Constant hero ball football
8
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 48
- Goals
- 15
- Assists
- 13
- Yellow cards
- 12
- Status
Really poor tonight. 3 crosses from out wide straight to the keeper were so poor
Some of his passing in preseason was brilliant. Not so much here
Barely touched the ball in the first half, which was party due to Wolves' tactics, but also his poor decision-making and his team mates inability to find him. Not a good day.
Have to see how he bounces back from that, but could possibly have been his single worst performance for us. Offered nothing whatsoever in terms of structure and control, and was a one-man posession destroying machine. Diabolically bad imo.
And because he's Bruno, he still managed a creative pass that led to the goal.
And because he's Bruno, he still managed a creative pass that led to the goal.
Always plays like we are 1-0 down with 10 mins to go.
His decision making with passing is just dumbfounding.
It's illogical. He attempts passes that even the best passers ever would have a hard time hitting successfully.
It's illogical. He attempts passes that even the best passers ever would have a hard time hitting successfully.
Just your average Bruno performance. Bad most of the game and then a moment of brilliance. Then the people wonder why are we a moments team.
Lovely pass to create the opening for the goal but otherwise he was dreadful. You can’t control games with performances like these.
I know he’s been de facto captain and is currently captain but is his game mature enough? You know you’re not playing well, nothing is working for you but you keep trying daft things like shooting from 40 yards and these stupid flicks.
Just allow your team retain possession and keep some composure but this guy has a knack of finding a way to concede possession.
The other thing is, is there a world class midfielder that gets dispossessed as easily as this guy?
I’ve never been a fan of his style but it’s hard to criticize when he produces so many good moments. But my God, when he’s bad, he is an abomination.
Just allow your team retain possession and keep some composure but this guy has a knack of finding a way to concede possession.
The other thing is, is there a world class midfielder that gets dispossessed as easily as this guy?
I’ve never been a fan of his style but it’s hard to criticize when he produces so many good moments. But my God, when he’s bad, he is an abomination.
He's neither world-class nor a midfielder.
Absolute shite, pathetic performance
Never going to be a good possession team when your fulcrum seems allergic to playing simple balls, every ball has to be a Hollywood ball
Never going to be a good possession team when your fulcrum seems allergic to playing simple balls, every ball has to be a Hollywood ball
He was much better after Eriksen came on.
Him and Mount need to learn to work together
Him and Mount need to learn to work together
Managers are pampering him because they know he usually delivers the goods which hides the poor shows he is central through giving away possession in every play. Even the likes of De Bruyne, Zidane etc didn't try to play a killer ball every move, you pick your moments. The manager has to tell him to cut that shit out or bench him if he doesn't want.
Agreed, I think the challenge is that you could carry a Bruno as someone who I like to think of as a bit of a wild card. You can't do that though with your entire attack as well on top of it. Garnacho and Anthony to an extent are a bit younger so more excusable, although I have my concerns on Anthony, but I think we'll struggle to push on if Rashford/Bruno as our two star players don't find some extra maturity to their games more often.
Until Bruno is in the starting 11 we’ll never be a dominant football team. Yeah we’ll have moments of brilliance but never ever a top team. Its impossible to dominate when you’re main player, the lad through which every attack goes through is so erratic with a incredibly low floor.
Trouble is his moments of brilliance will always overshadow the stinkers and no manager ever will have the balls to replace him.
Trouble is his moments of brilliance will always overshadow the stinkers and no manager ever will have the balls to replace him.
Like clockwork.
But the problem is that we are unable to create consistent attacks with him in the side because he gives the ball away so frequently. So many attacks die when he has the ball.
He should have been replaced – but we are back in similar territory to when Maguire was captain – the armband makes him undroppable.
Previously, i had thought he can emulate KDB role with some maturity but I was wrong. He is best for a counter attack side. He can be bloody brilliant .
To control, we need another player to play with him. I doubt Mount is that player though.
To control, we need another player to play with him. I doubt Mount is that player though.
You can only take him out if you have another play who can either do what he already does, or if they can do it better. If we take him out, we cut off a major source of creativity...in a team that already isn't very creative. This isn't even talking about his goal contributions.
Most if it is down to him not willing to engage his defender and use his body to protect the ball, he's also slow and can't progress the ball while running and can't dribble. Therefore when he receives the ball he plays the first pass he sees and rushes it. When he has space and time he's alright, it's when he receives the ball in tight spaces that he just tries the first pass he sees cos he can't dribble out of trouble or use his body to protect the ball, he's a technically very limited player and one of the reasons why I dislike 10s that can't dribble. Compare him to Odegaard for example, night and day...
I've never thought so either, but honestly last season was the best he's played for the most part for us even if his numbers were down, so I was hopeful. However people are kidding themselves if they ever think he can be a true CM. He doesn't have the technical security or brain for it, his natural instinct is to make things happen.
With a player like Bruno, you either have to play to his (considerable) strengths, or you're better off getting rid of him. Obviously we weren't getting rid, but you're marginalizing him by sticking another advanced attacking mid next to him instead of allowing him to float behind the front 3.
We can carry a creative player who gives the ball away a lot. Bruno's pass creation was 68% last night. KDB's was 60%. Odegaard 79%.
What screws us (and is very different to those two teams) is the carelessness of the players in midfield behind Bruno. Casemiro/Mount averaged 79%. Rice/Havertz averaged 90%. Rodri 97% (
)Agreed, but most of our fans struggle to see these deficiencies and instead choose blind worship of the player because he's a world class creator. You're VERY limited when you employ midfielders that can't carry the ball well or navigate tight spaces, and we have two of them in Bruno and Casemiro.
We can carry a creative player who gives the ball away a lot. Bruno's pass creation was 68% last night. KDB's was 60%. Odegaard 79%.
What screws us (and is very different to those two teams) is the carelessness of the players in midfield behind Bruno. Casemiro/Mount averaged 79%. Rice/Havertz averaged 90%. Rodri 97% (
Not to mention when you play that sort of reckless, gunslinging style you damn sure better have some lethal forwards that can take advantage of the space/breaks that come off.
3 of them. Our midfield yesterday are dreadful in tight spaces and ball retention. Mount, Bruno and Casemiro are the most Anti ETH Ajax type players. It's actually quite confusing. I'm worried he's trying to do the whole transition thing when it's not what he's good at and he's never done it before.
A hundred percent this.We can carry a creative player who gives the ball away a lot. Bruno's pass creation was 68% last night. KDB's was 60%. Odegaard 79%.
What screws us (and is very different to those two teams) is the carelessness of the players in midfield behind Bruno. Casemiro/Mount averaged 79%. Rice/Havertz averaged 90%. Rodri 97% (
Take Bruno out of that team and there is zero creativity or risk.
Bruno is an incredibly good player and would easily start in most premiership if not all premiership teams.
When we are so poor on the ball in other areas it only highlights Bruno's risky passes more.
Yeah and you can add to that when he loses the ball trying to create it also doesn't help that opposition players always seem to find it so easy to dribble the ball right the way to the edge of our box. It's been an issue for years and doesn't seem to be getting any better.
I think Mount is actually okay carrying the ball, but he's obviously not Bernardo Silva/Jude Bellingham in that aspect. But if we want to do the transition thing, why in god's name would we not solidify with Caicedo next to Casemiro, and let Bruno play as that roaming 10 firing balls in behind? Sure it would be more similar to Oleball but better defensively/in midfield, but feck it would certainly be effective. It's like he's caught in two minds with how he wants to set the team up, and the result is basically a suicide lineup.
We can carry a creative player who gives the ball away a lot. Bruno's pass creation was 68% last night. KDB's was 60%. Odegaard 79%.
