[Xeque_279]

It's so obvious to all onlookers that his performances are integral to how well we play. Our offence has ran largely through him since he joined.

So when he, and by extension the team, play well, he'll get all the plaudits. Problem is, our football is shite. As our focal point, he takes the brunt of the criticism, fairly or not.

He's undoubtedly a terrific footballer, but let's not let this purple patch make us forget that he has been wildly inconsistent for at least 2 years.

Ideally, I'd like us to be far less reliant on a streaky talisman than we are. Bruno is the type of player that needs to be this talisman to be good. When he's just a cog in the system, he's far less useful - see his performaces for Portugal.

As much as I respect him, as as much as it hurts to say, I think he needs to move on for the team to grow. A lot of the criticism of him is saying this in a roundabout way. He's a great player, but not the right player.

What? He's almost always the best player. The team is performing worse than they should because of the last two managers, no idea who in their right mind thought Martinez would be the man to take this Portuguese Golden generation to the next level.

 

[Vault Dweller]

God I love him.

 

[space]

All I know is we are terrible and when he doesn’t play for us we are extra extra terrible. He’s so important to this team and deserves better players around him.

 

[NZT-One]

Are you ok? You seem very emotional.
Bruno is our best player, you should probably just accept it.

I don't think I've seen anybody in here is denying that. No issue with accepting it from my side given that "being Uniteds best player in the last 5 years" doesn't have any meaning at all it is one of the most cheapest compliments to hand out.

Firstly, I have no idea what you babbling about... no one has said take him out and not replace him... so no idea where this 10 men stuff is coming from.

if you read the post I commented on.. the poster is saying, Bruno is the MAIN reason which means, if you put Bruno on the bench and play anyone else, we would be much higher..

The point that he is the main reason is obviously BS but your conclusion that it must mean that with just simply taking him out we'd automatically get better is a bit of a detraction. The point many people in here made was that if we had a player without Brunos weaknesses and with maybe just 80-85% of his ability, we potentially wouldn't be a worse team, potentially slightly better and probably more balanced. Those points have shifted (in my opinion at least) a bit in the last year as Brunos role changed and his age took some options off the table anyways.
No reasonable person says that Bruno is the sole reason we generally lose midfield battles, look uncomfortable on the ball and never really take control but excluding him from that issue doesn't make no sense as well and this is what it sounds like when he praised to the heavens in here with people feeling genuinely desperate about him having to play with his teammates. He is one of the constants in our midfield since years and while that negative trend started under Mourinho, it certainly didn't took a good bounce in the right direction since then. A cynic might say that Bruno ability to come up with moments keeps a ship afloat, that is maybe better off sinking alltogether for the decision makers to finally do something. But here we are. And all it takes is a direct freekick over a mistakenly placed wall and with a questionable placed keeper for people to cream themselves and acting as if we weren't the ones who surrendered the initiaitve and ball to Arsenal for the majority of the game.

People will look at games like last weekend or the FA Cup final and telling themselves that if Bruno can play in those situations he must be able to do it in different conditions as well but it is easy to look formidable defensively when all your team mates are close to you. But that can't be the way we want to play on a constant basis, can't it?

If you feel that, then you must think its simple, replace Bruno and we win the league.... nonsense.

Obviously this is nonsense and never have I seen this point being made in here. It is a reduction of what was said for you to have an easy thing to argue against.

For Klopp, Bruno would be spoilt for choice in terms of willing offensive runners all around him.

For Pep, Bruno would be spoilt for choice when finding players in the box due to smart movement all around.

For Ancelotti, Bruno would be spoilt for choice because of all the world class players around him. He'd probably get 30-40 assists or something absurd like that.

And for Fergie, he'd be valued for his versatility and tenacity (as well as quality of course).

Mourinho would love him too. He loves a hard worker who can unlock players on the counter.

Come on mate, you know it would be rather 60-80! Thats a blatant showing of disrespect for our captain.

 

[jem]

You know what’s boring? Talking in circles about how getting rid of our best player will somehow make us better.

Tedious and stupid.

Bruno is the one player in our squad who has a claim to being in the best premier league 11 and some people want rid of him!

Do you know how fecking hard it is to cover the amount of ground he does week in week out and then pick out a pass with quality? And remain injury free?

