Bruno is underrated thread

Never understood the hate. He is 1) NEVER injured and 2) one of the few of our spoiled millionaires who actually act like he cares, tries and give a feck. That alone makes him fine

Sure if you aim to be mid table then yes by all means players who have incredible availability and love the club should never be anything but adored. When you aim to actually be among the best clubs in the world the standard is much higher, otherwise you get stuck rolling out a lineup full of McTominays/Weghorsts etc. and get schooled for the umpteenth time by City.

United fans have always had far too much of a tolerance and soft spot for players that logically should be moved on, and it's partly why we've struggled post SAF (among a host of other issues).. We pretty much always look to sell players when they are already far past their best instead of when they still have good market value but their performances have slipped. People wonder how Madrid seem to always be set for a bright future every year and it's because they've mastered phasing out even the biggest club legends while still getting great value for them, even if they sell those players a year early, and they'll sell underperformers (and sack underperforming managers) even quicker when it's clear a mistake was made bringing them in. The smartest plan moving forward would be to deal with some fan backlash and sell Bruno for a very nice fee this summer to reinvest into a younger replacement while he's still highly regarded but past his very best. Sure maybe it would be missing one more productive Bruno year, but you instead transition to the future and can sign any sort of bright young replacement and cover most of their incoming fee with his sale. But we most likely won't, and in 2 years when he's still wearing the armband and can hardly run anymore fans will fully be ready to see the end of him when we will struggle to get 30% of what his current value is.
 
Sure if you aim to be mid table then yes by all means players who have incredible availability and love the club should never be anything but adored. When you aim to actually be among the best clubs in the world the standard is much higher, otherwise you get stuck rolling out a lineup full of McTominays/Weghorsts etc. and get schooled for the umpteenth time by City.

United fans have always had far too much of a tolerance and soft spot for players that logically should be moved on, and it's partly why we've struggled post SAF (among a host of other issues).. We pretty much always look to sell players when they are already far past their best instead of when they still have good market value but their performances have slipped. People wonder how Madrid seem to always be set for a bright future every year and it's because they've mastered phasing out even the biggest club legends while still getting great value for them, even if they sell those players a year early, and they'll sell underperformers (and sack underperforming managers) even quicker when it's clear a mistake was made bringing them in. The smartest plan moving forward would be to deal with some fan backlash and sell Bruno for a very nice fee this summer to reinvest into a younger replacement while he's still highly regarded but past his very best. Sure maybe it would be missing one more productive Bruno year, but you instead transition to the future and can sign any sort of bright young replacement and cover most of their incoming fee with his sale. But we most likely won't, and in 2 years when he's still wearing the armband and can hardly run anymore fans will fully be ready to see the end of him when we will struggle to get 30% of what his current value is.

That sir is very true but as you say, it’s unlikely because that kind of sell is based on forward thinking, scouting, balls. We lack all of that. Plus you could apply that to a lot of our current players. Players which are either to injury prone or average quality. If you sell Bruno, sell 5 others as well.
 
Whether or not you think he is good. We should be planning for his successor. He is 29
 

Utterly pointless comparison. If Bruno was one of many good players then you'd have a point, but that couldn't be further from the truth. Our team is a mess!

If Real Madrid ever find themselves in a similar situation (probably wont happen in our lifetime) then there's no way they'd sell a player with Bruno's skill, fitness and professionalism.
 
Utterly pointless comparison. If Bruno was one of many good players then you'd have a point, but that couldn't be further from the truth. Our team is a mess!

If Real Madrid ever find themselves in a similar situation (probably wont happen in our lifetime) then there's no way they'd sell a player with Bruno's skill, fitness and professionalism.

The comparison is a well run organization (best in the world if you discount the cheats) that is constantly proactive both in buying and selling players to one that is continuously inefficient and reactive in everything they do. They accept that they'll sell players a year earlier than they need to just how they will bed in young players a year before they are probably ready to become full time starters.

And acting like Bruno is keeping us together on his own is stupid, he hasn't played particularly well himself this year, it's not 2020 anymore.
 
They accept that they'll sell players a year earlier than they need to just how they will bed in young players a year before they are probably ready to become full time starters.

Yes, but there's a key difference: Real is still stacked even if they let one or two top players go!

Our situations are not comparable in any way, shape or form. Trying to emulate them before we've successfully built a good team makes us look foolish. At least when a comparatively weak team sells their best players it's because they need the money. But we don't. That is the one thing that separates us from the other mid-table teams right now. That and our brand/history.
 
