The Bruno Fernandes appreciation thread.

simplyared said:
Why all the negativity towards a player who has given his all for the club and is far and away our best player? RESPEKT.
Click to expand...
Because he has dramatically declined as a player. Far too inconsistent throughout 90 minutes. Also, can't help but resent the fact that the club bowed to his demands and offered him a new contract with improved terms when he already had plenty of time left on his previous deal. We should have called his bluff and sold him.

Just a general annoyance in how average players at this club are perceived to be superstars, rewarded with World Class wages and placed on an unrealistic pedestal.
 
I love Bruno. He's had a poor season, but he's carried us many times over the last few years & I can't get on the hate train. Stylistically, he's the kind of player you need to build around, and often we've not done that well, which can emphasise his weaknesses. ETH in particular tried to play him increasingly deep as time went by, and that not only blunted his goals scored, but he's never going to give you much control in a midfield area. There's no point asking him to play in midfield proper, where you need to balance control with risk taking. That hasn't helped his dip in form.

But the guy's stats for assists have been outstanding, even in a team scoring sod all goals. And lets not overlook the fact that, in a team full of crocks, his appearances record is incredible. Consistently among the most minutes played per season in the whole of Europe, year after year.

Luckily the new manager's formation looks ideal for Bruno. I think we'll see an uptick in his form.
 
Remember the geese said:
Because he has dramatically declined as a player. Far too inconsistent throughout 90 minutes. Also, can't help but resent the fact that the club bowed to his demands and offered him a new contract with improved terms when he already had plenty of time left on his previous deal. We should have called his bluff and sold him.

Just a general annoyance in how average players at this club are perceived to be superstars, rewarded with World Class wages and placed on an unrealistic pedestal.
Click to expand...
So you rate him as average. We're talking about a player who walks inte the Portuguese national team. Interesting to hear if you believe he could hold his place as an attacking midfielder in any of those top 3 teams. City, Liverpool or Arsenal? Imo he's the only player we have who would achieve that.
 
  • Historically good player for us in terms of goals and assists
  • Definitely wouldn’t accuse of him of half assing his efforts (always fit and available too which is a huge plus)
  • Prone to getting frustrated easily, which isn’t a good characteristic if you’re captain.
  • Very good in a counterattack setup but not so much in a patient, possession based build-up team.
  • Now 30 and not likely to change his style of play at this stage.
  • Visible decline in the past year or two (his risky throughballs are going back to the opposition more than they used too)
I wouldn’t say sell him now but his new deal takes him to 2027, and I think that should be his last contract with us. Possibly offload him in 18 months time if the decline continues.
 
simplyared said:
So you rate him as average. We're talking about a player who walks inte the Portuguese national team. Interesting to hear if you believe he could hold his place as an attacking midfielder in any of those top 3 teams. City, Liverpool or Arsenal? Imo he's the only player we have who would achieve that.
Click to expand...
He's a good player when in form, much like Rashford. Also, much like Rashford, we don't see that anywhere near as often as we once did. Granted, Bruno isn't quite Rashford levels of average. However, he's far too sloppy in possession and is a lone wolf when it comes to pressing.

As for starting for City, Liverpool or Arsenal - probably not. Certainly wouldn't start over a fit De Bruyne or Bernardo Silva. Nor would he start over Odegaard. Bruno's best bet would be playing ahead of Szoboszlai, who looks very underwhelming himself. However, it clearly isn't a problem for Liverpool who have a system that has worked consistently for years. Therefore no need to muddy that with the wild cannon that is Bruno Fernandes.

I feel that we have other players who have just as big a shout to start matches (at least on a rotational basis) for one or more of those top three teams. Namely, Onana, De Ligt, Mazraoui and Mainoo.
 
simplyared said:
So you rate him as average. We're talking about a player who walks inte the Portuguese national team. Interesting to hear if you believe he could hold his place as an attacking midfielder in any of those top 3 teams. City, Liverpool or Arsenal? Imo he's the only player we have who would achieve that.
Click to expand...
He would struggle in city and he's not close to odegaard. Liverpool maybe but it would require them changing how they play a bit.
 
