Yeah this! If we had a proper Dm behind them, Fred and Bruno could go up and press with the forwards after Bruno’s passes. I think it would yield a lot of chances.
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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 and Imran hold a long overdue conversation about United's awful league form with 1 win in 7. They discuss a disappointing draw at Bournemouth, a not so disappointing draw against Liverpool and a crushing defeat at Chelsea - Is time nearly over for Erik Ten Hag?
Then in a special second half of the pod, Nik welcomes Natalie ( https://twitter.com/natalie_17) to discuss the fortunes of Manchester United Women as they booked a place in the FA Cup Final after a historic first ever win vs. Chelsea.
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My point is too be balanced. Bruno has been churning out awful performaces even though he somehow ends up on scoresheet or with an assist. We cant just forget the fact he misplaced the ball more than 10 times(a lot more) in one game because he assisted Rashford to start the comeback.
City plays with KdB who is also 10 but they play as a good unit so they can pull it off. They walked the league with kdB and Silva in 4-1-4-1 or 4-3-3 (however it is called).
Bruno can drop deep but that should be on manager. We played 4-2-3-1 since the start of 2019-20 season even before Bruno was signed, so it's on manager to change the system.
Not sure I agree with Mount as a 8. He plays attacking role and more of a link up role.
Also it doesn't depend on individual player, it's on the playing philosophy. Bayern plays with Muller and they dominate every game. When Poch played Alli very close to Kane, they still dominated every game. City plays with so many attacking mids, still they dominate every game.
At one point just posts "I HATE him"
You're not being balanced though, you're giving losing possession more weight than creating chances.
Getting another dm is just a lazy excuse for bad coaching. If the team learns to press effectively, the midfield and defence would look much better because they're less susceptible to getting hit on stupid goals.
Train the team to press and regain possession. Bruno can then easily create a dozen chances each game.
Team not pressing makes bruno losing possession seems like a problem. Solution is not to change his game dramatically.
Team not pressing makes bruno losing possession seems like a problem. Solution is not to change his game dramatically.
Yes but we still need a suitable player behind them. If you’re pressing you can press with Fred and Bruno for sure, they have a good synergy. You can’t let them off the leash and run up the pitch after the ball leaving Pogba McT or Matic behind. It’s suicidal. You also can’t ask Pogba the best player of those 3 to press because he’ll just switch off. If you wan to play a press you need someone better on the ball than McT and more mobile than Matic far more reliable than Pogba. That’s what this team is sorely missing. A solid platform for the attack to do their thing without getting suckered on every second or third move
Given the state of our defence losing possession is more costly than creating chances imo. Everytime teams have the ball against us, I'm holding my breath. Everybody is criticising midfield and attack. But truth is defence can't carry our attack they need their hand held. And somebody uptop just giving it away is putting us under pressure.
I don't even believe a 6 changes much at the minute. I've said it before and I'll say it again we look as open as Liverpool did last season when they lost their CBs teams just cut through them like butter defence couldnt carry midfield.
Only issue is our CBs aren't make shift, in another world if our team had and Varane and Laporte or Van Dijk Dias or whatever CB I don't think, people would complain about tactics as much they would carry the team and allow them to express
The issue is our CBs! Conceded two in 25 minutes.
None of the other top teams CB need their hand held, I watched PSG beat City with Verratti playing 6 with two runners either side. City dominated the ball. I doubt Marqinos and Kimbempe(who I don't rate) relied on physical screening from a 5ft 5 Italian
AM pressing and leaving holes behind. Yeah. Whatever the feck the rest of 8 players behind him doing right especially they were just standing there in the first place?
Only at United, 2 CM is not enough to 'control' the game and 8 players behind him were not enough to do some basic defending. But, the AM, Bruno has to be perfect.
Sorry but the only player in the back 4 who regularly starts that is iffy with their passing is AWB. Even then most of his are fine because he attempts safe passes most of the time.
You've got your back up because it's a slight criticism of Bruno, it's not worth arguing with you.
The post said that he was angry at Bruno for pressing alone.
The question is should he be angry at whatever the feck the whole team or plan is?
It is just a ridiculous excuse to get angry at one of the best players at the club because people are extremely unhappy.
