But like you said he's not as good there. You're just shoehorning names onto a team sheet then - much like Solskjaer is now, and you end up with a massively lopsided team as players tend to revert to their natural tendencies (which for Bruno is to play off the CF).
Secondly, we still don't have someone good enough to actually play in DM to singlehandedly balance that midfield. You'll need a prime Makelele to balance that midfield.
I dont think asking Bruno to play in a 3 man midfield is "shoehorning" as he has done that for most of his career, only at United has he been asked to play as a false 9, that too is a recent occurrence. Bruno has always been a midfielder. Sure he's not at his best, but its not like asking him to play in a 2 man midfield or something. No DM needs to "singlehandedly" balance a midfield, our DM(Matic or Fred) will have flanking 8s who will help them like McT, VdB or Bruno. When the DM has players like Fred, McT or VdB to help them out, they dont need to be prime Makelee, its not like I'm asking us to shoehorn Pogba and Bruno into a midfield 3.
Why isn't players being on bench good? Sancho and cavani seem to be on the bench more often than not. Its a long season, keeping players fresh instead of trying to put every attacker in the 11 seems a good idea especially given the results we are seeing. Most of our attackers don't track back. There's only so many players a team can carry in defense.
Our mf as it is right now cannot really play without a back 3. Back 3 would actually help cover positional difficulties of our mf, none of whom are particularly good at positional aspect of defending and we might actually be able to use the work rate of likes of bruno and fred without leaving large gaps for opponents to waltz through.
The problem with a 433 is we have no dm and even if we had one he wouldn't really make much of a difference, neither pogba nor bruno are good at defending, add Greenwood and ronaldo who refuse to do any tracking back or pressing, too much will be left to the dm and back 4.
352 on the other hand would make sure either ronaldo or greenwood are starting not both giving the team some legs, the wb's alongside rashdord/cavani, Fred, bruno etc will help us get much better at pressing opponents higher up the field. Something we can't do in a 433 unless likes of ronaldo and Greenwood drastically improve their work rate.
Having Sancho, Rashford, Greenwood, Ronaldo, Cavani and Bruno for 3 position is not healthy or smart. They are all starters in their own rights. Like I said nothing wrong with competition and having a strong bench, but this is overkill. Having Mason and Cavani on the bench is fine, but the other 4 can easily start in most formations which are not 3 atb.
I dont buy the "our midfield cant play without a back 3". No one was saying that before Conte was mentioned. There is no reason why Greenwood is unable to press when a 34 year old Cavani can. What they need is good coaching. I dont see why the below team cannot work :
---------------Matic
-----------Fred--Bruno
Sancho-Cavani-Ronaldo
With Rashford and Greenwood of the bench. Its a balanced team, and its not like I'm cramming all the star players in there.