He wouldn't be a free agent until end of 2026 season. We usually wait until 2 years left on current deals to renegotiate. So we're renegotiating a year earlier.

If Bruno's form was still excellent I wouldn't think nothing of it. But doing it now, with his current poor form (he's not pulling up any trees for Portugal either), & when we haven't seen him under the new manager yet, is risking repeating more mistakes of the past we're supposed to have learnt from.

The website says nothing at all whether it’s club’s option or player’s option.

 

[Lee565]

We are just going to be a mediocre club for ages.. whilst blind poster slowly catch up.

The whole contract is unnecessary and in a way forces the new manager to fit him in. Then people wonder why we are so poorly run and can't remove players from the squad.

Imagine if we gave Lukaku a new contract in his end of Ole season after getting us through the PSG tie. But for some reason the poster can see past that logic. Bruno is looked at like some Demi-God.

Yeah, I have nothing against Fernandes as a united player and has delivered for us on many occasions but straight away we could be dealing our new manager with an ozil type problem of having Fernandes on big wages with 5 years remaining on his contract but not suiting the next manager's vision of his united side and has to deal with the weekly drama around not selecting Fernande and not being able to move him on because nobody wants to match the new wages we offered as part of his new contract.

I thought most fans wanted the new manager to be given the opportunity to rebuild our team, this type of move does not help that happen.

 

[choccy77]

Bruno, was amazing when he arrived, this season aside from a few moments, has been poor in comparison and inconsistent and so giving him a new contract and pay rise, makes little sense really.

But nothing about football is logical in 2022.

Hoping next season, he will be central to everything that is great on the pitch for us

 

[CM]

The timing of this extension is just bizarre. He's already contracted until 2025 with the option to extend until 2026. There's really no reason to extend his contract at all.

I like Fernandes, but this has been his worst season in a United shirt and a new manager is arriving in a few months. All this does is make it more difficult to get a return on Fernandes if the new guy decides he doesn't fancy him.

 

[El Jefe]

Liverpool's Director of Research, Ian Graham:

While it's expected for creative players to lose the ball more, the difference between these two and Bruno is performance level.

TAA is almost always excellent when I watch Liverpool, offensively at least. Same for KDB, especially in 2018 when the tweet was made, he was the best player in the league.

This is where Bruno falls short in comparison. He is an erratic player with erratic performances. When he first joined he had the consistency of KDB and TAA but for over a year now his performances have been quite underwhelming. It also doesn't help that he's a big game choker, again the opposite of the other two.

If Bruno was the same in his games vs Leeds and Southampton as he is against the top 4 and CL teams, I would accept his flaws but he doesn't have the ability to do that IMO.

 

[Majima]

The website says nothing at all whether it’s club’s option or player’s option.

Why would it be the players option? That doesn't make any sense.

That option is a safety measure of the club, when players try to leave on a free. We can keep them for an extra year. The player would never activate the option themselves.

 

[UNITED ACADEMY]

Why would it be the players option? That doesn't make any sense.

That option is a safety measure of the club, when players try to leave on a free. We can keep them for an extra year. The player would never activate the option themselves.

Because the transfermarkt says ‘’player’s option‘’ on Bruno but it doesn’t say ‘’player option’’ on Sancho. I posted these links in my original post for a reason and I thought you look at them, you should take a look at them.

https://www.transfermarkt.com/bruno-fernandes/profil/spieler/240306
https://www.transfermarkt.com/jadon-sancho/profil/spieler/401173

This could also answer why the club offered him new one because that extension was player’s option not club’s option. After all, there is no rule says it can’t be players option. When we signed him first time, Bruno could just tell the club that he only wants 5 years contract term at that time not 6 years so instead of club’s option for the extension they allow him to have player’s option.

And also I think Cavani last season’s contract was also similar that his extension was player’s option. Remember, we tried to convince him to stay one more year. If it was club’s option, we didn’t need to wait for him to confirm he will stay for one more year, we could have just active the extension.

 

[The_Midfielder]

It's about keeping possession to create opportunities for a player like Bruno to hit a killer pass while staying in a good shape to deal with the counters from when he loses it.

This.
We were the most boring team in the EPL when we had LVG and his possession play... We were exciting, won more games with ole and his counterattacks..even though Ole didn't know how to coach..
Not everybody can play like a Man City.. but I feel with the correct players/mentality we can play good football..

