I think he's a problem for build-up play. I wouldnt like to play behind him in midfield but I would love to play in front of him in attack.
8
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 46
- Goals
- 10
- Assists
- 13
- Yellow cards
- 10
- Status
Bruno plays well we win. Bruno struggles we struggle. Pogba was miles better than him today.
That fits in with the general theme that team has no distinctive pattern of play and relies on the individual brilliance of players. When the players can't provide a moment of magic we become blunt.
Which is the case basically every second game he plays and has been the case ever since he got here.
There are patterns of play but we’d no control of the midfield, even less after Fred went off. That’s where we should have taken the game by the scruff of the neck and picked them off. We struggle to consistentry play with the required intensity to break teams down and using the likes of Matic and Martial walking around the pitch really sets a poor tempo. It’s like “shrugs shoulders” we might figure it out, we might not. Cavani, James, McT, Fred players like that are so important when you want to play Pogba (sometimes) Martial, Rashford, Sancho Greenwood and Matc… you have to get the balance right and Ole failed to do that today.
Still hoping to find consistency of performance. Another poor game after a great opener. Losing the ball cheaply in his own half leading to the goal is really frustrating, how many times do we need to see him feign injury before he realises refs don’t buy it. Get the feck up and chase the ball you lost man.
I'm a fan of Bruno, but that really grinds my gears.
If anything, I reckon it's bringing the opposite reaction from the refs. Not only are they not buying it, but like the boy who cries wolf too often, they think he's faking it every time he goes down. I actually think that he was fouled today. But if every time he loses the ball under contact he's on the floor protesting, he will get decisions like today go against him even when if he's on the right.
Doesn’t help when you have martial playing who has as much movement as a fecking lighthouse. Somebody has to actually move up top
Can only score free kicks in friendly games. When we need one most he is guarenteed to hit the wall
He is a second striker as far as am concerned. Said it in the KDB Vs Bruno thread and some people disagreed. How are going to play a 433 with him? He is no 8 mate. We basically play a 4411 formation as it it.
I dont even know if we actually have a plan where to play him. He is just given a free role which is fine but problem is both him and Greenwood were supposed to be our forwards today and they weren't in the box. It was so easy for Southampton team to defend.
Not at all.
The goal came because he ran across into the striker position to receive and lay it off. And, Pogba was playing in the middle area more than on the left as well. Blaming Bruno for having both Fred and Matic having shite passing game is just amusing.
Our forward line consisted of 2 forwards with one not moving too much, the other sticking on the right side. It is NOT balanced at all. I raised that issue in Pogba's thread already. It is a very weird loop-sided forward line with wrong players for it. We will have big issue with that in a lot of games.
If we play both him and Pogba in advanced positions, the 2 forwards have to play a bit wider so that Bruno comes in the middle with Pogba taking up the middle behind them when we attack, and they can rotate across the field which kind of worked against the Leeds.. That's the best formation we can use right now.
Last edited:
So, this is what Ole said "We wanted to get Anto [Martial] going, make it to have two forwards. Anto drifted to the left and Mason was coming inside from the right. "
The instruction was clear to balance the forward line but that did not happen in the actual game. Martial started doing that from the left but was not every ineffective, and mostly stayed in the middle which made the whole area cluttered and occupying the same area with Bruno and Greenwood while leaving the left side completely open until Ole tried to fix that late in the game. But, who knows why we seemed like we didn't care anymore at that point.
The instruction was clear to balance the forward line but that did not happen in the actual game. Martial started doing that from the left but was not every ineffective, and mostly stayed in the middle which made the whole area cluttered and occupying the same area with Bruno and Greenwood while leaving the left side completely open until Ole tried to fix that late in the game. But, who knows why we seemed like we didn't care anymore at that point.
Bad peformance. Needs to be more involved in the game. The team waa struggling to build attacks in the 2nd, we could have done with him contributing a bit more to that.
When we are dominating, it's fine him playing as an attacker. But when the team visibly can't control the midfield battle, I don't understand why he stays so advanced and not drop in a #8 to help create attacks.
Not sure if that's a instruction or a personal choice though.
Perhaps by pattern of play, people refer to the full package of building from the back, transition, and linking up to attack. So it would include gaining control of the midfield.
Few pieces of patterns of play are nothing new, or special worth mentioning. Carrick played a diagonal ball to Valencia on the right wing, and Rooney rush to the box waiting for Valencia dribbling to the byline and cross. It's also a piece of pattern of play.