It's not about sideways passing ffs, it's about knowing when to recycle the ball and pass to ball to other well positioned and equally talented players around him to create. Greenwood, Rashford, Pogba, Sancho (soon) all can play killer pass, it doesn't have to be Bruno all the time, rather than playing impossible angled passes. It is absolutely obvious he will have some great assists and passes to his name because ehe's the central part of this team. He should create chances after chances in a Manchester United team full of capable footballers around him being so close to the goal. He needs to learn that it's not just about him.
If you lose balls 9 out of 10 times like it can be often case in his worst games, you will lose a chance to build a sustained pressure and keep the momentum, when this team can't press at all and win the ball back, it tires the team, the time passes, only the other team giving another chance to attack and we concede, it happen so many times before, when Bruno tried out something outrages only their team to win possession and score from something that they created after our impatient build up.
Now of course I know that our approach is direct under Ole and that doesn't mean I prefer Van Gaal boring style of passing around forever, it's about the balance and he lacks it often and if he's at his best he can obviously give this team the needed spark but he definitely had more too shitty careless games for us than the ones where he would dominate through his individual moments.
Its a two fold argument.
Ole should have use better organised, either pressing as a team or not.
If we aren't, we we clearly don't on the pitch, Bruno needs to make sure he doesn't go himself and leave gaps behind him.
Again, ole needs to step in here and drill it into him not to press by himself.
So yes, I can understand why a fan is angry at Bruno pressing in isolation and leaving holes behind him. I can also understand why a fan would entirely blame the set up.
Look. I am not happy either. I bet no one is in general.
But, in a game like last night where the guy created 8 chances, the highest ever since 2003 got blamed for EVERYTHING on earth is a bit ridiculous.
He is not even my so called favorite player at United. I am just amused with those and argued with them for the sake of it. Not that we have a different way of playing or personal to see what would prove to be a better United team at this moment.
I was talking about the style. And, yes, even relying on individual brilliance, we can create tons. So the style is not an issue but the execution part is.
And, as I said, Ole is at not that level, nowhere close. But, still relying on individual brilliance can be a style and a basic plan. Can't really blame on players for having those. What we can is asking more from more players.
I love this guy, he is always trying to create, takes responsibility and gives it 100%, with good success, his goals and assists record is amazing.
We should not play Bruno anywhere close to the midfield, his pass completion is beyond woeful and he has no ability to control the pace of the game, everything is 100 mph. He is capable of making the difference though as we see time and time again, for me he is a 10 or false 9...he would be good at pressing high up the pitch too.
Hes a big issue why we are so poor defensively, well his positioning and his eagerness to win the ball back without support from everyone else.
It's as much if not more oles fault because he virtually plays him as a second striker and he said it was a 4 2 4 yesterday so maybe he's just doing as instructed.
Now bruno has come out in support of coaching staff. Most of the time this is like "calm the fans down until we find a replacement"
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Meaningless. How good the coaching is, is shown on the pitch.
I get you don't like him but you are literally going overboard on blaming everything that is wrong on Bruno.Also, yesterday Bruno did not play as second striker at all. He is AM so he will be in and around the box. But he did not play as second striker. Greenwood tried to but failed.
Exactly he was the only one trying first half. Yes he forced some passes but some of his passes in the first half was peach.
Also his header back to Fred from the Ronaldo cross where Fred shot point blank to force a spectacular save from the keeper
He gave away possession 33 times? We cant keep ignoring that.
The problem with Bruno is that either you get utterly world class sublime play or just plain bad wayward passes, which yesterday, put our back 4 in vulnerable positions in transition. He’s a maverick, you take the good and bad. However, if he just became more disciplined then he could elevate to another level. He should watch footage of Iniesta, Xavi and Scholes just to see how beautifully they ran games with intelligent passing and control. We’d obviously lose something with Bruno by doing that, but he can still be influential in a more disciplined role in a midfield 3. We saw that in the 2nd half against Atalanta when he sat deeper and was still pulling the strings and creating chances. This might be the solution to our midfield problem. An extra man is definitely needed to help provide a much needed link to our attack.
