Bruno announced as new Manchester United captain

Bruno has to be droppable. As captain he is not droppable sadly
Just like Maguire last season?

Anyhow underrating this guy continues.

He lost his head in one game last season and he's not captain material cause of that.
 
Still our most impactful player, incidentally that sometimes swings the other way.

Needs more mental resilience I feel. He panics when we're a goal down and rushes things. Didn't matter who was playing for us in midfield against Spurs, as he just bypassed the midfield completely trying to spam balls straight into the attackers. Whenever we did attempt to put 5-6 passes together, we opened them up.

Against Spurs, I feel the yellow triggered the meltdown. He'd definitely lost concentration and calmness from that point on - who loses 2-0 and complains about a yellow in the first half after the game?
 
He's one of the key reasons why we cant keep the ball. He's also one of the reasons we create anything during games.

This will always be the paradox.
 
That's fair enough but please do tell me what's so great about Bruno I am all ears .
Just a little joke ;)

As for Bruno, he has transformed this team since the day he arrived. I know his finishing is a bit off of late, and some of his misplaced passes are completely infuriating but that’s the rough you have to accept with the smooth.
He wouldn’t be the same player without those traits and the team would be much poorer without him in it and leading it.
 
Our rubbish away form continues which again raises questions of the character of this bunch..

Roy Keane brought it up last year.
There are not enough leaders on the pitch.
With now no Maguire apart from Bruno who else is there? Others need to step up, fast.

It's nice to see Onana being vocal but how long before he slips into the shadows like the rest of them?
Evans? he can be a leader but I doubt unless there's an injury crisis he'll be more than a bit part fringe player.

Massive test for the team at the Emirates in a few weeks.
 
He's one of the key reasons why we cant keep the ball. He's also one of the reasons we create anything during games.

This will always be the paradox.

Good tactics wins you 80% of the game, great players wins you 10% of the game by his brilliance

If I have to choose I'd choose a stable AM who can function well in a team.

The plus of having a functional team is that you don't rely on 1 player to have a great day.
 
good luck finding players in Europe who are as creative as Bruno, and can keep the ball. There are not many.
Maybe ones which don’t create as much based on individual stats but may keep the ball more for others to create more overall.
 
Maybe ones which don’t create as much based on individual stats but may keep the ball more for others to create more overall.

Who exactly are these others who create chances and why aren't they in the team?
 
Who exactly are these others who create chances and why aren't they in the team?
Which team? What do you mean? My reply was to someone about replacing Bruno with another player from outside the club.
 
good luck finding players in Europe who are as creative as Bruno, and can keep the ball. There are not many.

Correction: there are none. De Bruyne is literally the only one in the top leagues who comes close. And he only loses possession marginally less!

It may not be that hard to find attacking midfielders with higher pass accuracy than Bruno, but whoever you pick will create fewer chances as an individual.
 
Correction: there are none. De Bruyne is literally the only one in the top leagues who comes close. And he only loses possession marginally less!

It may not be that hard to find attacking midfielders with higher pass accuracy than Bruno, but whoever you pick will create fewer chances as an individual.

Yes and that tradeoff becomes less appealing, when you have players around him like Rashford, Hojlund, Casemiro, Mount, AWB and Antony who are not really creative themselves.
 
Yes and that tradeoff becomes less appealing, when you have players around him like Rashford, Hojlund, Casemiro, Mount, AWB and Antony who are not really creative themselves.

Yeah, it's suicide to be honest. Most of our chances are created by Bruno (I think it was 118 just in the PL last season). I have little faith in the other players you mentioned. They are good in other ways, but not chance creation.
 
He's one of the key reasons why we cant keep the ball. He's also one of the reasons we create anything during games.

This will always be the paradox.
But there are two issues with Bruno that tend to get lumped together.

His creativity hinges on his ability and willingness to attempt low-percentage balls which by their nature won’t succeed all the time but when they do it’s spectacular. Losing possession when they don’t succeed is the price you pay for creativity, and I think most people get that.

But Bruno also has an issue with misplacing very simple and easy 5 yard sideways passes in the middle of the park - which can cause huge problems when you play a high defensive line like we do. I don’t think *those* mistakes are anything to do with Bruno’s creativity - it’s simply due to his carelessness. He can and should eliminate that from his game, and it wouldn’t need to sacrifice any of his creativity.
 
But Bruno also has an issue with misplacing very simple and easy 5 yard sideways passes in the middle of the park

Is this really the case? I feel that most of his missed passes are because he plays a difficult long pass. His pass accuracy is only 3 percentage points lower than De Bruyne's (last season). That's the equivalent of 1.5 passes in a whole game.

I feel that if Bruno was both overly bold with his long passes and also missed the simple 5 yard passes in the middle of the park, then it would be reflected more in his overall passing stats.
 
Is this really the case? I feel that most of his missed passes are because he plays a difficult long pass. His pass accuracy is only 3 percentage points lower than De Bruyne's (last season). That's the equivalent of 1.5 passes in a whole game.