Well it is a discussion board, so differing opinions and all that.

 

[Champ]

I don't think I've seen anybody in here is denying that. No issue with accepting it from my side given that "being Uniteds best player in the last 5 years" doesn't have any meaning at all it is one of the most cheapest compliments to hand out.


The point that he is the main reason is obviously BS but your conclusion that it must mean that with just simply taking him out we'd automatically get better is a bit of a detraction. The point many people in here made was that if we had a player without Brunos weaknesses and with maybe just 80-85% of his ability, we potentially wouldn't be a worse team, potentially slightly better and probably more balanced. Those points have shifted (in my opinion at least) a bit in the last year as Brunos role changed and his age took some options off the table anyways.
No reasonable person says that Bruno is the sole reason we generally lose midfield battles, look uncomfortable on the ball and never really take control but excluding him from that issue doesn't make no sense as well and this is what it sounds like when he praised to the heavens in here with people feeling genuinely desperate about him having to play with his teammates. He is one of the constants in our midfield since years and while that negative trend started under Mourinho, it certainly didn't took a good bounce in the right direction since then. A cynic might say that Bruno ability to come up with moments keeps a ship afloat, that is maybe better off sinking alltogether for the decision makers to finally do something. But here we are. And all it takes is a direct freekick over a mistakenly placed wall and with a questionable placed keeper for people to cream themselves and acting as if we weren't the ones who surrendered the initiaitve and ball to Arsenal for the majority of the game.

People will look at games like last weekend or the FA Cup final and telling themselves that if Bruno can play in those situations he must be able to do it in different conditions as well but it is easy to look formidable defensively when all your team mates are close to you. But that can't be the way we want to play on a constant basis, can't it?


Obviously this is nonsense and never have I seen this point being made in here. It is a reduction of what was said for you to have an easy thing to argue against.


Come on mate, you know it would be rather 60-80! Thats a blatant showing of disrespect for our captain.

So Kane wasn't very good because he was in an underwhelming Spurs side yet was their best player?
Van Persie wasn't very good because he was in an underwhelming Arsenal side?
Shearer wasn't very good as he was in an underwhelming Newcastle side....etc etc

Players can be quality yet play for underwhelming sides you know, there's ten other players plus a manager that needs to also be half decent.

 

[suheilsworld]

Rare clip of him when he was 18

 

[NZT-One]

So Kane wasn't very good because he was in an underwhelming Spurs side yet was their best player?
Van Persie wasn't very good because he was in an underwhelming Arsenal side?
Shearer wasn't very good as he was in an underwhelming Newcastle side....etc etc

Players can be quality yet play for underwhelming sides you know, there's ten other players plus a manager that needs to also be half decent.

Mate, if the discussions around here or in his ungodly legend thread would be around whether he is a very good player or not, then it would be not even be half as contested. I am sure, the absolute majority would stand behind such a statement. The conflicts arise when stuff is about "best" and "legend" and "sad for him that he wasted his best years" and "every criticism has to be answered with questioning motives". At this point every mention of his weaknesses is answered with the exact same post sequence "always available", "bestest chance creator", "best player United has", "only player with actual output". As if any United fan wouldn't have noticed that by now. And for a while, those things don't even just fly when criticism is around, sometimes it is enough when the exact level of praise isn't met.

 

[VivaObertan]

To everyone

I love Bruno Fernando and he is my favorite player and I have 2 jersey of him. One is a red jersey number 18 and then I have a new jersey of him last Thanksgiving 2024 and it’s a dark blue jersey!!!

That's great, Tom Hopefully you'll get another one this Thanksgiving too!

 

[VivaObertan]

I believe @Scandi Red said it at some point last season (RIP Jeppers, zaafi) but this thread can really make you question your own sanity at times

The mental gymnastics to try to justify why he’s not a world class player in this thread from fellow United fans is both hilarious and baffling.

Best player of the post SAF era and it’s not even close. Enjoy him whilst he’s here, Reds!

 

[Olecurls99]

I've so much respect for how he's changed his game to help the team. I really didn't think he could play the metronome but his ability to beat a press and general quickness has improved at 30 years of age. I'm stunned by it.