Bruno Fernandes image 8

Bruno Fernandes Portugal flag

2023-24 Performances


View full 2023-24 profile

5.5 Season Average Rating
Appearances
48
Goals
15
Assists
13
Yellow cards
12
Status
Not open for further replies.
I do wonder how much his output would improve if he had more of a team built around him. It just feels like he's pressured into doing too much the last couple seasons and tires out and gets sloppu
 
This a hundred times. So many posters don't seem to get this.

You can create from brilliance if that player is a Messi/Ronaldo/Mbappe/Neymar level player that isn’t hampering the team in other ways. It’s a much larger issue when you make concessions for a player that’s a moments player when he has other clear deficiencies that will affect the team negatively. The players mentioned above didn’t.
 
In terms of attacking midfielders, hardly obsolete. There are loads of them in the league. He does not strictly play no 10. anymore if you actually watch our games last season and this.

Of course it's obsolete. Playing players in that position does not make them number 10s, similar to how Mount isn't a box-to-box midfielder or Rashford a striker.
 
Yeah it's clear you don't fancy him



Well it's not, because 3 of the top 4 teams in the league used players in the same role as Bruno last season. (United, City, Arsenal)



Won't bother engaging with you. When United lose, even if Bruno isn't playing, you're always the first to reach 10 post-match comments in here.

Can’t actually remember the last time Bruno missed a game, his fitness is unreal.
 
Our fanbase are hypocrites.

Other players would be crucified for their consistent abysmal displays against good opposition. But his fanboys will be back to quote you when he gets two fluky assists against Luxenbourg as if today never happened.
Flop, I will never get tired of saying it.
 
You can create from brilliance if that player is a Messi/Ronaldo/Mbappe/Neymar level player that isn’t hampering the team in other ways. It’s a much larger issue when you make concessions for a player that’s a moments player when he has other clear deficiencies that will affect the team negatively. The players mentioned above didn’t.

Absolutely. The issue also grows to a much larger scale when that player is a part of a midfield three, and not an attacker.
 
Of course it's obsolete. Playing players in that position does not make them number 10s, similar to how Mount isn't a box-to-box midfielder or Rashford a striker.
I said he does not play No. 10. strictly anymore, which would put him in line with other attacking midfielders from the league and still would come out on top in creating chances.
 
Absolutely. The issue also grows to a much larger scale when that player is a part of a midfield three, and not an attacker.

Agree. There’s a reason Liverpool almost won a treble with Wijnaldum/Fabinho/Henderson in the middle. Of course you aren’t getting “moments of brilliance” or genius from any of them, but you had a rock solid platform that were hell to play against off ball and were quite good playing within the team framework on it
 
I do wonder how much his output would improve if he had more of a team built around him. It just feels like he's pressured into doing too much the last couple seasons and tires out and gets sloppu
:lol::lol: the team has been built around him since he came.
Nobody has been given more license than him, how do you say such things with a straight face??

This the result of more than 3 years of building around him. He was not fatigued when he was scoring penalties and inflating his G/A. We warned you then that his playstyle was damaging us but you ignored us. But its a problem now when we get slapped by any decent opposition with him at the core of this team. The excuses get even more funnier.
 
It’s always interesting when people bring up someone who “creates a ton” like Bruno as above reproach when the team that schooled us today doesn’t have any brilliant individual creators in particular yet score at a higher rate than anyone else in the league. Creating within a team > creating from “moments of brilliance”
This here.

People treat football like it’s baseball or cricket. The game doesn’t stop for individuals to have their moment.
 
It’s always interesting when people bring up someone who “creates a ton” like Bruno as above reproach when the team that schooled us today doesn’t have any brilliant individual creators in particular yet score at a higher rate than anyone else in the league. Creating within a team > creating from “moments of brilliance”

The whole of last decade has been this. Our teams have been ones that rely on individual brilliance but no cohesion as a team.
 
The whole of last decade has been this. Our teams have been ones that rely on individual brilliance but no cohesion as a team.
The problem with this that people don't realise is that the ones who perform due to 'individual brilliance' do so to the detriment of the team. We are a team centred around Rashford and Bruno. If Rashford scored a couple of the chances he has today everyone would be calling him the second coming of Ronaldo but he didn't. Therefore it was the teams fault for not being good enough.
 
The problem with this that people don't realise is that the ones who perform due to 'individual brilliance' do so to the detriment of the team. We are a team centred around Rashford and Bruno. If Rashford scored a couple of the chances he has today everyone would be calling him the second coming of Ronaldo but he didn't. Therefore it was the teams fault for not being good enough.

Even Rashford would be fine if he gave a feck off the ball. If he was a terrier harassing defenses but a bit selfish in attack you could still build around that type of player. But he doesn’t, and his game in the final third isn’t near efficient or deadly enough to make up for it either.
 
