[El Jefe]

One thing I've noticed with Bruno is his game management is shocking.

There was a period where we were under the cosh massively last night, and the ball would come to him and rather than recycle possession, he'd just aimlessly give it away trying a hollywood ball. I'm fine with him trying these ambitious balls and them being cut out, that's part of his game, he's never going to have a high success rate but knowing that when it works it's a good chance then that's ok.

But sometimes he just needs to keep possession, take the sting out of the game, and allow us to keep the ball for 5minutes but he never seems to recognise this.

He’s done this throughout his whole time here and it’s especially why he stinks in the bigger games.

Myself and others have screamed how much his limitations have hurt us over the years. His inability to dribble or hold off challenges is a complete killer to our possession game. Add in his love for looking for the killer ball and it’s obvious why we have not and will never be a good possession team as long as he’s here.

Another thing that infuriates me is he thinks he’s a lot smarter than he is on the pitch. Sure he does things at times that make you wow but the amount of baffling things he does far exceeds that. What was the point of the rabona cross he tried on the right, or the outside of the boot shot early in the game instead of shooting with his left.

He seems to think he’s a wizard a la Ronaldinho. The best creative players other than freaks like Ronaldinho were all about simplicity and that is something completely missing in this guys game. Complex chaos.

 

[Judas]

Captain of chaos. For someone who can score and assist, provide so much good at times, I find him unbelievably annoying to watch. He was a disaster last night.

 

[Delano]

He's starting to massively frustrate me.

He makes such insane decisions in high pressure moments and sets the tone for the chaos that ensues.

I want my captain to calm things down sometimes, keep the ball, maintain possession. But he doesn't.

We attack in a hyper aggressive way (in terms of player position), but we have a player who gives the ball away with 30% of his passes as our main creative and progressive outlet.

This team is terrible on turnovers, and he is a huge reason why we give up so many break away chances.

 

[philippexyz]

This is slowly, but surely, becoming my favourite thread. And I'm glad more and more people are realizing what Bruno actually is/was all this time.

Pseudo midfielder who treats the ball like a hot potato and launches it, Hollywood style, for fun(not ours) and chaos. Zero ball retention, ball carrying ability which is appalling for a "midfielder". You can't play modern, possession based football with him in the squad. Guardiola would send him to the shadow realm(Yugioh reference) after 1 game, without any hesitation. And our manager decided to double down on him and make him captain to play "transitional football/hoofball"...catastrophe...

I would play Mount as a 10, then Eriksen and then Bruno last in the pecking order and try to ship him to Saudi(he's had offers, apparently). Will be interesting to see how will the new manager treat him(whoever that may be) when ETH gets the inevitable sack playing this kind of football.

Bruno is a hero for a midtable/relegation fodder team(in the strong PL, at least) that sits deep, defends most of the time and plays on the counter - that's his level. I hope more and more people wake up and realize this. It's encouraging right now, there's hope.

 

[Shinjch]

Really poor start to the season. He lacks composure far too often as far as game management is concerned. Really needs to up his levels of output to make that worth overlooking at all.

 

[Idxomer]

This is slowly, but surely, becoming my favourite thread. And I'm glad more and more people are realizing what Bruno actually is/was all this time.

Pseudo midfielder who treats the ball like a hot potato and launches it, Hollywood style, for fun(not ours) and chaos. Zero ball retention, ball carrying ability which is appalling for a "midfielder". You can't play modern, possession based football with him in the squad. Guardiola would send him to the shadow realm(Yugioh reference) after 1 game, without any hesitation. And our manager decided to double down on him and make him captain to play "transitional football/hoofball"...catastrophe...

I would play Mount as a 10, then Eriksen and then Bruno last in the pecking order and try to ship him to Saudi(he's had offers, apparently). Will be interesting to see how will the new manager treat him(whoever that may be) when ETH gets the inevitable sack playing this kind of football.

Bruno is a hero for a midtable/relegation fodder team(in the strong PL, at least) that sits deep, defends most of the time and plays on the counter - that's his level. I hope more and more people wake up and realize this. It's encouraging right now, there's hope.

