Bruno Fernandes against the Premier League Top 6 sides

The one thing I have an issue with is his simple passing. I dont mind him giving away the ball trying to play a killer ball in certain positions, but when he has players near him and hes playing really bad passes or giving it away needlessly from silly positions when there is a player in better positions.

His workrate however is top notch.
 
It‘s not just him, the whole team is struggling, we scored 1 goal against the top 6 and that was against Spurs
 
He was terrible today. Simple passes, bad, ruined numerous counters. But you'd fancy him to score or assist or both next game, hard to be too angry. Every other player had a similar performance.
 
Judas said:
He was terrible today. Simple passes, bad, ruined numerous counters. But you'd fancy him to score or assist or both next game, hard to be too angry. Every other player had a similar performance.
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It’s getting hard to care though. He can get another 20 goals and assists this season and it means nothing without converting it into something.
 
If Arsenal, Spurs are top 6 teams then why are they 8th and 10th in the table? and to be honest I wouldn't fancy either to finish in the top 6.

West Ham, Leicester are two top 4 teams currently and Man United have scored 5 goals against them in the two games against them this season with all from open play yet some journalists conveniently ignoring that.
 
always_hoping said:
If Arsenal, Spurs are top 6 teams then why are they 8th and 10th in the table? and to be honest I wouldn't fancy either to finish in the top 6.

West Ham, Leicester are two top 4 teams currently and Man United have scored 5 goals against them in the two games against them this season with all from open play yet some journalists conveniently ignoring that.
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Maybe because even when they don't occupy top 6 positions, some teams automatically earn more respect - from United as well - when we play them.
 
Hellboy said:
It‘s not just him, the whole team is struggling, we scored 1 goal against the top 6 and that was against Spurs
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To be fair, when you look at our scoring stats, it a bit of a miracle. We score a lot despite Martial and Greenwood contributing little, Cavani being really a bit part player and Rashford blowing hot and cold. Fernandes is pretty much holding the fort, but it's harder to do that in bigger, tigher games.
 
His short passing is shocking for a top player. It was noted before we signed him but it really hits home when he has games like these.
 
Amir said:
To be fair, when you look at our scoring stats, it a bit of a miracle. We score a lot despite Martial and Greenwood contributing little, Cavani being really a bit part player and Rashford blowing hot and cold. Fernandes is pretty much holding the fort, but it's harder to do that in bigger, tigher games.
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That's absolutely true. Although carrying the team with goals aside, I don't think it's expecting too much when you want him to be able to complete some basic passes.

I think his record and prowess in front of goal (a combination of great movement, alertness in the box and finishing, as well as penalty taking) let him a bit of the hook for some really terrible passing in these games. He ruined quite a few counter attacks today with appalling execution. He didn't have to pull a rabbit out of the hat, just do the simple things right.

Don't get me wrong, we're still considerably better for having him. But he can be so frustrating in games like these.
 
We rely too much on him so when he doesn’t perform, our players won’t get the service. This happens many times this season against the top 6 that he is either being marked or when he finds a space he still can’t get his through ball or long ball on. There were times yesterday when he missed his long ball when Rashford could destroy Azpilicueta one on one with pace. It’s down to both him and also the squad lacks creativity.
 
He's a class act but why all the arms up and tantrums? Is he frustrated with the team or himself? He's had another quiet game, maybe he'll be a bigger influence against Crystal Palace.
 
I think it's fair to say that there's a decent sample of games now to say in these big games he does seem to struggle. I think some of it is his personality, he wants to make things happen and so I think forces it too much, although it's hard to reign that part in as you also get with him the huge effort he puts in. Ultimately he can definitely work on this part of his game but I still think we could utilise him better by trying to get him into scoring positions rather than focussing on him as a creator.

I think though it does show one of the issues in the team being the lack of general creativity as Bruno/Shaw aside there's not many options. Half the front 6 yest are playing for their defensive strengths rather than offensive in James/McT and Fred, AWB whilst improving is not a strong creator. So you're left with Rashford who's not really focussed on creating either and Greenwood who in fairness does try but he or whoever is leading the line needs to be focussed on that.

It's something we definitely need to work on whether it's this season or in summer.
 
He was poor yesterday but it shouldn't come as a surprise.

Ole says Bruno has stated he doesn't need to rest, hence we saw him rolled out on Thursday.

He might not be physically spent but mentally he looks at his wit's end, constantly getting into battles and altercations. I'm surprised he hasn't been sent off as yet.

It has started to look like the 'talisman' status is weighing heavily, and rightly so, he's been carrying us for over a Year now.

We need more quality around him, so that he can put faith in others to take up some of the creative slack.
 
I'm not going to lie and try to say Bruno had a good game, but I remember the quote used from Rooney in the thread about him being a false 9, that he can't make the goals and the assists.

In many of the games against the top 6, or any competent team recently, we automatically start 20yds deeper than in any other game and so Bruno drops deeper and deeper or as we've seen recently, wider and wider. This means he either has to dribble up 20yds every time he gets the ball or hit a pass 20yds longer than against others. Secondly we also have to look at the quality of the players he's playing the balls to, similar to the false stats about Pogba's assists - we need players who can finish the chances he makes. It's pointless going on about what a great pass he made or how great a goal that would have been, we need attackers who can consistently finish the chances that he sets up. I'm looking at Rashford's poor decision-making, Martial's poor concentration as examples.
 
Might not have been Bruno from open play, but thank feck United finally scored a non-penalty against the Big Six. Scotty McSauce at the last pre-lockdown!
 


After watching this, Bruno 100% follows this thread. Knows we all won’t shut up until he gets one from open play.
 
kidbob said:
Oh feck off! He was great today and to be honest he is great far more than he is bad.

Edit: I suppose Iniesta was famously awful in 'big' games too?
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It was more in jest than anything. He could never score or assist again if we play like that.
 
Because that's the only way he can impact a big game...
 
I don't get this stat because in big matches it's about small margins.

To be fair before we had Bruno we struggled mostly against the weaker teams and he helped us massively in that regard.

I'm just glad we don't have to rely on one player all the time.
 
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