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2022-23 Performances


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AltiUn

likes playing with swords after fantasies
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Someday soon Bruno won't be in the starting XI. Lets see if it goes any better than any of the other times he's been dropped since he signed.

Feels like people are crying out for a scapegoat for why we didn't win. Bruno's become the chosen one. Lets drop him for Spurs and Chelsea then and see if we suddenly start playing wonderful football. Will be very interesting to see how we defend other teams playing out without Bruno's off the ball running to make the spare man when our wingers stay high and wide.
People are really conflating scapegoat with valid criticism for a string of poor performances.
 

Chaky_Best

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Think he was good yesterday. He ran a lot, covered a lot of space, and especially covered Fred way too much.

I would be interested to see the average positioning to see where he was vs Fred.

Agree, Bruno needs to be more productive, he needs to create more clear chance for him and other, but I think that in Ten Hag system he s not anymore a second striker, more a third midfielder. He provides good balance to the team by covering a lot the midfield.

Still too early to write him off, considering that if Eriksen plays 10, Fred would have to play, and I don t want it
 

JoaquinJoaquin

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I can't help but always think back to the post I seen on here that said Bruno is the type of player that should be playing for Galatasaray. Still the perfect description for him.
 

Gordon Godot

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People are really conflating scapegoat with valid criticism for a string of poor performances.
He really is poor these days. Rarely looks like scoring, assits well down, makes poor choices on the ball and often gives it away.
 

Cloud7

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Someday soon Bruno won't be in the starting XI. Lets see if it goes any better than any of the other times he's been dropped since he signed.

Feels like people are crying out for a scapegoat for why we didn't win. Bruno's become the chosen one. Lets drop him for Spurs and Chelsea then and see if we suddenly start playing wonderful football. Will be very interesting to see how we defend other teams playing out without Bruno's off the ball running to make the spare man when our wingers stay high and wide.
It's not scapegoating. The team has, by and large, has gotten better while Bruno has gotten worse. The CB pairing has looked good. Shaw looks better. Dalot looks better. McT looks better. Casemiro is getting up to speed. Rashford looks better. Martial looks better. Antony looks a good signing. Eriksen has been really good in that deeper role. Bruno has been putting in poor performance after poor performance during a period where the rest of the team is slowly heading in the right direction. Valid criticism of this is not scapegoating, especially since his form has been poor for quite some time now, and the justification was always that he would be good under a better manager. Well, we have a better manager who is improving the players around him and Bruno is still putting in poor performances.
 

romufc

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It's not scapegoating. The team has, by and large, has gotten better while Bruno has gotten worse. The CB pairing has looked good. Shaw looks better. Dalot looks better. McT looks better. Casemiro is getting up to speed. Rashford looks better. Martial looks better. Antony looks a good signing. Eriksen has been really good in that deeper role. Bruno has been putting in poor performance after poor performance during a period where the rest of the team is slowly heading in the right direction. Valid criticism of this is not scapegoating, especially since his form has been poor for quite some time now, and the justification was always that he would be good under a better manager. Well, we have a better manager who is improving the players around him and Bruno is still putting in poor performances.
So, if the team is getting better and you have named quite a few players, why aren't we scoring goals and winning games? Is it cause of 1 player playing badly?

Also, the bolded part is incorrect. If you go have a look, many actually said that Bruno with a good coach / manager will be out of the team replaced by Donny, instead he has been given the captaincy.

I really would like to see us play without Bruno and see what the differences are.
 

ayushreddevil9

Foootball hinders the adrenaline of transfers.
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How is he a scapegoat? Ruins the shape of attack, barely a presence in the midfield and the quality of end product is below average these days.

Fair to get all the criticism because he deserves it based on his performances lately.
 

Prodigy24

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Big fan of Bruno but have to admit that's he's been quite poor for a while now. I think that everything started to go bad when Ronaldo signed. He's looked like a different player ever since for some reason.
 

RaulitoElCrack

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Not a fan. He is playing in a position where you have to have a good understanding of 'building' attacking situations and taking advantage of space, but he does not have the foresight to see further than 1 pass!!

Always tries an overly ambitious hollywood pass, which when it comes off looks good but rarely does, and lately with Ronaldo is not even worth trying. This means there is no consistency to our attacking setup....simply hit and hope at many times.

He has his place in the squad as will be good when we setup to counter but requires upgrading in the first 11.
 

reddevilz007

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If we decide to sell him, which big clubs would buy him? None. That says enough about his quality.

Only our fans put him on a pedestal. They use all these stats in a biased way to put him in the same bracket as De Bruyne.
 

El Jefe

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I can't help but always think back to the post I seen on here that said Bruno is the type of player that should be playing for Galatasaray. Still the perfect description for him.
I'll take the credit for that. Of course he could play at a higher level than that but Bruno at heart is a player that needs to be central to a team and built around his strengths.

In years gone by there have been loads of examples like Alex at Fenerbache, Taison at Shakthar, Danny at Zenit. This is the group Bruno belongs with.

