He's poor this season, wonder how his contract is affecting his mind, but he s not be as good as last year.
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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He pulls out wide in big games because he’s not that good in compact spaces. He struggles with his back to goal, he can’t dribble at all and his close control is just ok, he really needs space to hurt the opposition. His form in big games is really predictable for that reason.
Not exactly what you’re looking for from the player the team is supposed to be playing through predominantly.
With Man United players there's always an excuse:
- Rashford is unsettled
- Bruno has issues with his contract
- Maguire is out of confidence
I just want to say one thing. Guys, these players don't even pack their fecking bags, they literally have everything on a plate. If any of them need motivation or extra confidence, they should feck off to Crystal Palace and Everton and battle mediocrity.
Part of why he was good last year was that we played more on the counter and his passes were obviously more decisive.
However, that's the setup where he will excel, as he's really not good in a positional team. It was the same way in Portugal, that team ripped people apart on the counter but, when it came to them big moments, Bruno disappeared.
I'm going to give my honest opinion and say that he's and should not be a Man United starter if we're looking to play positional and possession football. I know it angers people, but that's how I see it.
He has the same issues as Pogba:
- weak positional sense
- a talent to over complicate shit for no reason
- a talent to lose the ball in the worst moments
If Pogba would have the same stinky ass attitude Bruno has, he'd be fecking crucified by fans.
Bruno doesn't love the ball and wants to get rid as soon as he gets it, which means he doesn't choose the right option at a lot of times. Then you have Pogba who loves it so much he holds on longer than he should then gets dispossessed doing his arm and leg thing.
He has successfully regressed to our level. Hardly a surprise. That's what we do to good players. Sancho is next in line.
Shouldn’t have taken him off
Far too sloppy and careless with the ball, you might get away with it against lower level teams but in big games against good opposition it hurts the team badly. Also his moaning is really annoying, get on with the fecking game.
He isnt the talisman we need - too busy moaning.
Shame the rest of our players didn't put pressure on the ref. Bruno's right, he was shocking!
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Of course, how could I forget such world beaters as Bosingwa, Cahill, and Kalou?
Really poor yesterday once again. However, I'd rather have kept him on. I'd have brought on Pogba for Rashford and asked Bruno to go wide. His poor distribution might have still cost us but can't be as bad as Rashford's apathy.
He showed glimpses yesterday. Taking him off made sense, it's not like he was amazing, but it didn't work out. My main issue with him now seems more the fact that he expects to be given a foul and stops playing.
Can't believe it given the numbers he puts up, but if we got a really good offer for him I do wonder...
Exactly why some of us said he should not be starting big games but were laughed at.
if we're losing and desperate for a goal, sure, bring him on as his Hollywood act might work against tired opposition, but you can't start a game against top opposition with such carelessness and disregard of control.
it doesn't matter now as our season is over so play whoever from here on out, but, when it matters again next year, he should not be starting any games against top opposition unless our new manager can get him to DRASTICALLY change his game.
I dont think there is any dispute that he has the tendency to digress from instructions. There were times under Ole when this was brought up that he plays wherever he wants to. Does not drop deep to help out his team mates and lose possession because of extravagant pass . This was laughed at by few poster here who brought heat maps to counter that argument.
He has the ability but i am not sure if he is good in a functional team.
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I’d be happy to see him out the door this summer. His signing and subsequent stats have served to distract and delay from the inevitable restructuring of the team and midfield that we need. We’ve used his numbers to deceive ourselves, but as a team, we are miles away. Let’s go back to basics with a team that can keep the ball and keep an organisation and then work on who gets the numbers from there.