 

[Majima]

Because the transfermarkt says ‘’player’s option‘’ on Bruno but it doesn’t say ‘’player option’’ on Sancho. I posted these links in my original post for a reason and I thought you look at them, you should take a look at them.

https://www.transfermarkt.com/bruno-fernandes/profil/spieler/240306
https://www.transfermarkt.com/jadon-sancho/profil/spieler/401173

This could also answer why the club offered him new one because that extension was player’s option not club’s option. After all, there is no rule says it can’t be players option. When we signed him first time, Bruno could just tell the club that he only wants 5 years contract term at that time not 6 years so instead of club’s option for the extension they allow him to have player’s option.

And also I think Cavani last season’s contract was also similar that his extension was player’s option. Remember, we tried to convince him to stay one more year. If it was club’s option, we didn’t need to wait for him to confirm he will stay for one more year, we could have just active the extension.

I did look at the time, I didn't ignore you, I just didnt think anything of it.

Yeah I do remember it being up to Cavani whether to stay last year. Free transfers are probably different though.

It would be strange if Bruno has control over that option considering it's our default policy with every contract to put it in to keep control (we activated those options with Pogba & Lingard last year) but who knows really.

After thinking more, I do think it's likelier that we just want to give him more money, to reward his past performances, showing that we value him highly, than anything to do with the length of his contract.

Remember he's part of the group with Ronaldo that's been disillusioned with the mentality of the club this season.

I reckon he's probably had eyes from elsewhere on his relatively low pay and our situation.

 

[bucky]

While it's expected for creative players to lose the ball more, the difference between these two and Bruno is performance level.

TAA is almost always excellent when I watch Liverpool, offensively at least. Same for KDB, especially in 2018 when the tweet was made, he was the best player in the league.

This is where Bruno falls short in comparison. He is an erratic player with erratic performances. When he first joined he had the consistency of KDB and TAA but for over a year now his performances have been quite underwhelming. It also doesn't help that he's a big game choker, again the opposite of the other two.

If Bruno was the same in his games vs Leeds and Southampton as he is against the top 4 and CL teams, I would accept his flaws but he doesn't have the ability to do that IMO.

Bruno not being as good as KDB was in the past or as good as TAA is currently, doesn't mean we should be looking to replace him. There are attacking midfielders I'd prefer to him, but he's still been a very good player for us. Last season we came second and he was our best player. Saying for over a year his performances have been underwhelming is ridiculous, especially considering that we as a team have been atrocious this season. The main difference to KDB and TAA is that they are playing in functional teams with good coaching, throw Bruno in there and he would thrive.

 

[UNITED ACADEMY]

I did look at the time, I didn't ignore you, I just didnt think anything of it.

Yeah I do remember it being up to Cavani whether to stay last year. Free transfers are probably different though.

It would be strange if Bruno has control over that option considering it's our default policy with every contract to put it in to keep control (we activated those options with Pogba & Lingard last year) but who knows really.

After thinking more, I do think it's likelier that we just want to give him more money, to reward his past performances, showing that we value him highly, than anything to do with the length of his contract.

Remember he's part of the group with Ronaldo that's been disillusioned with the mentality of the club this season.

I reckon he's probably had eyes from elsewhere on his relatively low pay and our situation.

Not sure why free transfer is relevant to this.

I remember when we signed Cavani, the contract was 1 year plus extension. When I heard the news why we needed to wait Cavani's confirmation, I was confused because I thought we have 1 year extension option so why didn't we just active it. But this makes more sense now if we consider that 1 year extension as player's option. It wouldn't be strange to let Bruno decides his one year extension since we gave him 5 years (4.5 years) and we were also desperate to sign him in January so we agreed with his term.

 

[Rozay]

This.
We were the most boring team in the EPL when we had LVG and his possession play... We were exciting, won more games with ole and his counterattacks..even though Ole didn't know how to coach..
Not everybody can play like a Man City.. but I feel with the correct players/mentality we can play good football..

