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2021-22 Performances

View full 2021-22 profile

5.2 Season Average Rating
Appearances
46
Goals
10
Assists
13
Yellow cards
10
Status
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Toshey said:
He doesn’t have much to work with. Our players refuse to move these days and he gets bullied every game.
You have Elanga running into offside before Bruno can even receive the ball, rashy being a dead man walking, Ronaldo dropping in midfield, Scott fecking mctominay touching the ball 5 times per game…

We are complete mess of a team. Do not shit on the players who actually give a feck and give efforts.
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I mean, you just kinda shat on other players to make your point, some who are not only playing better but have also shown they care as much as anyone else. It's a myth Bruno cares as much as anyone.. We never even accommodated whining and petulant displays in our players before Bruno. There are better ways to show passion.

Regarding Ronaldo he actually rarely ventures into midfield these days so I doubt it has much to do with his runs. A lot of Bruno's diagonal opportunities came from our sitting deep under Ole. If we push up 15-25 yards higher up then naturally the pitch is going to shrink.

Another thing to note is there are more passes to make than simply running in behind. That's some proper dinosaur football Jose would have been proud of. If he doesn't diversify his game he won't make it under ETH who is predominantly about using fluid and patient short passing to rip opponents to shreds. Ajax highlight sequences rarely even contain a pass longer than 10 yards. It's all tiki taka.
 
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Greck said:
I mean, you just kinda shat on other players to make your point, some who are not only playing better but have also shown they care as much as anyone else. It's a myth Bruno cares as much as anyone.. We never even accommodated whining and petulant displays in our players before Bruno. There are better ways to show passion.

Regarding Ronaldo he actually rarely ventures into midfield these days so I doubt it has much to do with his runs. A lot of Bruno's diagonals came from our sitting deep under Ole. If we push up 15-25 yards higher up then naturally the pitch is going to shrink.

Another thing to note is there are more passes to make than simply running in behind. That's some proper dinosaur football Jose would have been proud of. If he doesn't diversify his game he won't make it under ETH who is predominantly about using fluid and patient short passing to rip opponents to shreds. Ajax highlight sequences rarely even contain a pass longer than 10 yards. It's all tiki taka.
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:lol: How long have you been following United?
 
TsuWave said:
All he does is give the ball away, roll on the ground and gesticulate at team-mates - even when he's the one that fecked up
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Uhhh… dude, didn’t you know he’s created more chances than De Bruyne and Trent this season?
 
There is a certain cruelty to the same things that were encouraged under an old regime are what he is mostly scrutinised for under a new one. The player hasn’t fundamentally changed, but what is required of him has. Is it a case of adaption, or simply a skilset that is not applicable to the way we intend to play?

His game is anachronistic, and as such, throwback managers and systems are more likely to appreciate and benefit from what he does; if he were up for sale, it wouldn’t surprise me to see defensive or counter-attacking clubs mostly enquiring about him.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
:lol: How long have you been following United?
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Oh brother it's always these fanboy favs that trigger the ad hominems. Ronaldo was a playacting diva when he first got here, crying about defenders roughing him, the old guard straightened him up and told him to cut out that nonsense and get on with it. The acceptance of Bruno's type of petulance is absolutely new territory. The closest we've ever been was Nani and it was nothing like this. Bruno gets hard tackled and stops playing to go cry to the refs. I repeat this has never been accepted or encouraged.
 
Greck said:
Oh brother it's always these fanboy favs that trigger the ad hominems. Ronaldo was a playacting diva when he first got here, crying about defenders roughing him, the old guard straightened him up and told him to cut out that nonsense and get on with it. The acceptance of Bruno's type of petulance is absolutely new territory. The closest we've ever been was Nani and it was nothing like this.
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I don’t think you understand what ad hominem means.
 
Greck said:
Oh brother it's always these fanboy favs that trigger the ad hominems. Ronaldo was a playacting diva when he first got here, crying about defenders roughing him, the old guard straightened him up and told him to cut out that nonsense and get on with it. The acceptance of Bruno's type of petulance is absolutely new territory. The closest we've ever been was Nani and it was nothing like this. Bruno gets hard tackled and stops playing to go cry to the refs. I repeat this has never been accepted or encouraged.
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Agreed. He's really taking it to another level.
 