Top teams do not have these types of players. His role at Sporting and with us when he first joined suits him best but no team is reliant on one player like that anymore unless its a top 3 player in the world.
 

Murder on Zidane's Floor

You'd better not kill Giroud
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Play him as a false 9, he has to be the player closest to the goal now we have Eriksen. Playing him deeper is suicide, just like Pogba, loses the ball/turns over the ball far too much.
 

horsechoker

The Caf's Roy Keane.
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If we decide to sell him, which big clubs would buy him? None. That says enough about his quality.

Only our fans put him on a pedestal. They use all these stats in a biased way to put him in the same bracket as De Bruyne.
Big clubs wanted to buy Núñez so I'm sure he'd be alright.

I agree with you though, I manage a sunday league team and I wouldn't have him on a free.
 

Valencia Shin Crosses

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"Martial...He's isolated Skrtel here..."
Play him as a false 9, he has to be the player closest to the goal now we have Eriksen. Playing him deeper is suicide, just like Pogba, loses the ball/turns over the ball far too much.
Except he's god awful as a dribbler. Like genuinely worse than McTominay when carrying the ball. So he'd get swallowed up in those tight spaces you have to play in as a false 9.
 

Valencia Shin Crosses

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"Martial...He's isolated Skrtel here..."
I'll take the credit for that. Of course he could play at a higher level than that but Bruno at heart is a player that needs to be central to a team and built around his strengths.

In years gone by there have been loads of examples like Alex at Fenerbache, Taison at Shakthar, Danny at Zenit. This is the group Bruno belongs with.

Top teams do not have these types of players. His role at Sporting and with us when he first joined suits him best but no team is reliant on one player like that anymore unless its a top 3 player in the world.
You could even equate it to the PL and say he'd be brilliant at West Ham or a similar club. It's why he was so good for us when he first came (along with finding a huge purple patch in productivity). He came to United and was given free reign by Ole to basically do whatever was needed to help save the attack, in a team with very little structure. It fit his style to a T. Now that the production numbers have dropped off and he's asked to play in more of a "system" that isn't based on as much freelancing, it's exposing his drawbacks as a player. I think Bruno would be brilliant at a top club as a reserve/bench player that you could sub on to often act as a spark plug, but he's never a full fledged starter, much less a star player like his reputation suggests.
 

Borys

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I can't imagine player less suited to any "system" that ETH wants to implement. The whole team is being set up in a way that we can play Bruno in no10 position.
Is it worth it? I would say not, but I am not sure there are better alternatives with Ronaldo being our only striker option. At least Bruno does the running for two (not that him pressing alone is particularly effective).

As a person who said before the season that Bruno will struggle the most under Ten Hag (because he's a "chaos" type of player), I am amazed he was given the capitancy and is the focal point.
 

romufc

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I can't imagine player less suited to any "system" that ETH wants to implement. The whole team is being set up in a way that we can play Bruno in no10 position.
Is it worth it? I would say not, but I am not sure there are better alternatives with Ronaldo being our only striker option. At least Bruno does the running for two (not that him pressing alone is particularly effective).

As a person who said before the season that Bruno will struggle the most under Ten Hag (because he's a "chaos" type of player), I am amazed he was given the capitancy and is the focal point.
Its interesting how many managers we have on here.

ETH dropped Mcfred, AWB, Maguire, Lindelof, Shaw because of a combination of form and cannot play in his system, am I right?

AWB hasn't had a shot because he cannot play in a Ten Hag system, so I guess you can think of another player that cant play in his system.

He also got away with the McFred pivot.

Ten Hag starting Bruno in most games means he must see something in him.
 

ZainCRse7en

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Bruno has always been an end product cum final phase player. He is not a playmaker or orchestrator like an odegaard. Problem to this is, when that end product goes missing (which has been for months), he pretty much is useless and offers practically nothing.
 

Bondi77

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ETH has spoken in glowing terms about Bruno and his influence on the team so the manager is very happy with how he has been performing.
 

evil_geko

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Erik on Bruno:

“I think Bruno is playing really good this season, so I can see in that fact, he can produce more, goals, assists,” Erik said.

“But I think he’s often in the line of the goal and he’s playing a massive role in a lot of moments of football for us.

“In building up attacks, creativity, movement, but also in transitions, in both sides, in the defensive transitions he’s magnificent and doing a really good job so I’m really happy with his performances.”
Bruno has also, of course, led the Reds as captain when Harry Maguire has not been involved.

The midfielder’s leadership qualities is another area that Ten Hag has been pleased with in Fernandes’s game.

“That’s also one of the things [he’s impressed me with], I think he’s really an example," Erik added.

“The way he transfers the way of play from us, how he motivates around him, how he is the example, so the energy he gives to the team, that’s really good and so I’m happy with his performance.