That’s because it requires you to be really good. Few teams have the resource to become really good at playing like that, but I feel we should be amongst them. Ole’s style is frankly easier to do, and can probably win things for you if you’re not unlucky to have a team that ‘plays like a Man City’ around at the same time. Because if you have a top team that plays that way, chances are they will be a bit better than you. Fergie also ran into a team that plays like a Man City and there was nothing he could do about it, and there was pretty much no way, with our style, that we could have become good enough to beat Barcelona with theirs at the time. Same happened with Madrid domestically. They spent loads and loads but regularly got battered by that lot because, although few can, but if you can get it right with that style with top players, you are very difficult to better.

Obviously, teams/coaches need to work with what they have - but I feel with club teams especially instead of national sides, if you have the time and resources, why not try and build a side that way? Get the right coach, get the right players and do it, because while the margin is fine, the reward is huge, as shown by periods of absolute dominance by Barcelona, Spain and Manchester City.

 

[NoPace]

This.
We were the most boring team in the EPL when we had LVG and his possession play... We were exciting, won more games with ole and his counterattacks..even though Ole didn't know how to coach..
Not everybody can play like a Man City.. but I feel with the correct players/mentality we can play good football..

I think Man City do play like this though. They move it around to get De Bruyne, Mahrez and Cancelo into good positions and get a ton of their goals that way.

 

[Cassidy]

This.
We were the most boring team in the EPL when we had LVG and his possession play... We were exciting, won more games with ole and his counterattacks..even though Ole didn't know how to coach..
Not everybody can play like a Man City.. but I feel with the correct players/mentality we can play good football..

We were boring because we didnt invest in top players in the attack or midfield.

 

[Jeppers7]

Bruno not being as good as KDB was in the past or as good as TAA is currently, doesn't mean we should be looking to replace him. There are attacking midfielders I'd prefer to him, but he's still been a very good player for us. Last season we came second and he was our best player. Saying for over a year his performances have been underwhelming is ridiculous, especially considering that we as a team have been atrocious this season. The main difference to KDB and TAA is that they are playing in functional teams with good coaching, throw Bruno in there and he would thrive.

He wasn’t. He was terrible from January to the end of the season and his output was poor also, penalties aside. He was better the first half of last season but the team were terrible then so I don’t see how he inspired a second place finish as suggested.

 

[united for life]

He wasn’t. He was terrible from January to the end of the season and his output was poor also, penalties aside. He was better the first half of last season but the team were terrible then so I don’t see how he inspired a second place finish as suggested.

so who inspired the second place finish? 18 goals/11 assists in the league last season. I would agree if you have said that there are aspects of his game that need to improve, but we need to give him credit for the work he has done.

 

[Adisa]

Liverpool's Director of Research, Ian Graham:

Both players play for teams that generally keep the ball better and dominate more of the game. The risk/reward element is entirely different when you consider that. The other thing is unforced errors. I don't know much abouth these two but Bruno gives the ball away even when he isn't attempting something creative. These are areas of his game that would need to be refined. Off the ball, he had to be more disciplined as well.

 

[The_Midfielder]

That’s because it requires you to be really good. Few teams have the resource to become really good at playing like that, but I feel we should be amongst them. Ole’s style is frankly easier to do, and can probably win things for you if you’re not unlucky to have a team that ‘plays like a Man City’ around at the same time. Because if you have a top team that plays that way, chances are they will be a bit better than you. Fergie also ran into a team that plays like a Man City and there was nothing he could do about it, and there was pretty much no way, with our style, that we could have become good enough to beat Barcelona with theirs at the time. Same happened with Madrid domestically. They spent loads and loads but regularly got battered by that lot because, although few can, but if you can get it right with that style with top players, you are very difficult to better.

Obviously, teams/coaches need to work with what they have - but I feel with club teams especially instead of national sides, if you have the time and resources, why not try and build a side that way? Get the right coach, get the right players and do it, because while the margin is fine, the reward is huge, as shown by periods of absolute dominance by Barcelona, Spain and Manchester City.

No coach in this world right now can replicate what Pep is doing .. Pep is like SAF.. he js on another tier

 

[Jeppers7]

so who inspired the second place finish? 18 goals/11 assists in the league last season. I would agree if you have said that there are aspects of his game that need to improve, but we need to give him credit for the work he has done.

Why does one player have to have inspired it? It certainly wasn’t Bruno in any case. 50% of his goals were penalties and from jan to end of the season he got four assists, two of them in a 9-0 win. So no he didn’t inspire that and he wasn’t our best player last season.