Tbf, the whole club is deluded by him. The fans have treated him like a God pretty much since his signing and enabled him to feel he's the top dog who can do no wrong. All the managers keep playing him, the only one who benched him in a big game was Carrick who had nothing to lose. Murtough renewed his contract and doubled his salary 3 weeks before the new manager signed his contract.

I don't think there's any hope for a cohesive football at this club till his contract runs out in 2026.

 

[Borys]

One thing I've noticed with Bruno is his game management is shocking.

There was a period where we were under the cosh massively last night, and the ball would come to him and rather than recycle possession, he'd just aimlessly give it away trying a hollywood ball. I'm fine with him trying these ambitious balls and them being cut out, that's part of his game, he's never going to have a high success rate but knowing that when it works it's a good chance then that's ok.

But sometimes he just needs to keep possession, take the sting out of the game, and allow us to keep the ball for 5minutes but he never seems to recognise this.

I don't think this is what Ten Hag wants. I refuse to believe a player of his caliber is unable to keep possession in those circumstances (it's not like Galatasaray were organized and pressing us).
Him and Casemiro are guilty of the same thing. On the other hand look how Mount and Eriksen play, they are (apparently) asked to keep the ball moving and keep possession. That works far better for us than whatever Bruno should be doing.
On the other hand we still create chances when lumping the ball forward, it's just we're not picking moments, we just do it randomly and far too often. No serious team plays this way.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

Captain of chaos. For someone who can score and assist, provide so much good at times, I find him unbelievably annoying to watch. He was a disaster last night.

Apt term. He just lacks precision and control in his game and I think he always will. Our best players are problematic and it consistently shows.

 

[TheRedDevil'sAdvocate]

He’s a long way from being our most talented player. He’s not even a particularly talented player, he’s s player with a particular talent. A party trick. Outside of that, he’s not a very good footballer at all. One of the strangest midfielders I’ve ever seen at this level. Such profile is usually more common amongst forwards. May be amazing in the air, or have poor touch, passing, dribbling but are strong and can score goals. But I can’t recall a midfield player, especially a 10, with such a poor spread of qualities and then a sudden spike with exceptional ability in one metric.

You cannot be a midfielder in a top team relying upon a party trick. Otherwise that team will suffer. To be a top midfielder (part of a midfield 3) in a top team you must first and foremost be a top midfielder. Bruno is a long way from being that. There are so many key midfield attributes that he is very poor at.

Thank you, i've been saying the same thing for some time. He's basically a peripheral forward who wants to play as a free-roaming play-maker because of his one great skill. He lacks the essentials to play either role without a tonne of adjustments.

 

[astracrazy]

Mount is starting to show him up imo. I'd happily have Mount over Bruno at the moment.

 

[JPRouve]

He’s a long way from being our most talented player. He’s not even a particularly talented player, he’s s player with a particular talent. A party trick. Outside of that, he’s not a very good footballer at all. One of the strangest midfielders I’ve ever seen at this level. Such profile is usually more common amongst forwards. May be amazing in the air, or have poor touch, passing, dribbling but are strong and can score goals. But I can’t recall a midfield player, especially a 10, with such a poor spread of qualities and then a sudden spike with exceptional ability in one metric.

You cannot be a midfielder in a top team relying upon a party trick. Otherwise that team will suffer. To be a top midfielder (part of a midfield 3) in a top team you must first and foremost be a top midfielder. Bruno is a long way from being that. There are so many key midfield attributes that he is very poor at.

These midfielders exist at Europa League level, there is a bunch of them around, they also used to be a thing in the 2000s. But as you say, top teams tend to not touch them or if they do, these players are quickly jettisoned. It is the Julio Baptista, Danny, Diego, Coutinho, Mkhitaryan category, they clearly have something that make them productive but they also clearly lack extremely important attributes.

 

[Abhinav]

The biggest mistake Ten Hag made was to make Bruno the captain. He is erratic at the best of times and an emotional player personality on the pitch. This also creates a big issue if EtH wants to drop Bruno.
With regards to Bruno himself, not sure why he has lost his form. He is class but needs to balance his play like he was doing last year. Also, by now, he should learn to be stronger in challenges - a 50-50 usually means Bruno is going to lose the ball and either run after it or fake injury.

