Bruuunoooo Bruuuuuno Bruuuuno
Will he be epic this season?
Will he be epic this season?
8
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 46
- Goals
- 10
- Assists
- 13
- Yellow cards
- 10
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik @Rood and Imran @Annihilate Now! start with the good news by celebrating Manchester United Women's emphatic FA Cup win over Spurs at Wembley and the future of manager Marc Skinner.
Then it's the bad news and the ever worsening form of our Men with losses to Arsenal and Palace.
Finally the main debate - ETH Out now or keep him until the end of the season - if not longer. Are you Team Nik or Team Imran?
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I saw that! Loved how Rio (and all of them tbh) clearly just think he's the coolest guy.
To some extent I agree with you but I think you are overstating the problem. If United want to win the title then the games against the 70 per cent of teams are what really matter.
United's dropped points last season were, on the whole, the result of catastrophic individual errors rather than systemic failings. I appreciate that Bruno playing as a #10 can exacerbate the issue, because it calls upon certain players to demonstrate capabilities potentially beyond them. However, we cannot, for example say that Bruno's positioning caused us to drop points at West Brom or lose at home to Sheffield United.
In a league campaign its the 70 per cent of games you've referred to that really count. If you beat everyone you should, something United have consistently failed at since Sir Alex retired, then the other games are less important. As you point out, in those bigger games United are fairly adept at ceding possession and using transitions to win.
United have to get towards the end of the season having put away the teams they should put away, and they're far less likely to do that if Bruno is playing in a withdrawn position. Ultimately, quite a lot of the stupid points we dropped last season could and would be remedied if we just learned how to deal with aerial balls into the box.
Well, I think you are probably wasting too much time replying them in a logical way.
But, most of them will keep telling you that Bruno should stop doing whatever he does best to see if it will fix the problems of other players.
Do we have the best footballer in the world?
Definitely. We might even have a few of them.
What a fecking player
I think somebody said it already.
Forget the goals for a moment.
That moment where he cross-field volleys it almost behind himself straight at the feet of Wan-Bissaka...
My word. This man is brilliant.
Forget the goals for a moment.
That moment where he cross-field volleys it almost behind himself straight at the feet of Wan-Bissaka...
My word. This man is brilliant.
I don't disagree about it being important for us to win those 'winnable'/70% of games; it's why I said, we more than have the quality for it and I'm happy with Bruno's productivity (who isn't?!). With the squad depth we have, there's really no excuse for us to not be able to put together a really strong run this year. My reservation is that there is bit of a 'systematic' failing and I hate to be an Ole basher but in tight games where we haven't got the superior and fresh squad, he hasn't quite shown we're able to win those other 30% of games when he can't bring on big guns or let the player's individual quality overwhelm the opposition. Of course I'm not expecting 100% wins.
This is not neccessarily about Bruno really but I don't think it's as simple as saying 'let Bruno play closer to the goal and everything else should work itself out because of his phenomenal output' i.e in terms of tactics, his team mates stepping up etc. I'd say the same about playing Pogba further forward/in a two or Greenwood as a central striker. We need to find the right balance putting everyone in a position to succeed and bring out their best qualities. Perhaps I'm getting ahead of myself and having reservations about those 30% of games but when I look at Bruno being burnt out last year, of course I look at how overly reliant we were on him and how we had bad injuries but I also think he may have benefitted from playing a more conservative midfield role to unleash your Rashfords and Greenwoods more, who were doing a lot of play making and hold up play, which effectively took them further away from goal. In turn that may have helped McFred control the game more, use less energy, become more sustainable with less up and down box to box attack/defence etc. You get the general idea.
This year will be different hopefully with the quality we've added so maybe those issues won't be so exasperated e.g Varane's aerially ability and pace might mean, we push up more so the likes of Brunos won't have to do lots of lung bursting 30 yard tracking back. Anyways, it's only game week 1 of the season, too early to know.
Ahaha yes the common joke here is that when Santos mentioned the players were all crying after the defeat to Belgium, the reaction was they must be crying knowing he will be there until 2024.
I think Bruno should be made captain of Man Utd. He is very polished when speaking to media. Definitely more vocal than Maguire and more exciting. I think he will bring more to Utd being the captain.
He doesn't need an armband to be a leader, it's good to have multiple leaders in a squad.
He was doing this in Portugal, being on another level.
Switched to England. Doing it on another level.
Just watched the highlights, have not seen the full match. Reaction was just "What on earth is going on"
Never leave manchester, Bruno, please.
Switched to England. Doing it on another level.
Just watched the highlights, have not seen the full match. Reaction was just "What on earth is going on"
Never leave manchester, Bruno, please.
He’s the goat. I don’t care what anyone says.
I think you are looking at the wrong place. The reason those tight games occur is because the middle is congested and we need support from the flanks. You are right I'm the sense that I does become a 424, but if our wingers didn't just sit high but looked to create and come deeper, Bruno wouldn't be as isolated as he is in big games at times. The problem isn't Ole's system, it's the fact that we previously had some missing pieces. Rashford struggled last season to influence from deeper, especially at the end, due to not wanting to have to drive and risk further aggrevating his shoulder. Pogba is now an option and most importantly Sancho is a playmaker rather than a wide forward. The width he creates, the new avenue of a right sided build up and his willingness to drop deep would create an environment where Bruno would have more space and not need as isolated and marked out as he has been in tougher games.