 

[united for life]

Why does one player have to have inspired it? It certainly wasn’t Bruno in any case. 50% of his goals were penalties and from jan to end of the season he got four assists, two of them in a 9-0 win. So no he didn’t inspire that and he wasn’t our best player last season.

He was literally the sir matt busby player of the year for united in 2020 and 2021. He lead it with no doubt. Not sure why you want to deny something like that. Without Bruno we wouldn’t have finished where we did. Scoring penalties isn’t a felony by the way; I could argue that his high conversion rate was crucial for us.

If we want to criticise him, let’s criticise his ball retention and his constant moaning this year. He should definitely work on that. But i truly believe that in a better functioning team with proper performing CMs, he would play much better

 

[Jeppers7]

He was literally the sir matt busby player of the year for united in 2020 and 2021. He lead it with no doubt. Not sure why you want to deny something like that. Without Bruno we wouldn’t have finished where we did. Scoring penalties isn’t a felony by the way; I could argue that his high conversion rate was crucial for us.

If we want to criticise him, let’s criticise his ball retention and his constant moaning this year. He should definitely work on that. But i truly believe that in a better functioning team with proper performing CMs, he would play much better

Shocker that the fans voted him, he’s literally the most fan loved player since Rooney. it doesn’t matter how he plays...fans were giving him our player of the calendar year for 2021 on Twitter and Facebook in december when he was literally poor for the entire 12 months by and large.

He wasn’t our best player last season and whilst scoring penalties is a plus the issue is that the winner of the penalty can be more instrumental without getting the stat. He wasn’t our best player because his performances from at least January to the end of the season were mostly poor and his goals and assists weren’t crucial in that period other than a few of his penalties that were won by other players good play.

Again we don’t have to attribute it to one player. It was a collective. Bruno had a good period in October November. Cavani in April May. Pogba in Jan Feb and April. Shaw was outstanding from at least jan to May. Greenwood made contributions and McFred had their games too. Bruno was no more instrumental than Pogba, Cavani, Shaw at least last season. In fact at the business end he was poor.

 

[united for life]

Shocker that the fans voted him, he’s literally the most fan loved player since Rooney. it doesn’t matter how he plays...fans were giving him our player of the calendar year for 2021 on Twitter and Facebook in december when he was literally poor for the entire 12 months by and large.

He wasn’t our best player last season and whilst scoring penalties is a plus the issue is that the winner of the penalty can be more instrumental without getting the stat. He wasn’t our best player because his performances from at least January to the end of the season were mostly poor and his goals and assists weren’t crucial in that period other than a few of his penalties that were won by other players good play.

Again we don’t have to attribute it to one player. It was a collective. Bruno had a good period in October November. Cavani in April May. Pogba in Jan Feb and April. Shaw was outstanding from at least jan to May. Greenwood made contributions and McFred had their games too. Bruno was no more instrumental than Pogba, Cavani, Shaw at least last season. In fact at the business end he was poor.

Probably they should record goals to players who won penalties rather than those who scored them then.

Bruno was voted player of the year not because fans loved him (not sure anything is wrong with this anyway) but because he was the best player. Look at the thread this season, fans are at him for his drop in form - so he does get his fair share of criticism whenever he isn’t performing well.

I am not saying, and i don’t think the earlier poster was saying, that he single handedly drove the team; he inspired it? Yes, since joining. He was a spark that we needed, unfortunately no titles to show for it.

Who was our best player last year anyway?

 

[bucky]

He wasn’t. He was terrible from January to the end of the season and his output was poor also, penalties aside. He was better the first half of last season but the team were terrible then so I don’t see how he inspired a second place finish as suggested.

Why does one player have to have inspired it? It certainly wasn’t Bruno in any case. 50% of his goals were penalties and from jan to end of the season he got four assists, two of them in a 9-0 win. So no he didn’t inspire that and he wasn’t our best player last season.

I wonder how we got second and to the EL final, if one of our best players was terrible for half a season.