 

[zaafi]

My take is that Bruno is likely the most talented player in the team. He does amazing things sometimes.

Here comes the 'But...'

But he is not a man to build a team around, not the man to look to when things are rough and we need to rally and come together, not the man to look up, see things aren't working and change them.

Most talented player? No one knew about him till he started producing decent numbers for Sporting in the Portuguese league at the age of 23. Before that he was a nobody in Udinese. He was never someone that was talked about at a young age, or that played for his national team until his mid twenties. He is so far away from being the most talented player in the squad. He lacks some of the most basic attributes as a professional footballer. Talent is not something that should be used to describe Bruno.

 

[JPRouve]

Most talented player? No one knew about him till he started producing decent numbers for Sporting in the Portuguese league at the age of 23. Before that he was a nobody in Udinese. He was never someone that was talked about at a young age, or that played for his national team until his mid twenties. He is so far away from being the most talented player in the squad. He lacks some of the most basic attributes as a professional footballer. Talent is not something that should be used to describe Bruno.

Bruno Fernandes was known as a teenager if you followed Serie A. Now it's true that he failed at both Sampdoria and Udinese but it was more on the head scratcher side of things because he seemed talented. As an aside Bruno is actually capable of playing in the way we would hope, he simply won't do it on a regular basis, he shows it for a few games and then reverts to his soloist style.

 

[11101]

It's simple with him, he needs to stop trying to win games by himself. The captaincy has made him worse for that but play in a more controlled manner and he is still one of our best.

 

[RuudTom83]

One thing I've noticed with Bruno is his game management is shocking.

It is non-existent, you could even say the whole team lacks in that department.

Which can lead to the finger being pointed at the manager (different discussion) but personally I feel players like Bruno and Casemiro should be experience enough to know naturally how to control a game, without needing a manager to bark orders at them from the touchline.

In Bruno's head it seem to be...
If United are drawing = erratic quick as humanly possible attempt a forward pass 100%
If United are winning = erratic quick as humanly possible attempt a forward pass 125%
If United are losing = erratic quick as humanly possible attempt a forward pass 200%

 

[JPRouve]

It's simple with him, he needs to stop trying to win games by himself. The captaincy has made him worse for that but play in a more controlled manner and he is still one of our best.

He likely never will, that's how he is wired. He wan'ts to play hero football and at 29 years old there is very little chance that he changes his mindset that dramatically.

 

[KikiDaKats]

He likely never will, that's how he is wired. He wan'ts to play hero football and at 29 years old there is very little chance that he changes his mindset that dramatically.

Does it have to do with the unquantifiable “decision making”?
I’ve always thought it’s the differentiator of good, bad and quality footballers.

 

[Marwood]

First half he wasn't particularly giving it away. It was worse, he just wasn't involved. Wasn't doing anything really. Which in the past hasn't been like him but its starting to happen a bit more often.

But I've said before Bruno's biggest issue over the last couple of seasons hasn't been his passing, it's been his finishing. He has to score that chance 3 mins in. He has to score more goals in general given his position. The decline in his ball striking is a bit of a mystery.

Then second half we saw the worst of him. Tired looking hopeful passing.

 

[Oldyella]

Mount is starting to show him up imo. I'd happily have Mount over Bruno at the moment.

Easily. Makes us look far more functional just with ability to recycle the ball.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

First half he wasn't particularly giving it away. It was worse, he just wasn't involved. Wasn't doing anything really. Which in the past hasn't been like him but its starting to happen a bit more often.

But I've said before Bruno's biggest issue over the last couple of seasons hasn't been his passing, it's been his finishing. He has to score that chance 3 mins in. He has to score more goals in general given his position. The decline in his ball striking is a bit of a mystery.

Then second half we saw the worst of him. Tired looking hopeful passing.

Agree he was anonymous in the first half. Him and Hannibal couldn't seem to figure out how to play in the same team. But was very good on the right in the first 15 minutes after half time, after Eriksen came on. Then completely lost his head after Onana and Casemiro lost theirs. His number one weakness is the way he gets too emotional and tries to force things that aren't on. It's particularly problematic in a team as mentally fragile as ours, who keeps conceding stupid goals as frequently as we do.