Who was better, Bruno in his first year with us or Palmer this season? I'm still tempted to say Bruno
 
Not a suitable captain, but still Utd’s best and most important player.
 
We have bigger problems than Bruno. I’d say Bruno has been a success at United despite his profligacy in passing at times. He would have been an established squad player in any of Sir Alex’s teams
 
We have bigger problems than Bruno. I’d say Bruno has been a success at United despite his profligacy in passing at times. He would have been an established squad player in any of Sir Alex’s teams
Question though, if a manager is to come in and turn us into a possession dominating side within two years, do you really think that’s possible with Bruno starting every game? I understand we are terrible right now so anyone decent is a positive. But generally great managers tend to act quickly and bring in players who suit their style to get the system going and at least for the football I want to see (high line, dominant possession etc) he’s highly unsuited.
 
We have bigger problems than Bruno. I’d say Bruno has been a success at United despite his profligacy in passing at times. He would have been an established squad player in any of Sir Alex’s teams
Sir Alex would never play him every minute of every game, especially if he had just bought Mason Mount who absolutely can and should get minutes as #10
 
I wish we still had Fred bombing around behind Bruno causing chaos, even off the bench. They played well together.

Bruno I hope has one or two golden seasons with us under INEOS. He wants it, we want it. It’s now or never.

Madrid aren’t going to go for him clearly but it could be a very good signing for them if we were stupid enough to sell.
 
Bruno will never have gotten in a team like Liverpool, Arsenal, Man City, Barca, Bayern or Madrid.
He doesn’t have the technical abilities and football IQ. He is wasteful, can’t carry the ball or beat a press.
Only Man united fans are awed by his desire, workrate and Hollywood moments. Unfortunately, it’s not enough in this modern era of football.
 
Bruno will never have gotten in a team like Liverpool, Arsenal, Man City, Barca, Bayern or Madrid.
He doesn’t have the technical abilities and football IQ. He is wasteful, can’t carry the ball or beat a press.
Only Man united fans are awed by his desire, workrate and Hollywood moments. Unfortunately, it’s not enough in this modern era of football.
I tend to agree. His frustrations and arm waving all the time is annoying as feck too. So far away frok captain material
 
Bruno will never have gotten in a team like Liverpool, Arsenal, Man City, Barca, Bayern or Madrid.
He doesn’t have the technical abilities and football IQ.

fecking ell, Memphis got into a team like Barca, thick as shit Felix currently plays, and Eric fecking Dier currently plays for a failing Bayern side.
Nunez, Elliot, Diaz, Jones, Endo all play for Liverpool.
Havertz for Arsenal.

Luis Diaz find himself in the top 10 of most dispossessed players in the league. Odegaard, Foden, MacAllister, Jones all get dispossessed much more often than Bruno.

Car crash of a post mate.
 
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fecking ell, Memphis got into a team like Barca and Eric fecking Dier currently plays for a shit failing Bayern side.
Nunez, Elliot, Endo & Havertz for the others.

Car crash of a post mate.

No he wont start for any of those teams. Bruno is unlike Nunez, Endo & Havertz, he won’t stand staying on the bench for a few games or be subbed on the 80th min. He is the reason our midfield is wide open. He is only good for us if we want to fight for 8th place. Too much monopoly over a failing dressing room which will guarantee him playing time even with the upcoming manager. He needs to go thats it!
 
Perhaps the most overrated but more overstated. He’s a good player but he’s not a great player, he’s been terrible this season despite having a good game last week, he wasn’t great last season and the season before under Ole/Ragnick he was dreadful.

Take away the first calendar year through Covid and he’s not even statistically very good either. How a player who’s been bad for so long can get such praise and poor performances disregarded for having a good game, at Manchester United is an indictment of where the club has been for ten years.
 
My only problem with Bruno is he's not good at progressing the ball or defending, what really makes him a poor candidate for #8 and breaks any midfield setup. He is a pure #10, effective around the box when somebody else takes care of getting him the ball higher up. Ole used Bruno perfectly with a screening midfield two. He got much more out of his squad than ETH did.

Most top teams in the league focus on getting players in who are good at progressing the ball instead of going for the final pass like Bruno does. He's alright player and very useful here and there, just not a player we should be building around.
 
@Jeppers7 , tell me one player since 2020 that’s been consistently decent?