As it stands, we go into every game hoping we will win, but not really knowing how we will win. We just think that by having a number of ‘match winners’ on the field, we’ll somehow win the game. Perhaps because that is the United way. We are so blind to how football has evolved and developed. We need to be so much more deliberate than we are in our approach. ‘Bruno is always likely to produce a goal contribution even when he’s shit’ or ‘this time we’ll play Pogba instead of Fred because he is more offensive’ is such elementary nonsense and has been proven to not be a good enough approach so many times. Sometimes Bruno will get you a goal, sometimes Pogba will play the pass, but once we step back and look across the current footballing landscape as a whole, it is clear as day that it is not a fecking sustainable approach to win anything. Not only will the City and Liverpool’s beat you, but the Southampton’s, Brighton’s and the like will also regularly outplay you and take points off you.
Go to the drawing board and develop something that, 9/10 will better most opponents. Something where you know what you are going to get, give or take, to a man each week. Bruno is a literal antithesis of this and needs to be moved on. I couldn’t give a feck about his personal stats. He should be playing in the chaos of the Bundesliga with end to end games with huge spaces.
As it stands, we go into every game hoping we will win, but not really knowing how we will win. We just think that by having a number of ‘match winners’ on the field, we’ll somehow win the game. Perhaps because that is the United way. We are so blind to how football has evolved and developed. We need to be so much more deliberate than we are in our approach. ‘Bruno is always likely to produce a goal contribution even when he’s shit’ or ‘this time we’ll play Pogba instead of Fred because he is more offensive’ is such elementary nonsense and has been proven to not be a good enough approach so many times. Sometimes Bruno will get you a goal, sometimes Pogba will play the pass, but once we step back and look across the current footballing landscape as a whole, it is clear as day that it is not a fecking sustainable approach to win anything. Not only will the City and Liverpool’s beat you, but the Southampton’s, Brighton’s and the like will also regularly outplay you and take points off you.
Go to the drawing board and develop something that, 9/10 will better most opponents. Something where you know what you are going to get, give or take, to a man each week. Bruno is a literal antithesis of this and needs to be moved on. I couldn’t give a feck about his personal stats. He should be playing in the chaos of the Bundesliga with end to end games with huge spaces.
I remember I first criticised Bruno's decision making on here years ago. I was abused on here, new Cantona and all that.
Now it's the common opinion.
Now it's the common opinion.
Was a strange decision to start him over pogba… the team against spurs looked more balanced and there was so much better link up play, Fernandes often gets caught on the ball as we’ve seen in the last few weeks, costing us goals. This is the problem we use to have with pogba when he played deep but now pogba plays further up, Fernandes is playing deep. Only 1 of pogba and Fernandes should be starting and playing further up field where there most dangerous and can’t cost us by losing the ball. We seriously need a world class DM in the summer… seems like all our managers are to focused on putting all the best players on the pitch rather then looking for the most balanced team.
For me it's his attitude that gets on my nerves, all he does is moan and whinge, he gets so easily frustrated and then it affects his game too much. He can certainly stat pad but I don't think he has an elite mentality
I enjoyed his highs but I don't see where he fits in under a new manager, be that Pochettino or Ten Hag. He's too erratic to help us maintain consistent control on a game, especially big ones.
I’m sure whatever you were called I was called worse. ‘Agenda posting’ for a start. From very early I was on to him.I remember I first criticised Bruno's decision making on here years ago. I was abused on here, new Cantona and all that.
Now it's the common opinion.
Nah, Pogba looks spent to me now. Was always wary about him playing against the intensity of Atletico. No matter what talent he may have, he needs to be able to at least compete to a minimum level to be able to impose it. The Pogba of 3 years ago was so much sharper, trimmer, more agile. He now looks heavyweight boxer and can barely get beyond a jog. His fitness alone meant that he couldn’t start a game like last night’s. Again, if he did, you would be down to just hoping for a moment that we know he can produce, which is no different from Bruno in that sense, and Bruno is more likely to score.
Neither should be in our first XI next season.
A top manager will be able to get a tune out of them. I think pogbas best season was with juve under conte… maybe he’s better in a 3 at back formation where he knows he’ll have less defensive responsibilitie. Bit harsh saying Fernandes shouldn’t be starting next season, his numbers for a midfielder are insane. We’ve all been crying out for a goal scoring midfielder and now we’ve got one. The problem is where we play him and what system we use him in.
