All but 3
8
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 46
- Goals
- 15
- Assists
- 12
- Yellow cards
- 11
-
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?
when I read your reply… my instinctive response was “that does not sound right”
so like a nerd ive just been through bbc results and looked at every line up this season.
And frankly, you’re talking nonsense.
United have played 14 games in all comps… 7 wins, 7 losses.
In those 14 games, Bruno has played as a lone 10 in a 4231 with a double pivot behind him in just 5 games.
3 wins against forest, Sheffield and Copenhagen.
the two losses? Away at Bayern, and away at Arsenal (arguably our best performance of the season that we were a bugs Willy away from winning in the 89th min)
In all of those losses against the mid table dross, he was either on the right wing, at the tip of a diamond, or in a 4141 midfield 3 with Casemiro and mount.
I wonder if there may be some sort of miraculous correlation between these facts?!?!
Based on what?That's not speaking objectively at all
And saying the best academy midfielder prospect we've had since Pogba is "mediocre at best" is just borderline WUMing
There's a rare breed of players who simply don't get injured. They have a natural physical predisposition that make them "immune" to injuries.
Another player that comes to my mind is Mahrez, he's never been injured and also has more or less the same build as Fernandes.
Bruno Fernandes and Rashford are genuinely an iq test in terms of football knowledge. It really exposes those who do not know much about the game and just use statistics to rate footballers ability.
Playing utter shit for most of the game and then scoring/assisting is by no means a good performance. Rashford and Bruno play like utter shit in practically every game, even the ones they score/assist in. This is why we will never accompish anything. We accept mediocrity....players with such low levels of general play who just rely on individual moments to bail out their shit performances. Its why we will never dominate matches the way a team like City and Barca can.
Playing utter shit for most of the game and then scoring/assisting is by no means a good performance. Rashford and Bruno play like utter shit in practically every game, even the ones they score/assist in. This is why we will never accompish anything. We accept mediocrity....players with such low levels of general play who just rely on individual moments to bail out their shit performances. Its why we will never dominate matches the way a team like City and Barca can.
Couldn’t agree more. On their day both players are brilliant but lots of times their stats have masked over some horrendous performances. Neither would start for any top European club in my opinion.
Ole was right to have doubts about him. Good player but gives the ball away too often to ever let us play league winning form/type football
Anyone who’s actually watched him play?
Our much maligned Scouts had doubts about him but as usual when push came to Shove Our Short terminism and Managers will prevailed .
Yes. It’s why we won trophies galore with Keane who’s own personal g/a and the gold standard XG and big chances created stats were nowhere near Bruno’s. He simply played football to an exceptional level week in week out.
The only argument people have in favor of Bruno is the stats. That says a lot about his game. You can be utter trash but still have an assist in a 3-1 defeat.
Take a look at his heatmap this season. He is most definitely playing in his favoured role.
PL it is all but 3
He’s not the top player we want him to be or initially thought him to be. He’s someone with good end product who is a stat for a 4th to 6th placed team which is what we are but don’t want to be.
I told people this from about 10 games in to his time here. He was the man we needed to get us to become a CL level team, but would need to have been one of the first out once we were ready to take the step from a CL team to a PL challenging one. It’s been years of draining arguments ever since based on ‘why are you mentioning Bruno when McTominay is worse?’, ‘even when he doesn’t play well he still comes up with a moment (x100)’, that’s probably the worst he’s ever played for us (x100)’ - but yet the obvious remains elusive to so many. Like, just look at us. That’s all anyone needs to do, it’s actually clear as day.
Can someone put up a chart on the length of all these expensive player contracts we’re stuck with?
.
It's "how have you decided this one player is the crux of our issues when so many others are as bad or worse."
It's not "why are you mentioning Bruno." Discuss him all you like.
It's "how have you decided this one player is the crux of our issues when so many others are as bad or worse."
The call for a dof and unified football vision couldn't be any more direly needed
The answer to that question has probably also been explained hundreds of times to be fair. Whether or not you agree with the explanation, it has certainly been stated why Bruno is considered fundamental to our limitations.
We had a bunch last season saying the same about Ronaldo. Another lot saying the same about Maguire. Maybe a few about De Gea. They've all gone/been dropped and the problems continue.
You'd think you guys would have learned by now one player can't stop an entire team performing.
