This has to be one of the worst takes of 2024 so far.
Bruno is underrated thread
- Thread starter Samid
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Why is there never any speculation of say, Kevin De Bruyne, moving to Madrid or Bayern? Probably because he has not shown any interest in a move away.
It is most likely the same for players like Rashford, who is a local player and shown no desire to play elsewhere, or Bruno, who has stated many times that United were his dream club. Transfer rumours very rarely start for players who are content where they are, no matter how good they are, most buying clubs these days would not make a bid without any kind of indication that the player wishes to join them.
I'm not saying we have a plethora of attractive players atm, that is clearly not the case. But, if any of our better players wanted to move on, you can bet there would be plenty of interest.
Forgot about him, yes...but every case is different. He so desperately wanted to leave that he decided not to turn up to the pre-season tour and I remember that van Gaal didn't even know where he was.
Pogba was ultimately fine with running his contract down and would've even signed a new one if we upped his wages.
De Gea kept his head down in a professional manner after the Madrid transfer fell through, and carried on with business as usual.
It would be easy to name 8 or 9 better AMs in the PL than Bruno. I'll start and others can add on.
KDB
Odegaard
Maddison
Bruno G
Mac Allister
KDB
Odegaard
Maddison
Bruno G
Mac Allister
Only if you don't understand football. Bruno cannot lace Pogba's boots. One has never won anything worthwhile in his whole career. Other put in a man of the match performance in the biggest game in football.
Ah yes, this old chestnut. If only we were all as knowledgeable about football as Manc Shaman off the internet.
Pogba was very talented but also wildly inconsistent, injury prone and prone to concentration lapses. Also, one man of the match, regardless of setting, does not make a player.
The most ridiculous part of your post, though, was claiming pogba was better than kdb. Which is totally and completely ridiculous. But then again you 'understand football', so I guess it must be correct...
Using his flawless logic I guess we can only conclude that none of the players so far mentioned can hold a candle to Toto Schillachi…
8 or 9! You’re already desperately reaching after the first three!
Bruno G and Mac Allister are not AMs. I wouldn't even say KDB is an AM, last season he played like a RW tucked in - heatmap - so you have 2, arguably 3...
Absolutely. Not to forget about Portuguese all time great Eder.
It'll be top 5 worst takes even at the end of the year.
Are we sure anybody other than KDB are better than him ?
"Easy to mention 8 or 9"
Mentions 5, with 3 (arguably 4) not even being AMs.
Fantastic work.
No way on this planet you can say Bruno G and MacAllister are better AMs than Bruno. I'd actually put him ahead of Odegaard and Maddison tbh. The guy is so clever, always thinking two or three seconds faster than anyone else, sees a pass like no one else, and has the audacity to try it. Hence why he creates more chances than any other player in world football. He just happens to be playing with a bunch of clowns.
Also all time great midfielder Kleberson, with his illustrious career.
He creates a lot but feck me he's an insufferable cnut at times.
I suspect he created an account just to troll. Even the staunchest of Martial defenders wouldn't have genuinely agreed with what he posted below. My favourite bit is the last two lines.
He takes a lot of risks and get a lot of output from that. If he played in a highly functioning team he would have to adjust I'd say. But he isn't, and he is our single point of creativity, as well as working very hard. Great player
I'd say Maddison is the more convincing player right now, albeit that is somewhat is offset by his injury record. Odegaard hasn't been a patch on last season so jury is out on that one.
Ultimately it comes back to the laughable idea that getting rid of our most creative player right now (albeit notably less effective output-wise than he used to be) is going to help us get back to where we want to be. When there are at least a hundred more glaring issues to contend with.
Every other match we play it seems the opposing team has a better AM than we do. Maddison totally outplayed Bruno last time out. Odegaard oozes class. Foden is better than our Bruno. I would rather have Son over Bruno.
I think too many of you are still enamored with his first 6 months here. Since that time he has been pretty average for assists and goals. And he ranks very high for unforced giveaways with poor passes.
The one quality many of them have is they can blow pass defenders if overplayed. Bruno can't and doesn't even try anymore because he knows he is not quick enough.
Like Seba Veron, he’s a player out of time in that he doesn’t fit with the current trends in tactics. Early 2000s he’d be in the ‘best in the league’ chats, 2024 he’s a player capable of brilliance but at the cost of wrecking a structured team.