Our current situation is similar to Carrick-Valencia- Rooney. Few players having certain qualities, that combines well together. However, there is no a foundation behind in case opposition having a way to break that combination.
he played a significant role in our goal and will be our most important player again this season. wasnt his best game but writing him off as someone whos only good if we are playing well as a team and cant help if we are flat just shows the state of this place after a draw or loss. he was very influential last year when we were a goal down and will be again this year
Ideally we would have a stronger midfield but yeah if its not working, we need him to help link up play. Pogba was dropping in and helping when you lose control like you need a few players dropping deep to make themselves available. He's somewhat of an attacker for us. An absolutely brilliant one, but there's only so many you can have in one game.
When people say he needs to stop masquerading as a striker they don’t mean he can’t get in to the box, or makes those runs. What they mean is he shouldn’t be hanging on the shoulder of a CB or just in that space infront of them whilst we are trying to build play from the back.
He needs to recognise that to move the ball up and get people in better positions including himself he needs to at times get in to midfield and maybe just give an easy option so the two sitters ie Fred or McT mor,ally can move, create another angle, giving another option so he can then move and we advance the whole team.
When he actually does this we see remarkable improvements in the actual play. Especially against teams that won’t allow any space. It’s the same pattern as last year which led to so many games like this but we are always so quick to blame the two holders when he’s they are part of it but they aren’t helped by the 4 infront with often the only option being to put it back or out wide to Bissaka or Shaw.
effectively Yesterday and against Leeds it was more like a 4222 at times. Which let’s face it, it’s like that as he doesn’t trust is to go 433 and is trying to find away to get Bruno and Pogba in to the positions you’d most likely find them in if we went 433. However as you alluded to although different opinion of how it’s supposed to work, If Martial and Greenwood are splitting to become say a RF and a left forward all this does is compact the space making it harder. You need the 3 upfront with one central player and two wide players pulling the defence apart to create space for Bruno and Pogba to make runs from a deeper position in to the the box.
Personally I don’t really have that much of a problem with what Greenwood or Martial served up yesterday could it have been better of course but there was next to no service of any quality to them except for them to run in to the channel in hope of getting the ball out there. Martial certainly didn’t look fit or ready to boot as he seemed quite slow and laberous when he did make the runs.
Anyway to me yesterday smacked so much of the performances we saw last season where we drew and lost games we should have won. I don’t want to single out Bruno and by no way am I saying everything was his fault but in my opinion if we/he adjust how he plays starting from further back then we’ll see better retention, better positioning and more chances created for everyone.
I want him to do well as he’s the captain of my fantasy league team so Bruno scoring and assisting is good for me.
Didnt Bruno play further back sometimes for Sporting? Does anyone think he can play in a double pivot when needed?
That's like removing the tyres from a Ferrari, what's the point?
“Bruno, Bruno, Bruno, came from Sporting like Marcos Rojo”
As if we couldn't possibly love this man any more
We need screenshots of that WhatsApp barrage/fusillade.
I hope pens and fks will remain with Bruno. Or at least shared.
Boavista fan? Interesting
From Wikipedia: Fernandes played most of his youth football with local club Boavista FC
To break it down: this is a young Bruno in 2007-2008 when he was playing for the Boavista youth team while watching Ronnie score THAT goal against Portsmouth. It's a really nice tribute. Almost brings a tear to my eye
I hope Bruno maintains his swagger with Cristiano in the team. He seemed to be playing within himself in the Portugal NT in the Euros.
I think Bruno plays further back for Portugal, I'd imagine he'll play the same position he's already playing with Ronnie up top.
Hope so. If these two click we will score bucket loads this season.
Bruno is a great character btw. Our best signing since RVP.
Yeah I agree, his output will be a lot more limited and he will have to allow Ronny to take over in a lot of his key areas.
Absolutely love Bruno. He’s going to get a ridiculous amount of assists with Ronnie.
Yeah Bruno was a kid at Boavista when Ronaldo won the CL with us.
Such a nice picture, that one.
Such a nice picture, that one.
Sorry Ronny, but take a back seat on the penalties!
I fecking adore this man!
Brilliant tribute and what a dynamite combination they will both produce!
Wolves 0:1 Man Utd
Thought he was totally garbage today.
I get he lives on the edge, but it feels like when he moves past the point and he's full on angry it just is a detriment.
I get he lives on the edge, but it feels like when he moves past the point and he's full on angry it just is a detriment.
- Status