Indeed. Everyone has their own opinions I guess. Bruno isn’t our only player who needs to go, and he isn’t our worst player. He is, for me though, the most pressing replacement we need to make. I don’t think our other players have as much influence on the way we play, or more importantly - the way we don’t - as Bruno Fernandes. That’s my issue with him. I want him to go even when he is ‘playing well’. The other players are just not good enough, for me.
If we play Antony instead of Bruno against City do you think it makes a difference?
Probably not, they are simply a better team at every level. But you've got to give yourself a chance by playing your best team, surely?
When Bruno plays on the right, he keeps drifting centrally. Because he's a #10, not a RW. Which means that we become more narrow. Which means congestion in the middle, less outlets for passing the ball out of defence, less opportunities for overlaps down the right side of the attack and finally, less cover for our RB on the defensive phase.
Here's the average position position after yesterdays game. Tell me you can't see the problem.
If you're going to play Bruno you might as well play him at #10. Cause what the hell is this nonsense with McTominay at #10? Yes, we know he's got a nose for a goal and a good shot on him, but so does Bruno. And at everything else, Scott is really subpar for a United #10. No passing, vision or work-rate. It should be a last act of desperation throwing him upfront, not our starting game tactic.
Look at the gap between full back and wingers in our team and tell me how are we supposed to play like this? Look at the gaps between Lindelof-Rashford and Dalot-Fernandes and then look at Walker-Foden or Gvardiol-Grealish. How are we supposed to stretch the pitch and find passes, when we have 4 people sitting in the centre circle, a RB that is isolated and a CB playing at LB who can't offer any support.
This is pathetic tactics frankly.
Spot on. I have been using them as a litmus test for over 3 years. Opinions of them show me who's football opinions are worth listening to and who's are not.
I would go the other way with this personally…
saying that Bruno and Rashford are frustrating, imperfect players is completely understandable.
However, my “lack of football iq” test is people who thinks that the best 11 from our current squad (when in the right system and in form) doesn’t include Rashford and Bruno.
Completely agree with you on everything there and those average positions are very telling. Crazy how we're so bad at basic stuff.Probably not, they are simply a better team at every level. But you've got to give yourself a chance by playing your best team, surely?
When Bruno plays on the right, he keeps drifting centrally. Because he's a #10, not a RW. Which means that we become more narrow. Which means congestion in the middle, less outlets for passing the ball out of defence, less opportunities for overlaps down the right side of the attack and finally, less cover for our RB on the defensive phase.
Here's the average position position after yesterdays game. Tell me you can't see the problem.
If you're going to play Bruno you might as well play him at #10. Cause what the hell is this nonsense with McTominay at #10? Yes, we know he's got a nose for a goal and a good shot on him, but so does Bruno. And at everything else, Scott is really subpar for a United #10. No passing, vision or work-rate. It should be a last act of desperation throwing him upfront, not our starting game tactic.
Look at the gap between full back and wingers in our team and tell me how are we supposed to play like this? Look at the gaps between Lindelof-Rashford and Dalot-Fernandes and then look at Walker-Foden or Gvardiol-Grealish. How are we supposed to stretch the pitch and find passes, when we have 4 people sitting in the centre circle, a RB that is isolated and a CB playing at LB who can't offer any support.
This is pathetic tactics frankly.
But the argument by some is that Bruno is forcing the team to play this way. Even when he's technically right mid. So that's why I'm asking if we take Bruno out at weekend and put whoever else at right mid, does our heat map suddenly look like City's?
Yes, it makes a difference. But no, not enough to have impacted the result. There are two different things. It’s not about switching Bruno for another player to win a game of football. It is about building a team capable of winning trophies, and for us to have a chance at that - we need to change how we play football. We also need to improve the quality of our players, but we cannot win big prizes until we improve our organisation and possession. Both of those things are directly contradictory to Bruno, and as a result, the first step to building such a team would be, in my opinion, to remove the contradictory centre piece that only plays the opposite way.
So Antony as a 10 would be a step closer to allowing us to play the right way. So would Adam Lallana. But we would still have a quality issue. If the team was already a top team drilled in playing what I consider to be the right way, then personally - I’d prefer Antony to Bruno, as much as I don’t particularly rate him either. But I can’t see us ever becoming a top team that is drilled in playing the right way with Bruno at the centre of it - so what is the point in changing the other pieces first when attempting to go in a different direction? For me, it should start with him.