“He has been here for three years and we’ve done good things. It’s true that we haven’t won anything up to now, but the team has shown it has grown a lot. We have a lot to improve on and the coach also knows there has to be some improvement at their end but that is part of football. Every day we are learning something new. But football is the present and it’s the now.”
Says a lot, really.
Says a lot, really.
Our fans just never really appreciate our players, it’s sad really. You look at other threads and the gushing over other teams players will make you think they never make a mistake and that they are also performing 100%.
Why don't we start with vdB instead of Bruno? I'm sure he will make safer passes and not lose ball posession as much...
You can't ask Bruno to be perfect. To keep his great output of attacking chances, assists and goals but be more conservative with his passes.
I remember how before him, our forwards only wanted balls passed to their feet. And most of those times, they would end up passing back or to the sides. Now they'll run to the empty space, because they know Bruno will try to pass those through balls.
Also, the way the teams plays, presses and the other midfielders position themselves, influences Bruno's play. Maybe if we didn't leave that huge gap in the center midfield, we wouldn't feel the need for Bruno to play deeper on the midfield and he wouldn't be more exposed when making more difficult/risky passes. That puts him further away from where he shines. But if the coach can't change tactics, then I guess he should make Bruno play as a CM and not as an AM.
Anyway, if we played better as a team, Bruno wouldn't feel the need to take more risks to make something happen.
Certainly Bruno can improve a few things, like be a little bit more patient sometimes. But there's a lot more and more important things that we have to do better. Even if he started to be a lot more conservative with his passes, we would stil have big problems to solve but without all those goals, assists and goal chances created by him. A lot of things must change, before changing anything on Bruno's play.
You can't ask Bruno to be perfect. To keep his great output of attacking chances, assists and goals but be more conservative with his passes.
I remember how before him, our forwards only wanted balls passed to their feet. And most of those times, they would end up passing back or to the sides. Now they'll run to the empty space, because they know Bruno will try to pass those through balls.
Also, the way the teams plays, presses and the other midfielders position themselves, influences Bruno's play. Maybe if we didn't leave that huge gap in the center midfield, we wouldn't feel the need for Bruno to play deeper on the midfield and he wouldn't be more exposed when making more difficult/risky passes. That puts him further away from where he shines. But if the coach can't change tactics, then I guess he should make Bruno play as a CM and not as an AM.
Anyway, if we played better as a team, Bruno wouldn't feel the need to take more risks to make something happen.
Certainly Bruno can improve a few things, like be a little bit more patient sometimes. But there's a lot more and more important things that we have to do better. Even if he started to be a lot more conservative with his passes, we would stil have big problems to solve but without all those goals, assists and goal chances created by him. A lot of things must change, before changing anything on Bruno's play.
To be honest, for first 35 mins or so Bruno stank up the place (along with others). Towards the end of first half he gathered himself and start playing game he started when he first arrived. Problem is at times we are too much depend on him to create. If Pogba is not around then literally no one except Bruno who can sport the runs by our forwards.
His short passing further up is a lot better and creative than his long ones.
You can understand why he was used up there and the output supports it. I wouldn't get too much into the formation. When we attack, of course we will pump a lot of players up front, all teams do.
Our defense is fragile in everywhere. I really doubt one man who plays further up is a big issue. Ole is not getting it right with the defensive structure this season for whatever reason.
Our defense was not THIS bad last season with Bruno playing the same.
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Defence is based on a team. How can you expect a midfield or defence to be good when it’s constantly outnumbered because the front 4 don‘t fight to get back in to a shape to help their team mates. There is no doubt Shaw and Maguire aren’t playing well now but that doesn’t excuse how poor the front 4 were yesterday or have been and Bruno is a part of that because he often goes places that move us out of shape then either Fred or McT have to split to cover the wing leaving massive gaps through the middle.
Brunos pressing can be a hinderance it’s as simple as that. The team has issues, part of the issue is Bruno’s role. Is that his doing or is he following Oles instructions to the letter. If he is, then Ole needs to go if he’s doing what he wants then he needs sorting out and someone to teach him.
These problems have been here since last season and they just aren’t getting fixed even when they are so obvious so I’d like to say it’s just bad managment and coaching but surely a top tier player should be able to see these faults the self and do something about it.