Maybe it has to with him being from the Portuguese league? From what I've seen of them they love themselves a bit of diving and play acting and refs usually go with it.
 
TsuWave said:
None of this is true. Guy plays the exact same when Ronaldo is not in the team. He’s just not very good - the deficiencies in his game were also there when he was being productive - and we’re also there when our scout team recommended not signing him. Nothing to do with Ronaldo
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I'm not blaming Ronaldo. It is very true, yesterday, he had an opportunity to shoot and he sought Ronaldo instead. That fraction of a second meant he lost his chance to test the keeper.
 
Harry190 said:
I'm not blaming Ronaldo. It is very true, yesterday, he had an opportunity to shoot and he sought Ronaldo instead. That fraction of a second meant he lost his chance to test the keeper.
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He's just not the best decision maker. It isn't a case of thinks of Ronaldo first. The instance you mentioned is just a case of his poor decision making. Our scouting team report said they didn't trust his decision making. People have questioned same decision making in his performance threads ever since he touched down here - even when he was being productive. It's also reflected in how inconsistent his passing is. It's Bruno that's just not very good - not that he thinks of Ronaldo first
 
Fortitude said:
Mata is lighter, weaker, slower with less acceleration and he also isn’t a dribbler, yet he knows exactly what to do with the ball and when to do it. He comes on and looks levels above as an actual footballer and on top of that, he gets clipped less and dispossessed less because his speed of thought is in another stratosphere yet there are groans when he is subbed in. If he were Bruno’s age, he would very probably take his role off him.

Dribbling is less of a problem than his spatial awareness and desire to play cohesively, imo. There are ways and means of negating a lack of both strength and dribbling deficiencies (see Mata), but Bruno doesn’t utilise them; the thought map contrast between the two could not be more different: Mata, ‘how can I best progress the play? What is the best option for me and my skilset right now?’ Bruno: ‘ARGH! BOMB! GET IT AWAY FROM ME!’ or: ‘Where is Ronaldo? I shall pass to him even if there are far better pass selections available!’ The latter reminds me of Tweek, the character from South Park; he is so antsy and panicked in his play. The things he opts for are often so needless and forced - if there’s a choice between an open teammate 15 yards ahead of you and a really low percentage Hollywood pass to a man covered by multiple opponents, why is he constantly picking the option that will see the ball turned over and thus putting us on the back foot for no reason whatsoever? Extrapolated over a season, it makes for a terrible rate of turnovers. A #10 should be nailed on to have a good game irrespective of whether he scores or assists; he has the responsibility of knitting the play and being the progressive conduit between deeper midfield and the forward line, which is troublesome when your #10 is the most wasteful player in the team.

I think something that is overlooked in this thread is that he has been ineffective for his country when asked to be a generic midfielder. You can point to us being a mess, but it isn’t the only body of work to assess him by - Bruno is not seamlessly chaining passes or working in the collective for his national team and rather than point fingers, the question should be asked of why that is. As a rounded, consummate #10, he has a lot of work to do to get up to par. Goals and assists are important, but they are not the be all and end all of the position, and he has to learn that otherwise his ineffective games (one in which he doesn’t assist or score) are going to continue to be appalling. Mata should not be capable of outshining him to such a degree at the age and profile he is - one, people want out the door as a non-playing entity, the other is on a fat new contract and is pretty much a bona fidelity starter by default… given those circumstances, there should be an absolute gulf between what they provide on the pitch, yet Mata looks like the better footballing brain by far.

He’s got a very interesting pre-season coming up, that’s for sure. For me, it’ll be an amazing conversion if a player of his age suddenly gets it and stops being Hollywood ball personified.
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Agreed - personally I feel his deficiencies is unlikely to fit in a more possession oriented style football, even his decision making vastly improves under ETH I don’t think his technique is of the required level, there are just far too many erratic moments in his game with inconsistent technique / passing ability (even short & simple passing) that would be a detrimental to our attacking transitions where I expect to see a big improvement in our patterns of play and creates a new identity under ETH next season.
 