There’s the problem, we can’t even name one player able to rise above the shit show to show it’s even possible. Are we just saying that we had no player even capable of it? Out of what maybe 30 players? Even multi CL winners can only seem to rise about it for less than a full season, before the shit show envelopes them.
 
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If you had a team full of technically proficient players who keep and progress the ball well, a player like Bruno could be your maverick who provides incision with his unbelievable knack for chance creation. He is undeniably elite in that aspect. In a team with similarly weak players in terms of ball retention i.e. Rashford, Casemiro, McTom it's simply chaotic and unsustainable.

He definitely has his uses but also should not be captain - far too emotive.
 
He definitely has his uses but also should not be captain - far too emotive.

We’re such a fecking boring fan base with his captaincy nonsense. We literally haven’t stopped moaning about everybody’s ability to be captain for a decade. Since even fecking Rooney and the constant whines of “my captain must always play”.
There was what 2 years of moaning about Maguire, with many tipping Bruno as a better fit & celebrations when Maguire got stripped of it. And now almost 2 years on we’re here again

So who else? Martinez can’t stay fit, same for Varane, Casemiro is having his struggles in this chaos, Rashford? Garnacho? AWB?

If not Bruno, then who?

We have no senior player capable of putting up 2 full seasons of consistent performances so anyone is gonna end up in the same circle.
 
We’re such a fecking boring fan base with his captaincy bullshit. We literally haven’t stopped moaning about everybody’s ability to be captain for a decade. Since even fecking Rooney and the constant whines of “my captain must always play”.

So who else? Martinez can’t stay fit, same for Varane, Casemiro is having his struggles in this chaos, Rashford? Garnacho? AWB?

If not Bruno, then who?

Based on availability, these two plus Dalot and Onana are the only options. Rashford is certainly the least 'emotive' of that bunch these days, so I suppose he must be the leader we're crying out for...
 
Based on availability, these two plus Dalot and Onana are the only options. Rashford is certainly the least 'emotive' of that bunch these days, so I suppose he must be the leader we're crying out for...

It’s such a stupid thing for fans to get annoyed about, Bruno is the only senior player who stays fit and gives his all.
Anyone else would be too young or much less suited for the job and they’d get absolutely hammered.

Fine if Martinez say was fit at least 60% of the season I’d see an argument, but right now it’s Bruno by default over absolutely everyone in the squad.
 
We’re such a fecking boring fan base with his captaincy nonsense. We literally haven’t stopped moaning about everybody’s ability to be captain for a decade. Since even fecking Rooney and the constant whines of “my captain must always play”.
There was what 2 years of moaning about Maguire, with many tipping Bruno as a better fit & celebrations when Maguire got stripped of it. And now almost 2 years on we’re here again

So who else? Martinez can’t stay fit, same for Varane, Casemiro is having his struggles in this chaos, Rashford? Garnacho? AWB?

If not Bruno, then who?

We have no senior player capable of putting up 2 full seasons of consistent performances so anyone is gonna end up in the same circle.

The game has lost it's iconic captains. I used to know all the captains of the big clubs, and now I don't have a foggy, for the most part.
 
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Game recognize game. This will rattle a few on this forum no doubt.

He is spot on. There are those who will try and claim a Maddison' is better. Yet Maddison himself said when he deliberately decided to model his game after Bruno's his game stepped up a level. Getting him into the England team and to Spurs.....
 
There are plenty of people going to OT that dislike Bruno as well so it's not just the online fanbase.

But... You're all wrong. All of you are wrong. And you're -so- wrong in fact that I believe strongly we would actually be a bottom side club without Bruno Fernandes.

We really are absolutely shambolic. I think possibly there are only three footballers in our team who can at the end of the season hold their hands up and say it wasn't because of them and they are Onana, Fernandes and Mainoo. As to the rest? Replaceable relegation level shite.

Our entire defence concedes 30 shots on goal every game and you think that Fernandes is the problem. Our strikers are allergic to the ball in the box. When is the last time anyone can remember us scoring a header or volley or a loose ball being poked in in the are? Possibly Hojlund once? Do we EVER look like scoring when the ball goes into the box? Dalot, as bad as he is, can cross the ball quite well but it's a waste of time.

Our wingers are selfish and cause dramas every week. Casemiro and Varane are well past their use by dates and have lead in their boots (we've made Milans mistakes buying players on reputation alone, which is what all idiotic fading giants do)

Bruno Fernandes is the one player that offers us at least 100% every game, is never injured, and puts up the numbers. And you think he's the problem. We even signed Chelsea's POTY in his position to give him some backup and what's Mount done to disprove the Bruno myth? We are massively dysfunctional but we are a one man team.
 