Defence is based on a team of course. That goes with the team needing to back Bruno up as well.
Point is Bruno plays so far ahead to actually make it an immediately threat for us even if he gets bypassed. Were there any instance of that happened and we conceded from it? Most of our goals conceded this seasons were due to individual mistakes from defenders. Even last night, one set piece goal and the first goal coming out of nowhere with a mix up between our defenders, CB, LB, DM were all over the place for it.
I am not of course sure why he does it alone myself. But, my point of view is that it didn't cause the team to ship out goals in comical ways like that way we did most of the time this season or even last season. So, saying it is a hinder is just finding faults to the extreme. I mean do we do that with Cavani too when he does it which he always does?
P.s Also, fans of a team would want and hype up their players to be top tier players. Amusing to see some United fans trying to play down on this guy on that.
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Anyone can explain how he has 73% pass completion on whoscored and 59% on fbref?
He is not a bad passer... he tries the hollywood balls mostly.. As soon as he sees Rashford running he will attempt it... no thoughts about slowing down tempo or controlling the ball.
But you get it’s all systematic right? Last night for example he’d go press and get bypassed. He’s now nowhere near midfield, Rashfor, Greenwood and Ronaldo aren’t tracking back so now Fred and McT have four coming at them and one moving from behind.
Atlanta pushed it to the wing meaning one of them had to go so now they’ve isolated our midfield making them useless. Now Bruno doesn’t have a need to go and press, that even if it is part of the game plan is Ronaldos job. Bruno just needs to sit in midfield and block off any easy passing lanes.which generally is also a part of pressing but given he’s a midfielder he should be in midfield helping do that job to stop us getting overloaded, isolated and bypassed.
If he doesn’t run off pressing then there isn’t an issue. We still have a good shape and he can affect the game more form that position. So that to me is a hinderance but again who knows what Ole wants these guys to do.
I have my own opinion of what good football is and how it should be played which I’m sure you do to and Ole. But for me you fix Brunos role with simple adjustments and this team would massively improved as I think for as good as his output is he is still somewhat a weakness. In the end he can score all the goals and assist he wants but if the team is losing 4-2 performing poorly then his goals count for nothing.
I’m not saying Bruno is terrible or crap or whatever or the sole reason for why our performance levels are so low. There are plenty of reasons but I feel like he’s the easiest fix to get it moving in the right direction and once that happens we can start working on the other parts which are a harder fix. However I do feel like in my vision of how we should play these other things become easier fixes if the Bruno thing is solved first.
We all want the same thing right? A well performing team and normally a well oiled team performing to the best of its abilities wins things and provides excitement.
As for the team backing up Bruno not sure what that means, pressing with him? Or covering him? I mean I agree on both but I don’t think Ole wants us to be a pressing team otherwise surely we would see better pressing. We are a more direct counteracting team if we are honest.
It's easy to blame him especially when the pundits say it's his fault. But look at good teams and how they play.
We don't pass. Every time one of our players get the ball they take ages to decide what to do with it. In most other teams, especially foreign teams they know what to do with it by the time they receive the ball.
We don't play thru the middle at all. It always goes to the flanks. So other teams concrete on stopping our flanks and they succeed.
Our passing and movements are terrible.
So Bruno is left to try his luck to do something. If he is trying to press upfield then someone else should cover the space he has vacated. This pressing happens every game. So it's not him just doing it to cause problem for the team. He has been asked to do it.
We don't pass. Every time one of our players get the ball they take ages to decide what to do with it. In most other teams, especially foreign teams they know what to do with it by the time they receive the ball.
We don't play thru the middle at all. It always goes to the flanks. So other teams concrete on stopping our flanks and they succeed.
Our passing and movements are terrible.
So Bruno is left to try his luck to do something. If he is trying to press upfield then someone else should cover the space he has vacated. This pressing happens every game. So it's not him just doing it to cause problem for the team. He has been asked to do it.
He's a top player but imagine him in a side that likes to recycle the ball.
Bruno is a risk-taker. An amazing player who we'd be lost without. People having a go need to have a word. Not sure people understand how utterly fecked we'd be without him. Yes he gives the ball away, but he usually creates several clear cut chances for other players every single game.
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