I don't understand appreciation threads. Unless your last name ends Ferguson, Busby or Charlton then not for me. Much less for current players.
 
He is a player that suits a team that doesn’t plan to keep a lot of possession.
In this day and age no top team plays or plans to play like that.
Also out of possession his attitude and work rate also are not up to the mark.

He is damn too productive but in these times of organised attack/defence he a loose cannon that does not fit.
 
quadrant said:
I love Bruno. He's had a poor season, but he's carried us many times over the last few years & I can't get on the hate train. Stylistically, he's the kind of player you need to build around, and often we've not done that well, which can emphasise his weaknesses. ETH in particular tried to play him increasingly deep as time went by, and that not only blunted his goals scored, but he's never going to give you much control in a midfield area. There's no point asking him to play in midfield proper, where you need to balance control with risk taking. That hasn't helped his dip in form.

But the guy's stats for assists have been outstanding, even in a team scoring sod all goals. And lets not overlook the fact that, in a team full of crocks, his appearances record is incredible. Consistently among the most minutes played per season in the whole of Europe, year after year.

Luckily the new manager's formation looks ideal for Bruno. I think we'll see an uptick in his form.
Click to expand...
The bolded is a bit of a reach, no? He has double digits assists in PL only once. Not really outstanding, in my opinion.
 
Remember the geese said:
He's a good player when in form, much like Rashford. Also, much like Rashford, we don't see that anywhere near as often as we once did. Granted, Bruno isn't quite Rashford levels of average. However, he's far too sloppy in possession and is a lone wolf when it comes to pressing.

As for starting for City, Liverpool or Arsenal - probably not. Certainly wouldn't start over a fit De Bruyne or Bernardo Silva. Nor would he start over Odegaard. Bruno's best bet would be playing ahead of Szoboszlai, who looks very underwhelming himself. However, it clearly isn't a problem for Liverpool who have a system that has worked consistently for years. Therefore no need to muddy that with the wild cannon that is Bruno Fernandes.

I feel that we have other players who have just as big a shout to start matches (at least on a rotational basis) for one or more of those top three teams. Namely, Onana, De Ligt, Mazraoui and Mainoo.
Click to expand...
You have just mentioned the current best AM in the prem in Odegaard. De Bruyne probably up there with best midfielder the prem has seen. Odegaard's place is cemented in the starting eleven so agree he wouldn't replace him. However I'm sure h'ed be in the Arsenal team team now Odegaard is injured. Even with Odegaard fit Bruno would certainly be knocking on the door. Regarding City, Pep rotates the team a lot with Rodri a must starter. Bruno could play alongside Rodri. Not even De Bruyne is a certain starter nowadays and would be competing with Bruno for a place. So he'd be in with a shout at City imo. Re Liverpool he'd start before MacAllister for me. My point is we're talking world class players who we are comparing him with. Says a lot!
 
simplyared said:
You have just mentioned the current best AM in the prem in Odegaard. De Bruyne probably up there with best midfielder the prem has seen. Odegaard's place is cemented in the starting eleven so agree he wouldn't replace him. However I'm sure h'ed be in the Arsenal team team now Odegaard is injured. Even with Odegaard fit Bruno would certainly be knocking on the door. Regarding City, Pep rotates the team a lot with Rodri a must starter. Bruno could play alongside Rodri. Not even De Bruyne is a certain starter nowadays and would be competing with Bruno for a place. So he'd be in with a shout at City imo. Re Liverpool he'd start before MacAllister for me. My point is we're talking world class players who we are comparing him with. Says a lot!
Click to expand...
He would compete with a deep lying playmaker who specialises in ball retention? What you're doing here is simply taking out any player for another who you think is better individually without any regard to the team's playstyle, tactics, roles or balance. He would not play in a double pivot for Liverpool or City, and neither does Ødegaard or de Bruyne.
 