You're one of those who would take Gibbs-White over Bruno off the back of Saturday's game aren't you?
We've always paid the biggest wages. Italy and Spain have never been close to the PL. More than 10 years ago mid and low level PL clubs were poaching players from Spain when people started to realize they produce better players than England and were much, much cheaper. Getting a David Silva within the league and getting one from Valencia was a huge cost difference.
Buying a player from United means you're buying someone that has already been affected by the United tax meaning higher wages and higher transfer fee that needs recouperating. Going after a player that isn't a nailed on starter and offering him a starting position is usually what tempts players away but our players have it fine and always have which is why clubs don't bother. It's bad value unless they're free or outwardly want to leave like Di Maria who had serious family and acclimation issues. We didn't sell cheaply but PSG got him off us the same as we got him off Real.
Another team of the year.
You truly need to be a shaman to conjure up such an abomination of a post and still call yourself a United fan
Show me the team of the year that shows up in big matches.Another team of the year.
It would help if you could name 11 players who consistently show up in big matches when playing for a team who were underdogs on each occasion. Now that Jamie Vardy doesn't play in the PL anymore, I can't think of many.
Bruno was incredible when he first came to united especially in the first 6 to 12 months. What happened to him? I guess he got found out. Players reduce his chance of shooting and passing forward because they know he likes to shoot and do forward passing. The issue with Bruno is that he's not well rounded enough. His dribbling or one-two ability is not high enough.
Players like Kdb or Odegaard is more well rounded but Kdb is getting slow and Odegaard is also not intense enough. They both play things quite slowly these days.
It's hard to name someone who is intense and consistently good. The easiest person to name is Messi but he's not even a proper AM (Centre) and not even playing in Europe anymore.
Players like Kdb or Odegaard is more well rounded but Kdb is getting slow and Odegaard is also not intense enough. They both play things quite slowly these days.
It's hard to name someone who is intense and consistently good. The easiest person to name is Messi but he's not even a proper AM (Centre) and not even playing in Europe anymore.
The likes of Odegaard, Maddison and Macca etc would inevitably turn crap and struggle if they played for us. Meanwhile Bruno would look just as good if not better if he played for their respective teams.
Only exception would be KDB who is genuinely world class but even then I think a Bruno playing for city would look better than a KDB playing for us.
Only exception would be KDB who is genuinely world class but even then I think a Bruno playing for city would look better than a KDB playing for us.
If there was an 11 of players that consistently fail to show up in big games, Bruno would be the captain of that team and the first name on the team sheet now that Lukaku isn’t in the PL.
Playing for us isn’t even an excuse because Rashford has turned up for several big games and Martial has had his fair share too. Even Pogba had his games. In the event Bruno does manage to have a good performance in a big game it most certainly will be a home game, away from home he’s a guaranteed liability.
Players are supposed to adapt to the situation and make a difference. Scholes was a master of adjusting the tempo we played in, are we under pressure and need to keep the ball, is the opposition under pressure and should be keep hammering them etc etc etc. Bruno is a bit like the overly excited kid fingerbanging someone for the first time and he only has two tempo settings, on and off. The main problem with Bruno is that he doesn't read the flow of the game very well and as a result the opposition is able to maintain pressure on us. I don't think De Bruyne would produce magic numbers for us, we're nowhere near good enough, but i am convinced he'd be a huge upgrade on Bruno simply because his risk management is miles above Bruno's.
I can't really make up my mind on him. In a tight game where we're struggling to create chances, he still remains our most likely player to produce a "moment", which he's done several times already this season.
Does that compensate for his profligacy in possession, where he seems to cough up an inordinate amount of ball trying silly little flicks that are never on? And often lead to opposition counterattacks.
For some it's a price worth paying, for others it's not.
Does that compensate for his profligacy in possession, where he seems to cough up an inordinate amount of ball trying silly little flicks that are never on? And often lead to opposition counterattacks.
For some it's a price worth paying, for others it's not.
For me, the main issue with his sloppiness in possession is where he is on the pitch.
As a 10, high up the pitch, with plenty of room to work in, his high risk high reward passing approach is definitely worth it.
However, in the dual 8 role his is currently playing, too many of those passes are in areas of the pitch where a turnover can really hurt us, especially when he has less midfield cover behind him.