He’a played a lot worse than he did yesterday, but all the same stuff still remains.

He is both simultaneously the best and worst signing we have made since Sir Alex. Nobody has had the impact that he has had, but by the same token, unfortunately no player has the impact that he has.
 
The problem with this that people don't realise is that the ones who perform due to 'individual brilliance' do so to the detriment of the team. We are a team centred around Rashford and Bruno. If Rashford scored a couple of the chances he has today everyone would be calling him the second coming of Ronaldo but he didn't. Therefore it was the teams fault for not being good enough.

How comes the only ball we could find as a team was Rashford down the left?
 
How comes the only ball we could find as a team was Rashford down the left?
Well today it was because we played narrow. Rashford was basically in a 2 up front but he was drifting out to the left. Hojlund was also using clever movement occupying players to give Rashford the space on the left. As I said, our team is centred around playing to Rashford and Bruno's strengths. Unfortunately we will never win a major trophy doing so.
 
Honestly felt that for large parts of the game he was poor and very lazy but then all of a sudden when we were 2 down he suddenly turned in to an absolute workhorse. There were points in the first half where he was just watching people run through us then late in the second half he was like a man possess so it’s hard to really slag him for his performance when near the end he looked like the only one except Hannibal that cared we were getting beat.
 
Honestly felt that for large parts of the game he was poor and very lazy but then all of a sudden when we were 2 down he suddenly turned in to an absolute workhorse. There were points in the first half where he was just watching people run through us then late in the second half he was like a man possess so it’s hard to really slag him for his performance when near the end he looked like the only one except Hannibal that cared we were getting beat.

These mediocre standards we've set for our players that they can be passengers and not really contribute and work hard until we're losing is why we remain a mediocre team. The brilliant start we had yesterday lasted around 15 minutes before allowing Brighton to completely dominate us.
 
If we are to have any hope of progressing beyond this ceiling we have, we absolutely MUST get rid of him. Can’t even believe that there are still people who dispute it. Brighton taught us a footballing lesson yesterday, and in a million years, Bruno could never play for that team. Who is their ‘yea but he created x amount’ player? Nobody. Which is what I’ve been saying for years and years. We might actually have a genuine chance of winning major trophies if we could be more Brighton (with even better players) and less Bruno - and the two of those things clearly don’t marry.

When we signed him, we simply needed to find anyone who could produce something. But it was obvious from the first 10 games that whatever the next stage was simply cannot include this guy. Nobody gives a shit about your numbers mate. He is not a good enough footballer to be the soloist that leads us to the CL and PL anyway. He is not a player who is going to be the difference in the biggest games, he’s the lead character in something that is ultimately under par.
 
Last edited:
I don't think he can play in a high pressing team that Ten Haag obviously wants. He can press, but it seems to be when he is bothered which isn't very often. I believe that Mason Mount as the most advanced of a 3 in midfield is far more suited to his system but Fernandes obviously would never be benched. It'll continue to be flashes of brilliance in a midfield that is ultimately not very good.
 
The high pressing was not the worrying thing yesterday: he simply didn't track back the opposition fullback. I don't mean man-marking old school style, I mean tracking the FB in order to cut the passing lanes to him.

Because if you look how the whole team defended it did not look like a team drilled for high-pressing: too much focus on the marking and too less focus on cutting spaces and passing lanes.
 
The high pressing was not the worrying thing yesterday: he simply didn't track back the opposition fullback. I don't mean man-marking old school style, I mean tracking the FB in order to cut the passing lanes to him.

Was not his job
 
It's part of team pressing. When you play wide you need to make sure the opposition fullback has no passing lanes open for the team mates to find him.

I'm a bit confused, he did not play wide, unless you are not talking about Bruno Fernandes here
 
I was one of the many that pointed out his deficiencies as captain, his reputation as a moaner and his sulking when things go wrong is not leadership material, not at Manchester United anyway.

If we are trying to play structural football then Bruno isn't the answer, he's off the cuff make things happen kinda player who loses the ball a lot because of that.

And in a team where we struggle to get the ball back it's a disaster.

He also has too much freedom regarding his positioning in games.

He's not our biggest issue currently but he's still a problem
 
It’s funny that Sporting never managed to come close winning the league when Bruno was key player in their team. But after he was gone they actually improved and won the league the first time in 2 decades. It’s probably coincidence but that’s one stat against Bruno.
 
It’s funny that Sporting never managed to come close winning the league when Bruno was key player in their team. But after he was gone they actually improved and won the league the first time in 2 decades. It’s probably coincidence but that’s one stat against Bruno.