Both players play for teams that generally keep the ball better and dominate more of the game. The risk/reward element is entirely different when you consider that. The other thing is unforced errors. I don't know much abouth these two but Bruno gives the ball away even when he isn't attempting something creative. These are areas of his game that would need to be refined. Off the ball, he had to be more disciplined as well.

metric (per 90)	Bruno Fernandes	Kevin de Bruyne
touches	69.94	73.76
passes attempted	58.1	61.74
pass completion in %	73.8	76.3
passes intercepted	2.96	2.77
passes blocked	1.91	2.34
passes out of bounds	1.33	1.31
miscontrols	1.31	1.42
dispossessed	1.61	1.84
errors leading to shot	0.05	0

Stats from this season, there is hardly any difference and in some cases de Bruyne is worse. That's despite the fact that de Bruyne is playing in a functional team, that is better at keeping possession and winning the ball back, as you also point out. Bruno is also better in most defensive measures, such as pressures, tackles made, interceptions and passes blocked. I think the points you make are fair and he shouldn't be beyond criticism, in my opinion he needs competition and as I've said above, there are players I'd prefer to him, however the narrative around him has been overly harsh recently.

 

[DrRodo]

Then your mind is wrong. Football is about keeping possession. Even the rule book says this

This is just a poor, limited take on football

 

[VP89]

Then your mind is wrong. Football is about keeping possession. Even the rule book says this

No its not. Leagues have been won with terrific sides that did not prioritise possession offer everything else over the years.

Football is about winning games. There are different approaches to meet that objective. Working off the ball and forcing surprise counters with lower game possession is a tactic. Its also proven fruitful in a lot of sides. Atletico won La Ligas and reached CL finals without needing to dominate games.

 

[Idxomer]

I wonder how we got second and to the EL final, if one of our best players was terrible for half a season.

Other players stepped up, I don't think he was terrible though but certainly not as good as the 1st half of the season.

 

[Nou_Camp99]

I really don't understand why we are negotiating new deal with Bruno right now.

He is earning £180,000 / week , exactly what he deserves if not more than that, and current deal lasts till 2025 with 1-year extension option. By 2026 , Bruno will be 32 and big question mark on if he can sustain his performance . Why we need to rush another deal to extend & increase his wage ?

Man Utd supposedly trim off the over-paid wages from those undeserved so that the team wage bills are more balanced, instead of the other way around.

Maybe because players like Pogba are on 280k a week and haven't performed as consistently as he has.

It's all relative. 180k a week does sound fair but not when you take into context what the goalkeeper earns and what likes of Pogba, Cavani, Martial and Rashford are earning.

This is a failure of the board by getting contract renewals badly badly wrong. Bruno in this instance has every right to want parity with others.

 

[Greck]

Bruno hasn't actually gotten better as we have gotten better coached, dare I say has even been a bit worse or the same. Bit of a myth in here that the whole team is in the pits when it's really just certain individuals namely Rashford, Bruno and Ronaldo, uncoincidentally 3 players who were already questioned for their general team play. (Ronaldo has at least occasionally flashed great team play before going back to playing for his goal tally. His fit under ETH will depend on whether he's ready to fit in).

Anyway before the last couple weeks the squad was actually in decent form but being let down by the horrific form of the aforementioned 3. Fred and Sancho were among our best players under RR, Elanga while nothing special had his stock rise. Imo the ones who are struggling (Bruno and Rashford) will remain the same ones who will endure the biggest adaptation phase under ETH. Managers like Pep and ETH imo are some of the worse fits for players like those. They seem to get incrementally worse as you strip their license to do whatever they want however and where ever they like. Rashford already looks like he doesn't know what to do if he isn't allowed to shoot every touch.

 

[bucky]

Other players stepped up, I don't think he was terrible though but certainly not as good as the 1st half of the season.

It's certainly not like he was a non factor, who only scored pens though.

 

[Stacks]

This is just a poor, limited take on football

No its not. Leagues have been won with terrific sides that did not prioritise possession offer everything else over the years.

Football is about winning games. There are different approaches to meet that objective. Working off the ball and forcing surprise counters with lower game possession is a tactic. Its also proven fruitful in a lot of sides. Atletico won La Ligas and reached CL finals without needing to dominate games.

y'all thought this was serious?

 

[KeanoMagicHat]

Imagine thinking Bruno is the problem. Superb goals. Also promising for us that Bruno and Ronaldo are starting to combine a little.

 

[Who's Kissing Cameras?]

Bruno have my kids. What a player.

 

[Deery]

Some player boys..