Bruno for me is one of the players hurt most by the system that ETH is trying to play. Along with Rashford (too wide as two 8's congest the channels, and less overlapping from the FB to take a man away) and all the options at 6 (none have the right combination of legs, athleticism, safe but penetrative passing, and positional discipline).
So many of our best players are ill suited to the way ETH wants to play, which makes his stubbornness to change the formation all the more frustrating.
I'm tired of these bullshit statistics. This guy is an absolute fraud. I dont care how many "chances created" he has per game, they are utterly pointless given that it comes at the expense of having any sort of control of the midfield in matches. If this stat is such a great indicator of being world class, how come actual world class midfielders like Iniesta and Modric have/had nowhere near the "chances created" as Bruno has? Its almost as if there is MUCH more to being a midfielder than spamming through balls
If he were even half as good as his fan club thinks he is, he would have received many more offers at Sporting. Its not as if he was some hidden gem United unearthed in the Scottish 3rd division. He was playing for Sporting and had the highest g/a in Europe at the time, so he was clearly scouted by most if not all of europe's top teams
If he were even half as good as his fan club thinks he is, he would have received many more offers at Sporting. Its not as if he was some hidden gem United unearthed in the Scottish 3rd division. He was playing for Sporting and had the highest g/a in Europe at the time, so he was clearly scouted by most if not all of europe's top teams
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This is the big misconception about Bruno though…
And don’t get me wrong, he is a flawed player without a doubt who could/should be more efficient with his passing regardless of where he is played.
But he is not a midfielder. At least he has never operated successfully as one for United. He is an out and out Number 10. And he has far more in common with the likes of Bergkamp and Cantona than he does with Iniesta or Xavi.
So we need to stop judging him by the same criteria.
Effectively he is a second striker.
So why doesn't United control matches? Because a two man midfield will never do that against a three man midfield like most teams use. That's not Bruno's fault. But everyone who thinks he is a midfielder is (as you say) completely mistaken. And problems start once you expect him to act as one.
Another thing people forget is that United’s entire forward line has been shocking. Bruno has created many many great opportunities that didn’t turn into assists or goals Because we have been relying on Garnacho and McT to score.
Some of you need to stop letting rag papers and media pundits lead you. He’s one of the hardest working players we have and never missed a game and yet some of you don’t like him whinging. I wish the likes to Pogba worked as hard as him and was as “inconsistent” as Bruno. He’s been largely fantastic and one of our best players in a really bad period for us.
Cop on lads,
Some of you need to stop letting rag papers and media pundits lead you. He’s one of the hardest working players we have and never missed a game and yet some of you don’t like him whinging. I wish the likes to Pogba worked as hard as him and was as “inconsistent” as Bruno. He’s been largely fantastic and one of our best players in a really bad period for us.
Cop on lads,
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Martial, really?
what was the last big game he showed up in? His debut against Liverpool 9 years ago?Problems also start when he wants to occupy the spaces of one, but still acts as a second forward. His heatmaps have always been all over the place. It's not an ETH thing, he's been like that since Solskajer's days at the club. This is how he interprets his "licence to roam". Partly, because his inability to operate in tight spaces and under pressure in possession dictates his choices on the pitch and lead him to all sorts of spaces that aren't designed for a SS or a #10. He will eventually get in the spaces he should be occupying (according to the Caf and i tend to agree with this opinion), but more likely when it suits his skill set, and he usually expects the others to be OK and just follow suit. Otherwise, he will just try to force the issue from an improbable angle/position in the hope that someone will make a run in-behind. He is a high-volume player because he has the vision and the passing skill to execute. But his style is very difficult to accommodate. Despite the high numbers, the only player with whom he has managed to develop a steady "provider-finisher" relationship with in 4 years is another ultra direct player who thrives on balls behind defences and into space.
I agree with most of this other than the fact that you cant control matches with that shape. Bruno at the tip of the midfield 3 in a 4231 can control games. We saw that in loads of games last season with Casemiro and Eriksen in the double pivot.
It only fell apart in the games where the lack of energy and legs in that double pivot got exposed, with Fred and McT as the only other options who are much better suited as 8's.
I would argue that with Amrabat and Mainoo as genuine alternatives in the double pivot, and proper use of substitutions, we could control midfield in a 4231 against the majority of opposition.
It's all irrelevant though, as ETH has no intention changing the shape back, despite it clearly being the best shape to get the most out of his squad.