He is spot on. There are those who will try and claim a Maddison' is better. Yet Maddison himself said when he deliberately decided to model his game after Bruno's his game stepped up a level. Getting him into the England team and to Spurs.....
Great argument. I'm sure, fecking KDB watches every minute of United and spends his freetime analyzing our team performance.

Bruno has qualities, not many others have. His vision and quickness of execution is 2nd to none. And his fitness and injury record is as good as it gets. But there are a few aspects in his skill set, that cause issues. Obviously that is intertwined with the way ETH sets us up. Obviously, there are more urgent areas in the squad to take care of. Thinking about selling him is purely pragmatic - he is 29, we probably can get a nice fee for him that could be re-invested in the squad or even just in a mere successor for Bruno himself. We are not going to challenge for anything next year and most likely the year after anyway - the current quality of the squat is bad anyways. Lets think about the future. And the future isn't Bruno anymore. No matter how much he cares.

To say he is underrated is crazy. The guy who earns 220 per week, wears the captains armband, starts every game and is never subbed - but sure, he is really underrated.
 
@Jeppers7 , tell me one player since 2020 that’s been consistently decent?

There’s the problem, we can’t even name one player able to rise above the shit show to show it’s even possible. Are we just saying that we had no player even capable of it? Out of what maybe 30 players? Even multi CL winners can only seem to rise about it for less than a full season, before the shit show envelopes them.
Shaw…I don’t disagree overall. But I don’t see that argument sparing any other player from criticism. Bruno was sensational when he came in. Perhaps the club has brought him down, you can’t fault his effort but then we all know people in Sunday league or 5 aside who are just eager. That’s more a personality trait than caring for the club. He’d be the same anywhere he played.

For me though he’s been terrible since that first 12 calendar months far more often than he’s been good. Just an example from Saturday, where he played well, but to highlight what I mean in terms of performance….at the start of the second half he had the ball under control and played a sloppy bobbling pass to someone who then gave it back on the bounce and Bruno then shanked something out for a goal kick. So many performances from him have been littered with more of these moments than of any real quality and I see that as being a Bruno issue not a team issue.
 
There are plenty of people going to OT that dislike Bruno as well so it's not just the online fanbase.

But... You're all wrong. All of you are wrong. And you're -so- wrong in fact that I believe strongly we would actually be a bottom side club without Bruno Fernandes.

We really are absolutely shambolic. I think possibly there are only three footballers in our team who can at the end of the season hold their hands up and say it wasn't because of them and they are Onana, Fernandes and Mainoo. As to the rest? Replaceable relegation level shite.

Our entire defence concedes 30 shots on goal every game and you think that Fernandes is the problem. Our strikers are allergic to the ball in the box. When is the last time anyone can remember us scoring a header or volley or a loose ball being poked in in the are? Possibly Hojlund once? Do we EVER look like scoring when the ball goes into the box? Dalot, as bad as he is, can cross the ball quite well but it's a waste of time.

Our wingers are selfish and cause dramas every week. Casemiro and Varane are well past their use by dates and have lead in their boots (we've made Milans mistakes buying players on reputation alone, which is what all idiotic fading giants do)

Bruno Fernandes is the one player that offers us at least 100% every game, is never injured, and puts up the numbers. And you think he's the problem. We even signed Chelsea's POTY in his position to give him some backup and what's Mount done to disprove the Bruno myth? We are massively dysfunctional but we are a one man team.
Garnacho has been better, Hojlund also. Dalot , Maguire, Evans can all hold their heads high before Bruno. He gets so much leeway for running around and being available. His performances have been poor week in week out. Really poor.
 
Garnacho has been better, Hojlund also. Dalot , Maguire, Evans can all hold their heads high before Bruno. He gets so much leeway for running around and being available. His performances have been poor week in week out. Really poor.
I mean no they really, really haven't. I like Garnacho and he has been "ok", but he's hardly been consistent. I don't think anyone without an agenda could ever argue Hojlund has been better than Bruno Fernandes with a straight face. And Jonny Evans has been better than any of us could have hoped for but let's be realistic here: there's a reason we are facing 30 shots every week and it's not because we are defending well.
 
There are plenty of people going to OT that dislike Bruno as well so it's not just the online fanbase.

But... You're all wrong. All of you are wrong. And you're -so- wrong in fact that I believe strongly we would actually be a bottom side club without Bruno Fernandes.

