8
He is actually pretty good on the right. Much better option than putting Rashford there.
I agree – we retained possession much better than we do when Bruno plays. I know it was only Palace, but we have been able to lose possession against any side we play – their quality is not the factor.
To play devils advocate for a second the usual argument of "we play horrible without him" is also pretty much only based on one game.
On a serious note though I agree with you, yesterdays match doesnt tell us much about Bruno. For me that was much more about the impact of Amrabat and the balance he adds to our midfield.
The issue was in deep areas before, and that was fixed mainly due to amrabat but also Mount being relatively press resistant to help that as well. It is an issue when our midfield is Bruno and casemiro and then someone else like Eriksen, where everyone is just intent on playing a killer ball. Toss Mount and/or Amrabat in and suddenly you have some players who know how to slow the play down and recycle possession. Bruno is still absolutely vital and the key for us to actually be creative. Palace were tumescent last night, most teams will work harder than that (on the weekend it'll be a different game), but without Bruno, games like that can easily still turn into a 0-0 where we are slow to break down and lack the killer ball.
Would be interesting to see how we fair like that.
Yeah, I think you are right. I meant especially in the final third, where his first instinct is moving on the ball with the 2nd or 3rd touch in 8 out of 10 cases. I see your point though, when he is dropping deeper, he is sometimes overthinking it. I think, it doesn't hurt us too often though because in those situation, there isn't much momentum to die from him. Plus the criticism is valid for many players. The buildup looks a big problem to me these days. I'd really like to know, why the Cup game looked so different. Whether thats more on CP not giving a feck or really the absense of Bruno and Rash...
Definitely. Slight resemblence of the Pogba conundrum, who also had a reputation of being great in the difficult stuff once in three matches but a little subpar in the rest of those 270 minutes. Difficult no to loose hope for Rash and Bruno... You'd think, there should a place for both of them when the team is a functional unit, but looks like we are really far from that. And until we are, those two might even be a factor of making it harder for others. That being said, injuries are an issue for sure, disciplinary stuff as well. A few other players not really hitting the ground running. So feels a bit unfair to single them out but no doubt they are our most productive players and therefor have the most expectations on them
Hardly like the source was caughtoffside was it mate? BBC Sport are as reputable as they come.
