[Craig Ward]

The absolute nonsense posted in this thread, time and time again. Portugal is an elite team. One of the best national teams around. Stacked with young talent, playing at the best clubs in Europe. And Bruno is a nailed on starter. Of course he is. Because, as usual, football managers have a far better grasp of what he brings to the team than most of the posters in this thread. He wouldn’t start for half the teams in the PL. Jesus wept.

Portugal still reply on a nearly 40yr old centre forward and until recently still played Pepe on the regular - so calm down with the elite. They're not quite all that.

Cedric was they're starting RB for a while too - so lets just calm down a little. International football is nowhere near the levels of the PL and most countries teams sorta pick themselves so

Bruno brings no captain qualities to us. He isn't consistent, he loses the ball to much and his body language is shockingly bad. You can lick his arse all you like but i'm calling it as i see it. Bruno is a rubbish captain and over hyped based on form he showed 4 seasons ago.

He is capable of very good moments. He isn't a bad player - he just isn't and never will be an elite player. I think he fools people cos he runs around a lot. I'm not questioning his desire and work ethic - he's a role model in that regard. But we are talking about Manchester United here - his consistency is way off, his attitude also. He's also just not got that elite quality.

He genuinely wouldn't get a game for any team in the top half of the league. They already have better players. You cant argue with facts

 

[Pickle85]

Portugal still reply on a nearly 40yr old centre forward and until recently still played Pepe on the regular - so calm down with the elite. They're not quite all that.

Cedric was they're starting RB for a while too - so lets just calm down a little. International football is nowhere near the levels of the PL and most countries teams sorta pick themselves so

Bruno brings no captain qualities to us. He isn't consistent, he loses the ball to much and his body language is shockingly bad. You can lick his arse all you like but i'm calling it as i see it. Bruno is a rubbish captain and over hyped based on form he showed 4 seasons ago.

He is capable of very good moments. He isn't a bad player - he just isn't and never will be an elite player. I think he fools people cos he runs around a lot. I'm not questioning his desire and work ethic - he's a role model in that regard. But we are talking about Manchester United here - his consistency is way off, his attitude also. He's also just not got that elite quality.

He genuinely wouldn't get a game for any team in the top half of the league. They already have better players. You cant argue with facts

I think the issue here is you're confusing 'facts' with 'opinions'. A fact would be that Bruno has registered 15 or more goals plus assists every season in the PL since joining us.

 

[Adisa]

Our record since he was made captain is quite diabolical. That's before you start talking about the tactical headache he is and his deficiencies as a footballer.

 

[flameinthesun]

Our record since he was made captain is quite diabolical. That's before you start talking about the tactical headache he is and his deficiencies as a footballer.

It's deja vu with Fernandes. At the end of Ole's reign I said we won't win a big trophy with Fernandes or Rashford starting.

Fernandes has pretty much been a second striker for us. His best form has come with him playing as a second striker/10. Very few top teams play with a dedicated No 10. If we want to look at one of the reasons why we struggle to control games, keep possession or end up losing the ball in silly places he is one of them. He is not a dictator in the way that the likes of Odegaard, the Silvas, De Bruyne etc can dictate a game whilst also being creative. He is effectively a second striker who has no thought about controlling games. He has never shown for United or Sporting that he has that in his locker and when played further back for Portugal he is pretty much ineffective.

That's without mentioning him as a captain. He clearly is not captain material, I think that should go without saying.

He is best in a team that sits back and counter attacks, similar to Rashford. If you want control of a game and to dominate possession he isn't that guy.

 

[Pickle85]

Our record since he was made captain is quite diabolical. That's before you start talking about the tactical headache he is and his deficiencies as a footballer.

Almost like we've not been very good as a team for ages. Correlation not causation.

 

[Adisa]

Almost like we've not been very good as a team for ages. Correlation not causation.

I did not say he was the cause. I don't think we've been this bad for this long though.

 

[Rolaholic]

 

[Grylte]

Bruno offers to pay for travel and accomodation for staff at the FA cup final, since the club didn't.


He's a good person.

 

[JBG]

Stat padder and through ball spammer! Anyone can do that and get those kind of numbers season after season. Just look at all the other players doing it at the highest level....

 

[Bo_devil]

A player in his position should be more ruthless in front of goal. Far too many times he's let teams off the hook with his wayward shooting. Slotting away the odd pen isn't good enough.

 

[Isotope]

As one of his biggest fan, have to admit that he should be a squad player for that 10s position if we really want to push for trophies and League. Amorim's system need a more physical and better finisher no. 10 there.

Surprisingly, he's pretty good as CM, and probably we can get by with him there for another year, IF we only have enough fund to buy 3-4 semi-expensive players. A 10, a striker, and LWB are higher priorities as players we have there are far from quality.

Of course him on CM is still upgradable.

 

[Bruno Fernandes]

Stat padder and through ball spammer! Anyone can do that and get those kind of numbers season after season. Just look at all the other players doing it at the highest level....