We really are absolutely shambolic. I think possibly there are only three footballers in our team who can at the end of the season hold their hands up and say it wasn't because of them and they are Onana, Fernandes and Mainoo. As to the rest? Replaceable relegation level shite.

Our entire defence concedes 30 shots on goal every game and you think that Fernandes is the problem. Our strikers are allergic to the ball in the box. When is the last time anyone can remember us scoring a header or volley or a loose ball being poked in in the are? Possibly Hojlund once? Do we EVER look like scoring when the ball goes into the box? Dalot, as bad as he is, can cross the ball quite well but it's a waste of time.

Our wingers are selfish and cause dramas every week. Casemiro and Varane are well past their use by dates and have lead in their boots (we've made Milans mistakes buying players on reputation alone, which is what all idiotic fading giants do)

Bruno Fernandes is the one player that offers us at least 100% every game, is never injured, and puts up the numbers. And you think he's the problem. We even signed Chelsea's POTY in his position to give him some backup and what's Mount done to disprove the Bruno myth? We are massively dysfunctional but we are a one man team.
This is just delusional. How are we a one man team when without Bruno in the side , we win more games, score more goals and concede less?
 
This is just delusional. How are we a one man team when without Bruno in the side , we win more games, score more goals and concede less?

Imagine calling others delusional when you're the one trying to form a serious argument out of nonsensical cherrypicked stats.

Almost half of United's breaks from Bruno have come in the early rounds of cup competition against opponents the club have predictably defeated.

The Portuguese playmaker has been remarkably durable during his time in northern England, missing just one Premier League game through fitness issues; an illness ruled Fernandes out of United's 3-2 victory over Tottenham in March 2022.

Suspension has been a more pressing concern for Fernandes of late and United have felt the pinch of his enforced absence. An accumulation of yellow cards compelled Fernandes to sit out United's away trips to Aston Villa and Sevilla last season - they were convincing dismantled in both games.

On each occasion, the visitors appeared bereft of attacking impetus without their creator-in-chief and wilted in front of hostile atmospheres.

On Unai Emery's debut in the Villa dugout, United recorded their lowest xG of the season thus far without Fernandes, slumping to a convincing 3-1 reverse. Four days later, Villa travelled to Old Trafford and lost 4-2, with Fernandes scoring and creating half of the hosts' triumphant haul.

You lot celebrate the few times he gets suspended but each time we look way worse without him. That Villa game the caf was excited because Beek was starting but predictably he dropped his trademark ghost performance.

We were 2-0 up against Sevilla when for some stupid reason he has subbed off. As a consequence we lost all attacking flair, got pegged back and they got 2-2. Smashed us 3-0 in the return leg without him. So 2-0 in the 60 mins with him and 0-5 in the 120 mins without him.

Some of you should be forced to watch all the games Lingard, Pereira and Beek started for us on repeat until you realise how wrong you are.
 
This is just delusional. How are we a one man team when without Bruno in the side , we win more games, score more goals and concede less?

This season we’ve played 32 league games, Bruno has played 31.

We drew 0-0 in the game he missed so not sure how the bolded works :confused:

Last season he played 37 Premier League games and the single game he missed we lost 1-3.
 
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This is just delusional. How are we a one man team when without Bruno in the side , we win more games, score more goals and concede less?
As has been mentioned already, we don't play without Bruno in the side very often. But whenever we do we have looked a lot, lot worse. Like seriously relegation level. People forget that before Bruno, we had Jese Lingard starting for us for a few years as our number 10. For those people that have a go at the numbers Bruno puts up, do you remember how many assists and goals that Lingard offered us in the entirety of 2019? Bruno joined us in JANUARY 2020 and even if he scored one goal in February that would have been more than Lingard gave us for an -entire fecking year-. If your memory doesn't reach that far back it's on you.
 
fecking ell, Memphis got into a team like Barca, thick as shit Felix currently plays, and Eric fecking Dier currently plays for a failing Bayern side.
Nunez, Elliot, Diaz, Jones, Endo all play for Liverpool.
Havertz for Arsenal.

Luis Diaz find himself in the top 10 of most dispossessed players in the league. Odegaard, Foden, MacAllister, Jones all get dispossessed much more often than Bruno.

Car crash of a post mate.

Good post.

There is a collective madness in here when it comes to Bruno. If you censored the name of the player and the date of the post, then I'd think people were talking about Pereira or Anderson by going by some of these descriptions :lol: