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The thing is he did exactly the same thing when we were defending a 1 goal lead against Liverpool and Southampton too and gave the ball away in injury time (in both of those cases he was trying to play Ronaldo in).
Yeah, I think he also had easy option in few games but still tried to pick Ronaldo, it's very frustrating to watch.
We might do ok. But that would be a first. Since he signed for United on the very rare occasion he’s not available we’ve struggled. Every single time. Having Eriksen in the team means it might be different this time. We’ll see. The odds are against it and anyone expecting a big improvement is living in cloud cuckoo land. Wait and see.
Tend to agree with you. I understand the frustration from time to time but people get way too heated with this guy.
Having him not even on the bench is a big blow. In the past, whenever he was rested we looked completely toothless, only to suddenly look twice the threat when he came on as a sub.
Imagine we'll see a lot of "I told you so's" whichever way it goes! Will be happy to be wrong if it means another W for the team.
I think it was only against Real Sociedad he was on bench, EtH didn't like what he was getting from others, he brought on Bruno at half time.
It was the same on the very few times Ole tried to rest him. Badly missed and turned the game round from the bench.
He was terrible in that game after coming on.
Isn't that something totally expected though? We played typical 4231 setup with midfielders sitting deep and Bruno at the center of things 90% of games. We never really worked on any different setup, so I would expect us to struggle on those occasions. I remember we did have a few good games with Pogba on the left, what looked promising but can't remember if Bruno was playing and if yes, than what role (RW?).
Think you are right. He may have some bad spells here and there, and he does the occasional brainfart with his passing (as did Scholes mind you), but he works his socks off both in attack and defense. He is always available for a pass, and he links up so well outside the opposition box. He tends to be involved in most of our goals one way or another, just like he was third last on the goal yesterday. Put Eriksen or VDB in there instead of him and you lose so much tenacity, mobility and aggression. Eriksen may have the same level of passing range, or even better as well as creativity, but he's not the same fighter.
I don’t think so. Which games were these?
That's not the point, its performance without Bruno.
It's not a matter of his quality as an individual, it's more about how the team has to be set up to accommodate him - and if it's worth it. Bruno plays in #10 role what requires Eriksen and Casemiro to play in midfield two, what is far from ideal. Especially in games against dynamic and intense opposition like West Ham, Newcastle etc.
Others are not bent to accommodate Bruno, as per manager Eriksen is more suited in deeper role to progress the game. Even when Fred played, he played ahead of Eriksen in attacking role.
I think he was rested/benched against West Ham away, we looked completely toothless. Bruno came on and completely changed the game. IIRC he created 9-10 chances in one half.
How many games didn't he start since he moved to United?
Eriksen is suited to a midfield where he has less defensive duties and more options to join the attack (while still being part of midfield). In Bruno-centric team this is not happening as often as it should, as he has a lot of defensive duties. If we play a proper midfield 3, Eriksen can still progress the game and support the buildup, because we simply don't play the 4231 system with two midfielders behind Bruno. Obviously playing Casemiro in midfield two is also not ideal. It's still OK, but just OK. I think we can do better.
True, just going by the games he didn't play and how we struggled.
I dont get this Bruno centric team thing. Bruno actually covers alot of ground and helps out alot defensively, from pressing and tracking back.
When Bruno was benched, EtH played Eriksen in midfield and Fred in attacking role. What me, you think is different from how EtH sees Eriksen's best role. Bruno is not the one stopping Eriksen playing as AM, it's EtH.
It's Bruno centric because there he is usually the most advanced player between midfield two and attackers. He gets a lot of freedom to roam, but when we're caught it's on Eriksen and Casemiro to cover central areas, as Bruno is often high up. He works hard but this system I think we sacrifice too much for Bruno, who is a bit hot and cold.
Technical ability isn’t great? Some of his assists are out of this word technically.
Happened in a few games against weaker opposition in cup competitions as well. Same pattern each time.
According to stats, he's fifth in chances created in the PL this season and 6th in expected assists, so he's still contributing in that aspect. Perhaps not as much as in previous seasons where he was top of the league in that respect. I also think that he can definitely play as an 8, so not sure why he has to play as a 10. He's definitely more than mobile enough and contributes both ways. I think replacing Bruno with Fred would be a massive downgrade.
When was the team built around Bruno?
I think we'll definitely miss his workrate. I don't think Eriksen has been better than him at keeping the ball but he loses it in a less annoying way if that makes sense. Personally, I hope we go for 3 in midfield without an obvious number 10, maybe with Donny in his old Ajax role.
Going by videos, Donny was a 10 at Ajax, he was more of a runner to create space than the one who gets the ball and plays passes.
That is true. Eriksen playing AM is still part of the midfield, while Bruno is more a part of attacking formation. That means Eriksen needs to do more defensive work than I think he should if we had more balanced setup. Bruno also rarely drops deeper in the buildup, what sometimes results in game passing him by like yesterday.
When he came here the team was build around him, to a very good effect. Now we have improved massively in terms of quality all around, so there's no need to do that. I feel like we are going a bit too much into that direction, don't you think? He played 95% of all available playing time this season, he's almost never subbed - it's OK if ETH thinks Bruno has to play at all time and at all cost, but I think his performances don't justify that. He could use a rest as well.
This. This is my point, I feel like playing Bruno forces us into an unbalanced setup. And although we are getting the results, we're definitely not creating enough chances and #10 gets (most of) the blame for that.
If we're sticking with Ronaldo up front then Donny is the best choice of #10. Ronaldo's tendency to go wandering from the centre forward position demands someone from midfield runs in behind to make space. Bruno has been trying to do this, mostly looking like a poundshop Thomas Muller. Donny is much better at making these kind of runs. Eriksen will have the same issues that Bruno has playing off Ronaldo and Eriksen lacks Bruno's capability for physicality, which was seen in the second half at Chelsea when he went to #10 (and to some extent yesterday). One of the reasons Ten Hag keeps Bruno on is because of his endurance. He ran out of puff yesterday towards the end. However, for the most part, Bruno just keeps working.
You do realize any #10 is key for the attacking movement of any team right? That's like saying Martinez is key to any good defense we can roll out there. What's ludicrous is how people thinking he gets "hate" as if people are lighting flares outisde his house when in reality we are just criticizing a pretty shit performance against West Ham. There doesn't have to be this grand defense of Bruno (or any other player) bringing up their past achievements from previous teams just because someone says he played poorly in a certain game. People used to do it with Maguire too earlier on when we'd have a solid defensive record but it was clear he wasn't good enough for where our ambitions were as a club.
Oh please if this team had a decent striker he would have doubled digit assist by now. But yeah let's blame Bruno. He is absolutely integral to this team, he had a bad game vs West ham but so did most of our non defenders. It's not like I am his biggest fan by any means but I just find this ridiculous.