Having said that, anyone who thinks Bruno (or Rashford) is the reason we lost last night needs to give their head a wobble. All our problems began and ended with Casemiro, our back four and our goalkeeper. The players ahead of them were not a problem in the slightest. On another day we could easily have scored four or five with the attacking football we produced in that game. Scapegoating attacking/creative players for the loss is just dumb.

 

[JPRouve]

Does it have to do with the unquantifiable “decision making”?
I’ve always thought it’s the differentiator of good, bad and quality footballers.

It's more that he has the mentality of a forward but doesn't have the skillset. Ideally, he would be a second striker or a false nine but he lacks key attributes like acceleration, agility, balance and dribbling in tight spaces, also his shooting technique is strangely inconsistent. He has managed to find success based on two exceptional attributes which are his ability to spot scoring/creation opportunities and incredible audacity.. He has none of the qualities of a midfielder and he isn't someone that you ideally want centrally.

 

[jem]

It's more that he has the mentality of a forward but doesn't have the skillset. Ideally, he would be a second striker or a false nine but he lacks key attributes like acceleration, agility, balance and dribbling in tight spaces, also his shooting technique is strangely inconsistent. He has managed to find success based on two exceptional attributes which are his ability to spot scoring/creation opportunities and incredible audacity.. He has none of the qualities of a midfielder and he isn't someone that you ideally want centrally.

And when you add it all up, it means that he is an extremely problematic player to be building a team around (let alone one who should be our captain.)

 

[Marwood]

Agree he was anonymous in the first half. Him and Hannibal couldn't seem to figure out how to play in the same team. But was very good on the right in the first 15 minutes after half time, after Eriksen came on. Then completely lost his head after Onana and Casemiro lost theirs. His number one weakness is the way he gets too emotional and tries to force things that aren't on. It's particularly problematic in a team as mentally fragile as ours, who keeps conceding stupid goals as frequently as we do.

Having said that, anyone who thinks Bruno (or Rashford) is the reason we lost last night needs to give their head a wobble. All our problems began and ended with Casemiro, our back four and our goalkeeper. The players ahead of them were not a problem in the slightest. On another day we could easily have scored four or five with the attacking football we produced in that game. Scapegoating attacking/creative players for the loss is just dumb.

I wouldn't say the attacking unit wasn't a problem at all because they weren't taking their chances or playing the right final pass enough. We just can’t keep passing up such big goalscoring opportunities.

But yeah what was going on at the back with Casemiro in front of them, crazy stuff.

 

[Marwood]

And when you add it all up, it means that he is an extremely problematic player to be building a team around (let alone one who should be our captain.)

I've said this a lot but nobody is building a team around Bruno.

He played right wing last night. Was barely involved the first half.

In fact he's played about four different roles already this season. That isn't a player a team is structured around.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

I wouldn't say the attacking unit wasn't a problem at all because they weren't taking their chances or playing the right final pass enough. We just can’t keep passing up such big goalscoring opportunities.

But yeah what was going on at the back with Casemiro in front of them, crazy stuff.

We scored two goals and had a bunch of other situations where we would have scored with a slightly luckier break of the ball. That’s an attacking performance which would win most games. We will never take all our chances. Two goals and 2.09xG is a perfectly adequate attacking performance.

It‘s the 3 goals (and 2.76xG) we conceded that fecked us.

 

[Ubik]

Agree he was anonymous in the first half. Him and Hannibal couldn't seem to figure out how to play in the same team. But was very good on the right in the first 15 minutes after half time, after Eriksen came on. Then completely lost his head after Onana and Casemiro lost theirs. His number one weakness is the way he gets too emotional and tries to force things that aren't on. It's particularly problematic in a team as mentally fragile as ours, who keeps conceding stupid goals as frequently as we do.

Having said that, anyone who thinks Bruno (or Rashford) is the reason we lost last night needs to give their head a wobble. All our problems began and ended with Casemiro, our back four and our goalkeeper. The players ahead of them were not a problem at all.