I look at this sequence of play, as an example, and ask myself which guy is Bruno in that sequence? Could he theoretically be a player who contributes to such moves with any consistency? Getting it, giving it short, moving into space to receive, playing it short again. No pass longer than 5 yards, in a crowded space.
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I appreciate there are differing views, but for me, I don’t think many people look at this topic from the perspective of the collective enough. They seem to see it as blasphemous that an individual who puts scores and the doors can be questioned. That is the extent of the analysis it appears. In the time, we’ve ranged from terrible at the very worst, to not good enough at the very best. I’m not sure what more people want to see. Is it that we cannot question Bruno because we haven’t seen him with Mbappé, Kane and Rice? If only we swap McTominay and co for then, we’ll be fine, because clearly, Bruno puts up numbers. The issue is, even our ‘not quite good enough’ best has never produced a controlling level of football comparative to the team/s that have been good enough. The teams better than us haven’t had one Ballon’Dor winner in their sides. Their players haven’t cost more than ours. The main difference has been HOW they play as opposed to just who they are.
If we start addressing our issues from a ‘how we play’ perspective, and accepting that as the fundamental flaw to be rectified, then I believe Bruno becomes far less off limits than he is to what I must say is a decreasing section of fans. To me, it is a total and inexplicable blind spot, as our fans have had no problem in identifying productive players as detrimental in recent years. Bruno isn’t Messi or something. He’s not as good at his job as De Gea was at his in his prime, yet many people readily accepted that De Gea was inhibiting HOW we played football and needed to go. People said Lukaku should go because of HOW he played. They said Pogba should go. They say Rashford should go. However, the conversation lacks any nuance or complexity when it concerns Bruno Fernandes for some reason. ‘How can he be at fault when he got an assist?’ is the general sentiment. I genuinely cannot understand it.
And the reality is, we are actually not good enough. Like we can all see that. We are regularly outplayed by inferior players, and have been for years. Perhaps we need a new approach as opposed to simply just signing better individuals than the ones we have? The difference in our play between sides like City and Arsenal is night and day.
Any PL side with Bruno at the centre will not play the football required to finish above City or probably even Arsenal anymore. If the only retort for that is that it would if he had Bellingham, Kane, Rice and Saka alongside him, then people need to have a word with themselves.
Antony is shit at many things. Crossing, dribbling and shooting among them. But 3 things I can generally never fault him for are:
1) keeping the width on the right
2) working hard to protect his right back
3) retaining possession
So yeah, if he played yesterday at RW I feel our map would look a lot more like City’s. We wouldn’t have Bruno and McTominay occupying the same space at #10.
And if we had Reguilon playing from the start, the gap between Rashford and the LB would be smaller. Both because Reguillon’s position would be more advanced than Lindelof’s and because Rashford would play more wide if he knew he could receive the ball down the left channel from the LB. On Sunday, Lindelof never passed the ball down the left channel. Which meant Rashford had to come more centrally to receive the ball from the midfielders instead. Making the space even more narrow.
Would any of that have made a difference in the result? Maybe, maybe not. I feel they would have made a difference in the performance at least, which was abysmal.
That is not tactics, that is familiarization from the players.
This is pathetic tactics frankly.
No way any manager sets a team out like that.
Man Utd 0:3 Newcastle
But I thought Bruno was the problem?
Then we proceed to lose 3-0 against Newcastle's B-side at home without him.
Utter morons.
Then we proceed to lose 3-0 against Newcastle's B-side at home without him.
Utter morons.
In the time Bruno's been at United, basically every time he's dropped out of the team its made us worse. Tonight was another example.
The people who've convinced themselves that this squad will be better without Bruno are on something strong.
The people who've convinced themselves that this squad will be better without Bruno are on something strong.
You don’t go around calling people names because you don’t agree with him.
Context matters and my opinion doesn’t change.
Context matters and my opinion doesn’t change.
And with him.
You have, I’m sure, read over and over and over again by the ‘utter morons’ that the demand isn’t simply for Bruno to be swapped for a different player.
Exactly. At least Bruno actually shows for the ball and doesn't go hiding like most of our other midfielders.
I love how not starting in a 0-3 home loss suddenly means Bruno is faultless for all the other bad results we've had.
He's still fecking shit.
He is A problem not THE problem. Literally nobody is blaming it all in Bruno but he has been undeniably crap, along with alot of other important players.
More composed tonight with his passing.
Does anyone have a list of the positions he started from in every game this season
We'd have lost 0-3 with him. What difference would he have made today? Absolute clown