I feel that if Bruno was both overly bold with his long passes and also missed the simple 5 yard passes in the middle of the park, then it would be reflected more in his overall passing stats.
That’s where passing stats are misleading, imo. The problem with Bruno isn’t necessarily the number of his misplaced passes, but the egregiousness of the misplaced passes - due to the situation on the pitch, the low difficultly level of the attempted pass, the need to retain possession at that moment in the game, etc. Those factors aren’t reflected in the passing stats, but anyone watching a game will spot them easily.
 
But there are two issues with Bruno that tend to get lumped together.

His creativity hinges on his ability and willingness to attempt low-percentage balls which by their nature won’t succeed all the time but when they do it’s spectacular. Losing possession when they don’t succeed is the price you pay for creativity, and I think most people get that.

But Bruno also has an issue with misplacing very simple and easy 5 yard sideways passes in the middle of the park - which can cause huge problems when you play a high defensive line like we do. I don’t think *those* mistakes are anything to do with Bruno’s creativity - it’s simply due to his carelessness. He can and should eliminate that from his game, and it wouldn’t need to sacrifice any of his creativity.

Second paragraph is my problem with him at times.
 
The tradeoff for his erratic passing (and moany attitude) was goals and assits. Just 8 goals last year (10 the year before). If he's not scoring or assisting, he's not very useful to the team because the other area's of his game are not very good.
 
The tradeoff for his erratic passing (and moany attitude) was goals and assits. Just 8 goals last year (10 the year before). If he's not scoring or assisting, he's not very useful to the team because the other area's of his game are not very good.

This overly simplified narrative needs to end. From the PL last season:

De Bruyne:
83.5 key passes, 16 assists

Ødegaard:
73.5 key passes, 7 assists

Bruno:
118 key passes, 8 assists

Until Bruno achieves the power of mind control he won't be able to score from his own passes.
 
This overly simplified narrative needs to end. From the PL last season:

De Bruyne:
83.5 key passes, 16 assists

Ødegaard:
73.5 key passes, 7 assists

Bruno:
118 key passes, 8 assists

Until Bruno achieves the power of mind control he won't be able to score from his own passes.

Ok, you got me. He's sooo much better than de brunye and odegaard.
 
But there are two issues with Bruno that tend to get lumped together.

His creativity hinges on his ability and willingness to attempt low-percentage balls which by their nature won’t succeed all the time but when they do it’s spectacular. Losing possession when they don’t succeed is the price you pay for creativity, and I think most people get that.

But Bruno also has an issue with misplacing very simple and easy 5 yard sideways passes in the middle of the park - which can cause huge problems when you play a high defensive line like we do. I don’t think *those* mistakes are anything to do with Bruno’s creativity - it’s simply due to his carelessness. He can and should eliminate that from his game, and it wouldn’t need to sacrifice any of his creativity.
I agree with this – it is the careless losing of possession that hurts us rather than him trying spectacular passes that don't always come off.
 
Ok, you got me. He's sooo much better than de brunye and odegaard.
People forget last season we had half a season of Weghorst donkeying it up front and Martial was in and out of the side, barely doing anything. 118 key passes that if we had a Haaland on the end of would have been a totally different thing.
 
18 expected assists from Bruno only and just one goal scored... This is beyond atrocious.
 
18 expected assists from Bruno only and just one goal scored... This is beyond atrocious.
Yes, so? Still a pretty impressive stat for anyone for an entire season. Not sure if you noticed that was higher than anyone else for that same time frame, he ranks top.

Got the answer?
 
Taking into account playing time, the difference between these two is ridiculous.

2022/2023 Prem season:

K De Bruyne:…. PL minutes 2,425
Assists 16
Goals 7

B Fernandes… PL minutes 3,318
Assists 8
Goals 8 (2 pens)
 
Taking into account playing time, the difference between these two is ridiculous.

2022/2023 Prem season:

K De Bruyne:…. PL minutes 2,425
Assists 16
Goals 7

B Fernandes… PL minutes 3,318
Assists 8
Goals 8 (2 pens)
One has Haaland finishing chances (8 of his PL assists) and the other has Martial.

City also scored 36 more PL goals.
 
One has Haaland finishing chances (8 of his PL assists) and the other has Martial.

City also scored 36 more PL goals.
Interesting you quote Martial instead of Rashford.

De Bruyne having played approx 10 games less than Bruno.
 
Fernandes is never a leader. I have less confidence in this club than at any point over the last ten years. When players like Fernandes and Rashford are lauded by the fans as something special and star players, you know something is seriously wrong.
 
Interesting you quote Martial instead of Rashford.

De Bruyne having played approx 10 games less than Bruno.
I gave City’s #9 and CF and United’s #9 and CF. I could have also given Weghorst as another option, he played CF a lot more occasions than Rashford.

FYI, I don’t believe Bruno is at the level of De Bruyne, I’m just making the point that one plays in a free scoring team with the best CF in the world, and the other plays in a team that barely averaged more than 1.5goals/games and has Martial and Weghorst as their CF last season.