Yeah, I was accused of having an 'agenda' against him as well. At the end of the day I just want United on top again as we all do. I just personally feel like we'll never be on top with Bruno as a 10. We'll never be competitive in the big games with him constantly losing possession and tactical anarchy. He decides to press whenever he wants and go wherever he wants. At first I thought it was Ole's instructions but with that article today it looks like it's just him. Compare him to Odegaard for example and it's ridiculous the difference in control Odegaard provides compared to Bruno.
I'd sell him. Replace him with a modern midfielder.
If you look at europes best offensive performers (goals and assists), you will see a common theme. Normally they‘ll have a lower pass completion, a lot more saved/missed shots and unsuccesful dribblings and so on. Bruno is in that match winner category, but there is always a problem, when those players don’t deliver these numbers anymore.
He looks like he knows in a slump and that the team isn‘t able to pull him through that spell. I see a lot of frustration in him and it shows in his antics on the pitch, which isn‘t helping at all. Hopefully the international break will help him to clear his head a little bit. But despite his bad season (by his standards) he is one of our least problems in the summer. It would be great, if he could switch to more of a controlled approach, when things aren‘t going well for him, but he is still one of the players who gives his all, has a winning mentality and the ability to be a key player for us.
People who want to get rid of him are crazy. We can‘t sell the whole team and an in form Bruno is an incredible player. Players will have a bad season and he has built up a lot of credit with his unbelievable output since he joined - at least in my eyes.
He looks like he knows in a slump and that the team isn‘t able to pull him through that spell. I see a lot of frustration in him and it shows in his antics on the pitch, which isn‘t helping at all. Hopefully the international break will help him to clear his head a little bit. But despite his bad season (by his standards) he is one of our least problems in the summer. It would be great, if he could switch to more of a controlled approach, when things aren‘t going well for him, but he is still one of the players who gives his all, has a winning mentality and the ability to be a key player for us.
People who want to get rid of him are crazy. We can‘t sell the whole team and an in form Bruno is an incredible player. Players will have a bad season and he has built up a lot of credit with his unbelievable output since he joined - at least in my eyes.
It's only been begrudgingly accepted this season. It was seen as a capital offence to highlight anything wrong with Bruno's game before Ralf joined. Especially last season when he was terrible for probably half the season, but could cover it up with a penalty or assist.I remember I first criticised Bruno's decision making on here years ago. I was abused on here, new Cantona and all that.
Now it's the common opinion.
The KDB pass completion gang have suddenly disappeared.
They also play in a front 3 and not a middle 3, which brings different expectations and requirements with it.
I disagree. If you compare him to other 10s in the EPL like Odegaard and KDB for example. He has the lowest pass accuracy percentage with 76% compared to KDBs 83% and Odegaards 84%. He also loses possession the most.
You're confusing his goals and assists contribution with those of the attacking third. You can't compare Bruno to Salah for example as Salah is an attacker and not part of a midfield 3, you need to compare Bruno to other attacking mids and not cfs and wingers or inside forwards. Attackers will of course lose possession more as they receive the ball in areas where they are outnumbered by defenders and don't have the luxury of time and space the midfielders get. Despite this, Salah still loses possession less and has a higher pass accuracy.
To play at a certain level you need a certain level of fitness. Pogba doesn’t seem to have that anymore. Juventus and Conte was a long time ago.
And I’m not sure we were ‘crying out for a goalscoring midfielder’. And if we were, then I think we were perhaps still stuck in the past a bit. United have this innate need to have some sort of hero/star player who ‘leads us to titles’.
Bruno scoring 20+ goals is nice, but we are miles away from winning anything, and the teams that are not see 0 need to have a midfielder who scores 20 goals. It isn’t important nor is it an expectation for a midfielder. Of course it is a nice bonus, but it should be just that, not in the place of the more traditional midfield functions.