There are loads of midfielders who could do that but they have managers that don't enable them to play in such a egocentric way. You sarcastically pointed out that he's regarded by a significant chunk of the fanbase as a through ball spammer. He is. That's why he gets a load of assists that in other teams would be spread out more evenly among the players

I get the argument is that the other players aren't really up to scratch in terms of output, but my counterpoint is that they never really will be coached to play cohesive team football if we have a guy who has everything going through him. Unless people think we'll genuinely get back to the top with Bruno, he should be phased out of the team so we can actually try playing like the other top teams. Bruno is absolutely amazing at being Bruno, as inherently inconsistent as that is, but now Amorim clearly expects him to play in a different style he will look nowhere near as good as the countless midfielders in the market who surpass him in other areas and his weaknesses will be further exposed. Amorim called him out the other week for always looking for the final pass funnily enough (through ball spammer indeed)

Have any of these top level attacking midfielders playing like Bruno and their managers would quickly get them into check. It's a team sport and an ever decreasing amount of United fans obsess over this individual saving us. He creates huge problems in the team with his obvious weaknesses, as called out by both Keane and Scholes, but he saves us with his increasingly rare moments of brilliance

I honestly don't get how people can watch him over the years and think he's an elite footballer. He's capable of it every now and then but on the whole he's just obviously not that good. His passing is absolutely shit. It's also absolutely good. The analogy I came up with for his passing is like if there was a chef with 10 Michelin stars that everyone who ate at his restaurant agreed cooked the most delicious food in the world, yet he killed a few customers every now and then through food poisoning. His passing is terrific, but it's also shit. If anyone has watched him play week in week out for the last few years and doesn't know exactly what I'm talking about, I can't help you

He'll retire with no major trophies but he'll have one of the best compilations on YouTube and people in the comments section will be gaslighting me into believing he was an actual top player

Has he got a trivela assist for us? I can't remember, but I do remember that he tries them often and they pretty much never come off. His upcoming retirement YouTube compilation will immortalise that one trivela assist he gets against Qarabag or some shit in the 25/26 Conference League and everyone else will forget the countless feck ups. He's a midtable superstar. Our scouts rejected him before we eventually panic bought him. No other clubs have ever made a real bid for him, including when he was at Sporting. The only club who made a bid when he was breaking records there was Spurs who bid something like £50m with half the money now and half of they win the league. That's because top scouts can see through the numbers and observe that the way he plays the game is not conducive to the elite level

Midtable superstar

 

[Baneofthegame]

Just don’t have any faith in him currently to score unless it’s a pen, he’s shooting has been terrible this season for the most part.

 

[Hmzone]

As one of his biggest fan, have to admit that he should be a squad player for that 10s position if we really want to push for trophies and League. Amorim's system need a more physical and better finisher no. 10 there.

Surprisingly, he's pretty good as CM, and probably we can get by with him there for another year, IF we only have enough fund to buy 3-4 semi-expensive players. A 10, a striker, and LWB are higher priorities as players we have there are far from quality.

Of course him on CM is still upgradable.

He’s definitely not ”pretty good” at central midfield! He’d be a disaster if played there for a consistent period. I cited how much he losses possession in Amorim’s thread and a few called it ridiculous and only in my imagination. One hour later he dropped a masterclass and lost the ball 28 times vs Bournemouth.



He’s nowhere better than the rest of the team and at his worst he’s insanely sloppy and lazy. He’s captained the club through years of humiliating defeats yet he’s undroppable and ran to the ground every season. The fact that he’s almost played every minute of Amorim’s tenure is alarming.

 

[Bo_devil]

As one of his biggest fan, have to admit that he should be a squad player for that 10s position if we really want to push for trophies and League. Amorim's system need a more physical and better finisher no. 10 there.

Surprisingly, he's pretty good as CM, and probably we can get by with him there for another year, IF we only have enough fund to buy 3-4 semi-expensive players. A 10, a striker, and LWB are higher priorities as players we have there are far from quality.

Of course him on CM is still upgradable.

I think a more technical player, with more guile and shooting accuracy. Prime Du bruyne or a David silva type would be a massive upgrade. What about that Jao felix guy?

 

[top1whoisman]

 

[Walters_19_MuFc]

When he first joined, his finishing was exceptional, but it’s clear that it has significantly declined. Against Bournemouth, he should have found the back of the net at least once. He squandered two key chances—one struck straight at the keeper and the other completely off target. If Amorim insists on deploying him in one of the attacking midfield roles, he must step up and deliver more in terms of goals.

 

[Heinzesight]

Get big Phil Jones in to teach him how to whip in a corner.

 

[Silverman]

He's obviously a quality player but he cannot control a game which is what we need.

 

[Maureen-yo]

Shows how good Lamal is for his age

 

[Bastian]

When he first joined, his finishing was exceptional, but it’s clear that it has significantly declined. Against Bournemouth, he should have found the back of the net at least once. He squandered two key chances—one struck straight at the keeper and the other completely off target. If Amorim insists on deploying him in one of the attacking midfield roles, he must step up and deliver more in terms of goals.

His finishing has mostly been diabolical since he managed to convince INEOS to grant him that new contract (after the Community Shield I think it was). He squandered a host of chances in the early fixtures under ETH, and was generally performing 4/10. He's certainly improved in the last couple of months and is giving 6-7/10 performances, with maybe 1 or 2 8/10 showings.

I suspect he'll play as much as possible until summer, but when Amorim will have options I think he'll have to step up. If Amorim has event he slightest doubt about him in the summer, the hierarchy would do well to sell before he starts being phased out of the starting XI, and get in a top fee while we can (if he's at all open to Saudi, for whom he'd be a huge signing).