What screws us (and is very different to those two teams) is the carelessness of the players in midfield behind Bruno. Casemiro/Mount averaged 79%. Rice/Havertz averaged 90%. Rodri 97% (
You can only carry him on his bad days if you change nearly everyone else. You can't have inside forwards but wide playmaker, you can't have a traditional striker but more of a playmaker like Benzema. Bruno creates a clear dilemma, he is creative but he also breaks the run of the mill part of his own team because he doesn't provide consistent defensive support, he is generally useless during the possession phase and the gap between his attacking floor and ceiling is massive.
Now I want emphasize the fact that I see why you defend him, yesterday we are highly unlikely to score if he isn't on the field but it's also important to keep mind that he is actively responsible for our lack of control during the rest of the game, tough not the only reason.
This isn't true, you'd just have another 10.
Bruno coming out just means you'd get a different skillset at 10, either Mount who is probably a lot safer/consistent or Sancho who is more of a ball carrier and 1 touch passer.
Depends what team ETH wants us to be but I don't see how we control possession and play controlled football when he is on the pitch, he seems incapable of not trying to force the issue, rightly or wrongly.
You watch him, then you watch Odegard. The difference is night and day.
Now that Bruno's goal output has dropped in the past year, he's even more useless.
Now that Bruno's goal output has dropped in the past year, he's even more useless.
Been saying this for years. Fernandes is fantastic at creating chances. One of the very best. The problem is, you only spend a very small portion of your time actually creating chances in a football match, and he isn’t very good at anything else. First and foremost, at top level midfield play, you need to have strong basics. Whether you are the defensive midfielder, the creative midfielder, the metronomic midfielder or any other iteration - FIRST AND FOREMOST, you need to be comfortable receiving the ball, shaping yourself, passing it short, passing it accurately, beating a man who is pressing, and having a footballing brain to make a series of innocuous sensible decisions etc. That is the foundation of playing any central midfield role, especially for a top club. Kanté is no De Bruyne, but he is very comfortable receiving the ball, resisting pressure and passing to the same colour shirt. You can’t be a midfielder in a team’s engine room effectively relying upon a ‘party trick’.
Creating chances is very useful, it’s just too small a part of a 90 minute match for it to determine whether or not you have played well. That is for strikers. Even 10s must do the basics consistently well. Some 10s do the basics very well and attract comments like ‘if he can just improve his output he will be really special’. That’s the icing on the cake which differentiates the very best of course, but you can’t be all icing and no cake otherwise you start to be as much of a hindrance as an asset to your team.
I really do fear for our midfield this season on current viewing. Too many fundamentals are simply missing.
Absolutely nailed it.
Agree. Although I will not belittle chance creation capability of an AM as just icing on the cake, but I do fully agree that to get to that position, a midfielder needs to do all the basics rights otherwise most the time he can be a liability.
Same as Rashford. You can get away with one not two. Creates too much chaos.
I think Bruno needs two 6's, or a proper 6 and 8 behind him to unleash him. Rather than him carrying a false 8. His best spell was when Ole played him almost like a second striker to support the young forwards.
You say this like the rest are any better at least from them two you have the chance of a bit of magic. The problems from last night ran through the whole team from Cas looking dead on his feet, the defence and midfield for the most part looked shaky as hell and the forwards doing the square root of nothing all game. Don't think you can pin all them problems on Bruno and Rashford if I'm being honest.
Yeah but that should be good enough for any player. Don't know why consider that good.
It sort of is I think. Every match will have a series of ‘events’ if they were read via transcript, but then in between this, there is the boring stuff that ultimately impact how a team plays. Just as strikers who offer nothing other than finishing, centre halves who are only stoppers and even goalkeepers who offer nothing other than saving shots are finding themselves marginalised at the top of the game, I don’t see why the same principle would not apply to a 10 who does little aside from creating chances. Of all of those, the 10 is even the biggest issue.
One of three central midfielders should theoretically have a bigger influence on how a team plays than David De Gea I would say. Yet the cry for his replacement has been growing for a couple of years, regardless of wonder saves. Many have said they would ‘take a goalkeeper with less spectacular saves but a better all round game than De Gea’ and it is the exact same principle with Fernandes. I don’t much care for whatever assist numbers he posts if we find ourselves in games like last night too often.
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