I've never been Bruno out, but I don't think you can easily ignore his performance last night. He was awful and basically set the tone for our lack of composure and care for the ball, no leadership when the chips were down, didn't offer anything going forward. As a captain it was straightforwardly unacceptable, for me.

 

[JPRouve]

And when you add it all up, it means that he is an extremely problematic player to be building a team around (let alone one who should be our captain.)

You don't build around that type of player, you don't even give them a guaranteed starting role, in a top team he is a squad player. But this isn't to say that he is a bad player, when it comes to Bruno I always worry about giving the impression that he is bad or that I dislike him. It's very important to recognize that his defenders are justified in the sense that he is an exceptional scorer and creator when you consider his role but he is a fundamental issue.
Now that issue isn't as easy to fix as just swapping him with someone else, in reality it likely requires at least two different players, a game manager and a highly skilled forward otherwise you are just treading water. Unless you sign Iniesta.

 

[Marwood]

I've never been Bruno out, but I don't think you can easily ignore his performance last night. He was awful and basically set the tone for our lack of composure and care for the ball, no leadership when the chips were down, didn't offer anything going forward. As a captain it was straightforwardly unacceptable, for me.

I don't think he set the tone. The rest of our team doesn't need any encouragement to give the ball away. They were all at it except Mount and maybe Hannibal.

Bruno was awful but it's wishful thinking to believe he's somehow causing others to play poorly.

 

[jem]

You don't build around that type of player, you don't even give them a guaranteed starting role, in a top team he is a squad player. But this isn't to say that he is a bad player, when it comes to Bruno I always worry about giving the impression that he is bad or that I dislike him. It's very important to recognize that his defenders are justified in the sense that he is an exceptional scorer and creator when you consider his role but he is a fundamental issue.
Now that issue isn't as easy to fix as just swapping him with someone else, in reality it likely requires at least two different players, a game manager and a highly skilled forward otherwise you are just treading water. Unless you sign Iniesta.

Agreed.

 

[3KDré]

You don't build around that type of player, you don't even give them a guaranteed starting role, in a top team he is a squad player. But this isn't to say that he is a bad player, when it comes to Bruno I always worry about giving the impression that he is bad or that I dislike him. It's very important to recognize that his defenders are justified in the sense that he is an exceptional scorer and creator when you consider his role but he is a fundamental issue.
Now that issue isn't as easy to fix as just swapping him with someone else, in reality it likely requires at least two different players, a game manager and a highly skilled forward otherwise you are just treading water. Unless you sign Iniesta.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

 

[jem]

I've said this a lot but nobody is building a team around Bruno.

He played right wing last night. Was barely involved the first half.

In fact he's played about four different roles already this season. That isn't a player a team is structured around.

Yeah but the fact that he seems undroppable (even if it means shoehorning him into another position) suggests that he's seen as some kind of lynchpin on the team (being given a bumper new contract and the captaincy also adds to this.)

 

[KikiDaKats]

It's more that he has the mentality of a forward but doesn't have the skillset. Ideally, he would be a second striker or a false nine but he lacks key attributes like acceleration, agility, balance and dribbling in tight spaces, also his shooting technique is strangely inconsistent. He has managed to find success based on two exceptional attributes which are his ability to spot scoring/creation opportunities and incredible audacity.. He has none of the qualities of a midfielder and he isn't someone that you ideally want centrally.

Your are spot on.

Would like to think the manager is noticing all these shortcomings.

 

[bosnian_red]

Agree he was anonymous in the first half. Him and Hannibal couldn't seem to figure out how to play in the same team. But was very good on the right in the first 15 minutes after half time, after Eriksen came on. Then completely lost his head after Onana and Casemiro lost theirs. His number one weakness is the way he gets too emotional and tries to force things that aren't on. It's particularly problematic in a team as mentally fragile as ours, who keeps conceding stupid goals as frequently as we do.

Having said that, anyone who thinks Bruno (or Rashford) is the reason we lost last night needs to give their head a wobble. All our problems began and ended with Casemiro, our back four and our goalkeeper. The players ahead of them were not a problem in the slightest. On another day we could easily have scored four or five with the attacking football we produced in that game. Scapegoating attacking/creative players for the loss is just dumb.