Apart from perhaps Lampard, I cannot think of any midfielder who has consistently scored more than 20 a year except Bruno. And despite this, he isn’t the best midfielder ever. I’d swap Bruno for a 10 goal a season midfielder in a heartbeat who keeps the ball better, keeps the shape better, is good in tight spaces and can dribble.
Yes I agree with your last bit, I’d swap him for a 10 goal a season midfielder who is better on the ball. At the time when we signed him we did need someone with creativity and a midfielder who will chip in with goals because under ole all our goals were coming from the front 3 and none of them would get 20+goals a season where as the best strikers in the league, even Salah are hitting 20+. Martial, rashford and greenwood at the time weren’t capable of that. Plus when they had off days where would our goals come from? Signing Bruno was a good decision at the time, he pushed the rest of the team on and helped us get top 4. His goals and assists were crucial, we had no other creativity in the team except pogba but he’s unreliable most of the time.
I don’t disagree with that, the team needed a player like Bruno at the time because he simply put scores on the doors, and that helped us to get top 4. It was also because it was clear that Ole had no real plan, or at least not a good enough one, to actually get us to win league titles again. Bruno, at best, could paper over some cracks and help get enough points to get into the top 4 - but I feel for any top coach that had a longer term vision of how a team was going to compete with the other two to win the league and was focused on that vision - Bruno was not the player. As evidenced by most serious teams not being seduced by his stats at Sporting. He’d have stayed there or probably gone to a Spurs or Valencia I suspect had we not bought him. Ole didn’t seem to have a plan beyond trying to win the next 3 points, and for that, you can apply a simple logic of it not mattering how you play, if you find the moments to out the ball in the net you can win. Obviously, elite footy is a lot more deliberate than that now.
That's why Fernandes needs to be a second striker and doesn't work with Ronaldo, they occupy the same spaces. People say "just play deeper" but he can't. It's either him or Ronaldo.
Cahill at his best was far superior player to what Maguire is now to be fair.
If you also compare him to those two and his other no.10's in the league, you will see his biggest flaw, which I believe is his lack of dribbling ability. He's quite stiff
for a number 10. He lacks the agility and balance, and maybe even the accelerative pace. I think that issue, alongside how our main striker is 37 years old, are really making our attack very one-paced.It's an interesting case, he knocks it out the park against his contemporaries for goals, assists, and chances created, but near enough everything else an attacking midfielder does, Fernandes is pretty weak at. Quoting my post from earlier in the thread with some data to back that up:
Think Donny will replace him If ETH takes over. Such a shame because he is our best player but if he can't function in a team, then it's better to move on.
Tielemans- -- Donny
new DM--
Fred, Matic, Bruno , Mjebri can sub in. Not a horrible midfield.
Tielemans- -- Donny
new DM--
Fred, Matic, Bruno , Mjebri can sub in. Not a horrible midfield.
Really like him, feel he was a real bright spot over the last 18 months but no player should be above being sold and I for one, think him being sold would be a good move for the club, generate funds and move towards a team who are better in possession.
I always had this fear that he was too much of a luxury player. Ole faithful loved him and Rashy of course. That was Ole's football -- moments FC. In a balanced side I see no place for him.
I like Bruno a lot and think he's getting a lot of unfair flak. His biggest weakness to me is his mentality. He's extremely emotional and just loses his head. I feel the calmer he is, the better.
Some players channel emotion into good performances, Bruno on the other hand gets worse the more emotional he gets. I don't know why none of the players or even the management on the sidelines didn't grab him by the arm and ask him to wind it in. He got so caught in his own head trying to make points to the ref that his football just disappeared
Some players channel emotion into good performances, Bruno on the other hand gets worse the more emotional he gets. I don't know why none of the players or even the management on the sidelines didn't grab him by the arm and ask him to wind it in. He got so caught in his own head trying to make points to the ref that his football just disappeared
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