Man Utd 3:0 Brentford
Why does he always look like he's on the verge of crying ?
 
A very subdued performance which might be better for the team in the long run.
 
I thought that was the best Bruno has looked in a long time. I also thought Mata showed him how a #10 really should play. More of Bruno on the wing please
 
Felt like he’s been reading this thread tbh, a lot less of the hot potato passes. But he needs to learn it’s not binary, he either passes the ball backwards or goes for the Hollywood ball.
 
Much better today, not so hurried in possession and lovely goal. Calm Bruno is the way forward.
 
Tonight is a role you could see him playing next season more often. Particularly if we don't buy a winger and Ten Hag thinks Van de Beek is worth a place in the squad.
 
Nice goal. Mediocre performance. Outshone by Mata, Elanga and Erickson. As well as others.
 
Thought he was the best he's looked in ages.

Always felt like he enjoys playing with Mata... Probably cos they're good mates.
 
He's doing things before he thinks, he needs to calm down clearly. He needs to be coached... he's too erratic. Get him consistent and reliable and he could be an effective weapon again.
 
ETH is going to stick him on the wing isn't he? Might be a problem fitting him and Sancho in the team together next season.
 
I wont mind him on the LW actually, he is better when he is out of the way.
 
He was good and scored an excellent goal. He really should have scored a second one as well, though, his finishing has been crap this season overall
 
Since January he has 100% played the worst since arriving but scoring 50 goals and providing 39 assists in just 124 apps is no mean feat. Continuously topping creative charts in the league since arriving also. Some respect is certainly due whether you rate him or not.

He has never been that Mata/Eriksen type number 10 he is just an attacking midfielder capable of the sublime and the ridiculous in the same game. Feel he is getting a tough ride from a lot of fans though considering he always gives his all even if not playing well - unlike a lot of our players this season who just can’t be arsed.

If ETH doesn’t fancying him, so be it, but he is far from a big problem in this squad and can surely be coached to slow his game down and keep possession better.

It was no surprise tonight he looked better in possession when he had Mata and Matic to combine with. Usually he has Rashford and Fred so you can see why the Hollywood pass is played so often. Surround him with better technical players and we’ll see a better Bruno in my opinion.
 
This match further confirms we shouldn’t use him as AM anymore. A player who does more of link up and build up play in midfield like Mata, improves our whole attacking play massively, Bruno will never be that sort of player. We should try him as WF of FW (shadow striker) instead. He is best suit as impact player role who only focus on shooting and providing final balls.
 
I’m pretty sure he’ll be used as anything but AM under ETH, I’m guessing he’s going to do the Bernado Silva role while ETH will put someone else in the KDB role for us.
 
Anyone have his heat map for yesterday? I've made numerous posts about him and his skilset making more sense in the final third/forward area of the pitch, as well as one about Mata performing as the AM and I feel that was sort of validated last night as they both looked happy, and most importantly, natural and organic in their roles.

Sancho joining that as the triumvirate should really be tried in these last games. Bruno then becomes the player who is allowed to have the final action in a play, and it's actually encouraged rather than frowned upon. Even if it's not Mata, there should always be someone with that kind of spatial awareness, technique and intelligence doing the knitting and threading; it lets other players focus on their game and what they can contribute to the team.

Yesterday should have done wonders for his confidence and at least help him realise there are ways to still be effective within this new way of playing.

I wonder if the tactical and personnel planning was requested by ETH. If it was, it gives us an insight into what kind of things he'll be working on in pre-season.

It's only one game, but we should be making it three by the time the 38 games are up.
 
Fortitude said:
Sancho joining that as the triumvirate should really be tried in these last three games.
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Won’t happen, unfortunately. He’s had his tonsils removed and is out for the end of the season.
 
SadlerMUFC said:
I thought that was the best Bruno has looked in a long time. I also thought Mata showed him how a #10 really should play. More of Bruno on the wing please
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Agree. Mata was calm and measured in that position.

I don’t think it’s any surprise that this was the game we’ve had most touches in for years. Also we actually kept the ball for long periods. And we’re countered less. Imagine that! All because we were measured in possession.
 
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