“I know it will come, his goals and assists, and it will be even more."
Imagine that Caf, Erik likes Bruno, I guess he sees things you don't. ;)
 

EtH

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Erik on Bruno:



Imagine that Caf, Erik likes Bruno, I guess he sees things you don't. ;)
Manager praising a player he knows he has to rely on is par for the course. We can do much better and I’m certain ten Hag will hope to do so going forward.
 

romufc

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Manager praising a player he knows he has to rely on is par for the course. We can do much better and I’m certain ten Hag will hope to do so going forward.
I don't see such praise for Fred, Ronaldo, Shaw, Maguire?
 

Jeppers7

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Great example of what I’m talking about in this post.
:lol: It’s a great example of the type of terrible decisions and passes that Bruno has made for what will be two years in January. One good game in five months and the sort of example you would have castigated others for.
 

Jeppers7

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Its interesting how many managers we have on here.

ETH dropped Mcfred, AWB, Maguire, Lindelof, Shaw because of a combination of form and cannot play in his system, am I right?

AWB hasn't had a shot because he cannot play in a Ten Hag system, so I guess you can think of another player that cant play in his system.

He also got away with the McFred pivot.

Ten Hag starting Bruno in most games means he must see something in him.
Sorry...do you think he’s playing well?
 

romufc

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We have other options in those positions.
Oh yeah, Rashford is a CF right?

We have no options? I have seen Eriksen play in a 10 and I have seen Donny play in a 10. But ofcourse it suits your narrative.

Sorry...do you think he’s playing well?
No, I dont think any of our forwards are playing well.
 

Borys

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Its interesting how many managers we have on here.

ETH dropped Mcfred, AWB, Maguire, Lindelof, Shaw because of a combination of form and cannot play in his system, am I right?

AWB hasn't had a shot because he cannot play in a Ten Hag system, so I guess you can think of another player that cant play in his system.

He also got away with the McFred pivot.

Ten Hag starting Bruno in most games means he must see something in him.
One thing is dropping players (finally we can afford to do so), another thing is to make Bruno a focal point, this is what surprised me. I'm not playing manager saying do this do that, don't know what you're getting at.

Obviously, he "must see something in him", I suspect this goes down to Ronaldo issue (as explained before). I'm fully behind ETH, just a bit surprised he went down this path.

We could field a team without Bruno, doesn't seem like an option for ETH at the moment though. I feel like this team is still too much of Ole team, improving, but I am a bit worried about building a 4231 shaped team around Bruno.
 

EtH

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Oh yeah, Rashford is a CF right?

We have no options? I have seen Eriksen play in a 10 and I have seen Donny play in a 10. But ofcourse it suits your narrative.
Martial is light years ahead of Ronaldo at CF and yes even Rashford is far superior at this point.

Eriksen could certainly play as a 10 if we had anyone capable of kicking a ball in the 8 position. But alas we do not. And Donny is a part of no one’s narrative.
 

romufc

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Martial is light years ahead of Ronaldo at CF and yes even Rashford is far superior at this point.

Eriksen could certainly play as a 10 if we had anyone capable of kicking a ball in the 8 position. But alas we do not. And Donny is a part of no one’s narrative.

Except he isn’t suited to ETH’s football at all. Even at his best Rashford has always been really poor when we are on the front foot attacking teams who are defending deep.
Ofcourse Rashford is superior but according to you, he doesn't suit ETH's system, yet he is superior is he?

Donny cant kick a football? So when Eriksen doesn't play, do we play with 10 men? No the manager plays someone else. If Bruno is so bad like you say he is, surely someone in the squad has to be good enough to be better
 

Borys

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Martial is light years ahead of Ronaldo at CF and yes even Rashford is far superior at this point.

Eriksen could certainly play as a 10 if we had anyone capable of kicking a ball in the 8 position. But alas we do not. And Donny is a part of no one’s narrative.
I don't think we would play with no10 without Bruno on the pitch. It would be far more natural for our squad to play 3 in midfield with Casemiro playing the pivot role, and two 8's. But that means no Bruno in the team, what apparently isn't an option now for whatever (somehow understandable) reasons, for example Bruno energy to make up for Ronaldo lack of it. It's difficult to play 433 without Martial fit I think.
 

Rozay

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I see we have gotten to the famous ‘he is obviously fine because the manager chooses to play him’ level of debate now. When that is the sum of the counter argument you know we’re in the end stages of any debate. Maguire himself had to forward such nonsense in his own self-defence in the latter stages as that was all he had left.
 

Mainoldo

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I see we have gotten to the famous ‘he is obviously fine because the manager chooses to play him’ level of debate now. When that is the sum of the counter argument you know we’re in the end stages of any debate. Maguire himself had to forward such nonsense in his own self-defence in the latter stages as that was all he had left.
Yep the delusion in the fanbase is over. We can pretty much agree he’s a player that needs replacing.

Which is good… for too long this guy had a reputation his footballing ability didn’t deserve. Manly because people wanted him to be the answer to Paul Pogba.
 
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