Why? I thought we played a pretty fluid but almost flat 4-3-3 today something like
McT----Fred----Pogba
James---Bruno---Greenwood
I think we need to keep him a lot fresher this season. Send him home to Portugal for a week at some point after xmas. He was treading water by the end last season but he’s too stubborn to give up or complain. Keep him fresh and he’s one of the most dangerous and unpredictable players in the world today.
You got a point about this. But the reason Bruno took more risks and his mistakes become visible was because he's the only one with the quality and output to deserve trying it. Last season we got a half fit Rashford and badly misfire Martial. If Bruno didn't try to do what he did, we would be far worse off.
With Sancho coming in and better defense with Varane, hopefully United will win more of these 30% games as we have better qualities on the wings to stretch defense.
One game doesn't make a season. Let's revisit this in a few months.
January 2021 - June 2021. Awful form from him. Downward trajectory.
Today was a welcome return to form, but it must continue.
January 2021 - June 2021. Awful form from him. Downward trajectory.
Today was a welcome return to form, but it must continue.
It's like the previous whole year of 2020 didn't happen. Even in that period you mentioned, there were about 2 months where he was not at his peak, but this guy played nonstop and so a drop in form is normal.
However, stick to your agenda if you feel like.
I missed that. Is there a gif? Thanks
You make it seem like we're the only ones that employ a #10 .. plenty of teams do and have lots of success with it.
Out of possession: He's no slouch, he puts himself about - He closed down the LW a couple of times when Pogba was out of position and got back to mop up counter attacks when one of McT / Fred lost the ball high up.
In possession: We'll have Sancho / Pogba etc. dropping into the middle to provide additional options, so it rarely is a 2v3 against us. Atleast I don't remember any games (against the lesser sides) where being overrun in midfield was why we lost. Bruno himself is adaptable and drops deeper to get the ball if the link up play isn't working. It's not like he keeps trying to run in behind when our midfield is getting swamped.
But yeah we'll see. One test of how far we've come is to come up against a team like Villa / West Ham who have play a good, solid mid block and take them apart.
I think it's a bit short sighted to not recognise the lack of tactical nous Ole has shown when we don't get our way or are up against resilient teams. We shouldn't need all our first team players fit and healthy or a stacked bench to be able to break down sides. Width, the lack of structure, 'patterns of play', not enough build up or the lack of quality of it are all essentially systematic failures. However, you are right in that we need better individuals with quality, which we have now in Sancho/Varane (plus hopefully healthy players throughout the season), so therefore I would conclude that we also need a system, which can make the players greater than the sum of its parts.
Again I'm not 'worried' about 70% of games (our squad is great), I just would like to see more control and show growth in being able to dictate games at will i.e where the business end of games and honours matter. My point about Bruno is not neccessarily about him specifically, it's more that we should think about tactical flexibility as much as a player's individual productivity when ultimately it means about making the team better.
We've got off to a great start, long may it continue.
So this is what a fresh Bruno looks like
He was brilliant but Ole needs to manage him better over the whole season
He was brilliant but Ole needs to manage him better over the whole season
Makes runs better than our forwards. What a player, lovely to watch, and his mindset is outstanding too. I get the call for him to be captain, but he strikes me as someone who is pretty much the voice in the locker room even without the armband.
3 goals and no penalites, feck you craig burley
3 goals and no penalites, feck you craig burley
There are also members of X player FC, pretending to be Manchester United supporters, who feel the need to drag down other player's performances and make a constant comparison between our own players. They also barely watch any actual football, let alone play it, so they are always under impression that top players from other clubs are always faultless.
Our most important player. Him, Maguire and Shaw are irreplaceable in our team. Then you have others like Pogba ,Rashford, Cavani, AWB etc who form the next group of important players. Hopefully Varane and Sancho join that list.
I noticed this one as well, it's just so un-orthodox and so Bruno Fernandes. He plays a risky passing game, but it pays of, every time. Total control over who is where.
After Cavani he is best at off the ball runs at ManUtd. He gets into good positions so many times, most of the times it ends up with nothing, but still he always gets into those positions easily.
Great great start of the season! Great finishing and he looked absolutely alive out there. Love it.. Keep it coming!
Yeah, that's the one. Just smashed it straight into AWB feet. Jaw-dropping moment.
The guy's got insatiable hunger for goal contributions akin to young kids playing in the park. He won’t care if he loses 9 balls as long as the tenth ends up in the back of the net.
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He's one cool mo fo for sure.
Insane statistics. Like, seriously. Even if you consider him a second striker (when he’s clearly a no.10) — he’s literally scoring as much as the best striker and winger in the league. And then creating even more than both.
Has there ever been a no.10 in history as good in front of goal as him? Surely he’s blowing Lampard out of the water at the mo? Anyone else?
His stats are outrageous. When in form I would have him over any other midfielder and that includes De Bruyne. I'm just praying we don't overplay him like we did in the last two seasons, he needs to recharge every now and then.
He isn’t my top 3 favorite players at the club but I’m thinking of still getting his shirt. I feel he will do very special things for us this year and I need his shirt as evidence. His third goal was so good.
Love the guy and I love how he plays, always on the move and always willing to take a chance with a run or a pass. He was a different class yesterday and long may it continue.
Reminds a bit of Rui Costa, he needs to do a few more nutmegs to get his level though.
Reminds a bit of Rui Costa, he needs to do a few more nutmegs to get his level though.
Wait until you compare their defensive stats. People keep saying he’s playing as a support striker but what support striker ever did as much defensive works as Bruno?!
It’s insane seeing him back at the edge of the D harrying attacking players considering how important he is in an attacking sense.
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