If its a coincidence its not a stat nor is it against Bruno.
 
It’s funny that Sporting never managed to come close winning the league when Bruno was key player in their team. But after he was gone they actually improved and won the league the first time in 2 decades. It’s probably coincidence but that’s one stat against Bruno.
It's a shite stat. Did you not see us play when Bruno was out the team? He's the only thing we've got going for us. Without him we looked like a dire relegation fodder side, quite honestly no better than Leicester and look where they are now.
 
It's a shite stat. Did you not see us play when Bruno was out the team? He's the only thing we've got going for us. Without him we looked like a dire relegation fodder side, quite honestly no better than Leicester and look where they are now.

Well, look at us now. You know it is possible to replace him with a new signing, right? It doesn't necessarily have to be McTominay playing instead of him.
 
Well, look at us now. You know it is possible to replace him with a new signing, right? It doesn't necessarily have to be McTominay playing instead of him.
It's like our fans want us relegated or something. Bruno created more chances than de Bruyne last season. He's already created 4 big chances this season. You take that out of our team and we might as well start preparing for life in the Championship

https://www.premierleague.com/stats/top/players/big_chance_created

Our problems are: at full back, don't have creativity there and we are soft. I don't rate Dalot and I don't rate anyone else we've got. Big problems there. At centre back when Varane is out we are awful. But our biggest and most glaring weakness is SCORING the chances we make. Garnacho, Rashford and friends are wasting chances by the bucketful somehow. Yeah we don't control the football enough, but that's not what Bruno is good at - even the die hard fans of his like me will accept he's gonna lose the ball more often than you'd want. But after watching Jesse fecking Lingard play AN ENTIRE YEAR without scoring or assisting a -single goal- I'm not desperate to go back to that, thanks.
Our options are: shit players who will lose the ball and do NOTHING ELSE Vs a player that will lose the ball but work hard and make things happen. I would rather have the latter.
 
What if it is not a coincidence?

I suppose yeah it would have some meaning. But the poster themselves said its probably a coincidence. Therefore meaningless.

I think even you'd find it hard to suggest Sporting won the league because Bruno left. Or have any kind of proof to backup one players absence making such a difference. Especially when it's their best player.
 
Crap again. Along with the rest of our midfield.

He was crap - but in a totally different way to how he's usually crap. Usually when he's crap he's trying too hard/doing everything all the time and none of it is coming off... on Saturday though he was basically doing... well, nothing? Which is fairly unusual for Bruno.
 
It's like our fans want us relegated or something. Bruno created more chances than de Bruyne last season. He's already created 4 big chances this season. You take that out of our team and we might as well start preparing for life in the Championship

https://www.premierleague.com/stats/top/players/big_chance_created

Our problems are: at full back, don't have creativity there and we are soft. I don't rate Dalot and I don't rate anyone else we've got. Big problems there. At centre back when Varane is out we are awful. But our biggest and most glaring weakness is SCORING the chances we make. Garnacho, Rashford and friends are wasting chances by the bucketful somehow. Yeah we don't control the football enough, but that's not what Bruno is good at - even the die hard fans of his like me will accept he's gonna lose the ball more often than you'd want. But after watching Jesse fecking Lingard play AN ENTIRE YEAR without scoring or assisting a -single goal- I'm not desperate to go back to that, thanks.
Our options are: shit players who will lose the ball and do NOTHING ELSE Vs a player that will lose the ball but work hard and make things happen. I would rather have the latter.

Agree its all about taking chances and scoring goals. Football is really difficult when you don't. Leads to all these other complaints about tactics, effort etc.

In fact that's all I'd criticise Bruno for. His finishing has big time declined.
 
Agree its all about taking chances and scoring goals. Football is really difficult when you don't. Leads to all these other complaints about tactics, effort etc.

In fact that's all I'd criticise Bruno for. His finishing has big time declined.
Agree he scores alot less. I also think though he is going for goal less than he used to and focusing on creating more
 
Bruno is on of our key players, and he's an excellent player. But he is suffering from the wider issues at Man Utd, the relatively average ability of some of the players around him, especially in attacking terms. He hit 14 last season.. where was Sancho? Antony? Martial? And Bruno doesn't play as a forward, he's a midfielder. So he is having to carry a workload (like Casimero for example) which is too much, and this gets exposed in the Premiership.

Not sure if he is captain material, I would prefer Shaw given that role, or Rashford even (give them something to grow into..).

We're a fragmented set of players, a trend put in place by egotistical managers. Bruno suffers from this. He needs to be rested, mentally he must be exhausted, and both he and ETH need to understand that we can show faith in other players and get a job done. When Mount is fit, he should rest Bruno. Play Mount. Play Garnacho. Play Pellestri.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.