Grand Vizier said:
He would compete with a deep lying playmaker who specialises in ball retention? What you're doing here is simply taking out any player for another who you think is better individually without any regard to the team's playstyle, tactics, roles or balance. He would not play in a double pivot for Liverpool or City, and neither does Ødegaard or de Bruyne.
Click to expand...
Agreed, Bruno simply cannot play that role, he's not a Pep player anyway, he likes more technical midfielders.
 
You lot are way too hard on him.

The only player who is willing to play every single game. Super reliable. And our best player.

I feel better when he’s on the pitch.

I have no doubt he will flourish under Ruben.
 
simplyared said:
You have just mentioned the current best AM in the prem in Odegaard. De Bruyne probably up there with best midfielder the prem has seen. Odegaard's place is cemented in the starting eleven so agree he wouldn't replace him. However I'm sure h'ed be in the Arsenal team team now Odegaard is injured. Even with Odegaard fit Bruno would certainly be knocking on the door. Regarding City, Pep rotates the team a lot with Rodri a must starter. Bruno could play alongside Rodri. Not even De Bruyne is a certain starter nowadays and would be competing with Bruno for a place. So he'd be in with a shout at City imo. Re Liverpool he'd start before MacAllister for me. My point is we're talking world class players who we are comparing him with. Says a lot!
Click to expand...
Yes, I mentioned those players because they would be his competitors for the respected teams you named. That's the bar. So what you're arguing is that Bruno would be a bench player at Arsenal, coming in for Odegaard in a Trossard-like capacity.

I don't agree that Bruno would start over De Bruyne, Gundogan, Kovacic, Foden etc. He simply doesn't value possession or has any understanding of what constitutes a cohesive unit. The very essence of Pep's City.

Not a chance that Bruno starts over Mac Allister. The latter is a genuine midfielder. He can attack and defend. One of the best midfielders in the league in my view.

Again on your final point, yes we are comparing him with players who play for our rivals and unfortunately he doesn't measure up.
 
Chairman Steve said:
  • Historically good player for us in terms of goals and assists
  • Definitely wouldn’t accuse of him of half assing his efforts (always fit and available too which is a huge plus)
  • Prone to getting frustrated easily, which isn’t a good characteristic if you’re captain.
  • Very good in a counterattack setup but not so much in a patient, possession based build-up team.
  • Now 30 and not likely to change his style of play at this stage.
  • Visible decline in the past year or two (his risky throughballs are going back to the opposition more than they used too)
I wouldn’t say sell him now but his new deal takes him to 2027, and I think that should be his last contract with us. Possibly offload him in 18 months time if the decline continues.
Click to expand...
Reasonable. Thank you
 
Undeniably our most productive signing in the post-SAF era in terms of the numbers he's delivered (I believe double figures for goals and assists in every season he's been here, even the terrible ones). I respect him for being more consistent than some of our other longer term players (Lindelof, Rahsford, Shaw).
 
Hammondo said:
Then check 4 years and 3 years and watch him fall down the table. The reason he's joint 3rd (with 2 others) over a 5 year period is because of the lack of players who have played 5 years due to not being in the league or being young.
Click to expand...

Grand Vizier said:
Yeah, over 14700 minutes, so not outstanding. They're good, but a defensive midfielder and a right back have quite close or better per 90 minutes.
Click to expand...

That's partly a function of the lack of quality of the players he plays alongside. Switch to expected assists over the last 2, 3, 4 or 5 years and he's second in all of them, on a per game basis.

https://www.statmuse.com/fc/ask/whi...expected-assists-per-game-in-the-last-2-years
 
Along with Pogba and Rashord (when the later two can be arsed), they’re making watching United is a bit more exciting in all those years.

Workrate, creative, skilful, professional, take care of himself, consistent. A few of current players that embodies SAF type of players.
 
Last edited:
I expect he’ll take on one of the attacking midfielder roles under Amorim, which would position him higher up the pitch and closer to the striker. This should allow him to have a far greater impact in the final third, as we’ve seen in the past couple of games under Ruud. Let’s hope he can maintain this kind of form moving forward.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.