I guess my shout for dropping Bruno and Rashford stems from addressing the back line and midfield. Casemiro hasn't done well, but he's very unique in what he can bring to us and what he needs more than anything is a partner. Amrabat at LB is a problem, but he's also the solution to casemiro's issues. Put him next to him in a double pivot, and then backfill LB with the only other guy who can play there which is dalot. Then backfill RB with the only guy that can play there and that's Lindelof. And Maguire comes in at CB. So then we're left with a front 4 to pick. Mount vs Bruno, 2 of Garnacho, Rashford and Antony on the wings, and Hojlund obviously up top. If we want hard workers and no "moody" players, then yeah you pick Garnacho and Mount over Bruno and Rashford. They are far better at defending, tracking back, pressing. I just think the 2 need to sit one out, to know they aren't undroppable, get them motivated, maybe send a message to address some of those issues like Bruno having 0 composure or take rashford out of the spotlight when he's low on confidence, and take a couple weeks to reset with the break coming.

 

[Ubik]

I don't think he set the tone. The rest of our team doesn't need any encouragement to give the ball away. They were all at it except Mount and maybe Hannibal.

Bruno was awful but it's wishful thinking to believe he's somehow causing others to play poorly.

It's more that when you're up against it in a must-win game and as a team show persistent signs of losing concentration (eg the continual conceding within minutes of going ahead or other restarts), it would be beneficial for your captain and talisman to get on the ball, slow things down and maintain composure. He's not causing the others to lose their shit, no, but he doesn't do anything to help us avoid it. We're a deeply chaotic team and it's hard not to see the captain as exemplifying that.

 

[Chaky_Best]

Bruno is the only source of creativity on this team.

Issue is that Rashford, Antony, Eriksen are unidimensionals (cut inside and shoot for Rashford and Antony) and provide nothing this season.

The other big problem is also that we rely on Casemiro to create something in this team which is unbelivable too.

Nevertheless, except against Forest, Bruno was poor and I think the guy needs to understand that he has to do better.

Him on the right is an absolute disgrace. Seemed really anoyed during the game, argued a lot with Dalot, Case and seemed really not linked with the team. Oftenly I saw him asking Hannibal to come right for him to be central again.

So yes, we have nothing to lose now in this season, so let's try to bench him and the super star against Brendford

 

[lex talionis]

Bruno is a master of the hero ball, but he is not a midfielder who controls tempo. He and Rashford need to be dropped at least for a few games.

 

[Marwood]

Yeah but the fact that he seems undroppable (even if it means shoehorning him into another position) suggests that he's seen as some kind of lynchpin on the team (being given a bumper new contract and the captaincy also adds to this.)

But being picked consistently isn't the same as having a team built around you. The team isn't selected to suit Bruno.

If anything Bruno is being shifted around to suit whatever the team needs.

But either way I think we're reaching a point where he might start to be dropped. Ther3 are alternatives now and Bruno himself is starting to have games where he's less involved. Something that's rarely happened since he arrived.

 

[RedDevil@84]

And when you add it all up, it means that he is an extremely problematic player to be building a team around (let alone one who should be our captain.)

We are not building a team around him. And whether he is captain or not hardly matters. We are not having a team full of captain material players.

 

[RedStarUnited]

Bruno is the only source of creativity on this team.

Issue is that Rashford, Antony, Eriksen are unidimensionals (cut inside and shoot for Rashford and Antony) and provide nothing this season.

The other big problem is also that we rely on Casemiro to create something in this team which is unbelivable too.

Nevertheless, except against Forest, Bruno was poor and I think the guy needs to understand that he has to do better.

Him on the right is an absolute disgrace. Seemed really anoyed during the game, argued a lot with Dalot, Case and seemed really not linked with the team. Oftenly I saw him asking Hannibal to come right for him to be central again.

So yes, we have nothing to lose now in this season, so let's try to bench him and the super star against Brendford

That says more about the coach than Bruno. The team needs to create more as a unit.

And the part about Casemiro, I don't know if its Ten Hag or he himself, but Casemiro has taken on a much bigger burden in attack than he is capable of. He has been infected with the Bruno virus of trying to do a through ball with every pass.