[stw2022]

He needs to step up in these games. Mostly invisible today.

This is my issue.

He's a champagne Charlie. When things are going well he's in the thick of it; mercurial talent.

When we need a captain to pull us through difficult moments he isn't there.

He's he sort of player you would love to have in a team firing on all cylinders. But we're a team building and transitioning and i sometimes think he's the worst player we could have in that situation. Even moreso when you consider he has the armband too.

 

[KikiDaKats]

What is Mount going to do? That would be the worst case scenario.

Win the CL.

 

[zaafi]

Did Eriksen not have 8 PL assist in 28 games last season?

Yes, and he plays as a deep lying midfielder. Bruno is our attacking midfielder. He has played other positions, of course, but he also has a lot of freedom.

 

[KikiDaKats]

Yes, and he plays as a deep lying midfielder. Bruno is our attacking midfielder. He has played other positions, of course, but he also has a lot of freedom.

Amusing. Yet no one calls Eriksen a creative genius.
If only people will take a deep dive at some of the stats we get overwhelmed with.

 

[UnofficialDevil]

First goal, jogging back watching it develop, not tracking his man, Eriksen trying to fill in and cover 2 men. Goal goes in, first thing Bruno does is shout at Eriksen like he was blaming him

I’d generally sell our whole midfield and rebuild it if possible so it’s hard just to blame our midfield woes on him but he doesn’t help.

And he is the team's captain..

 

[kouroux]

What pisses me off is his stinking attitude, always moaning, diving, berating his teammates. You're the captain, you need to be better than that. Odegaard who is much younger is showing him how to be a real leader

 

[zaafi]

What pisses me off is his stinking attitude, always moaning, diving, berating his teammates. You're the captain, you need to be better than that. Odegaard who is much younger is showing him how to be a real leader

Agree. I've seen posters comparing him to Roy Keane. They couldn't be further from each other in terms of mentality and leadership.

 

[kouroux]

Agree. I've seen posters comparing him to Roy Keane. They couldn't be further from each other in terms of mentality and leadership.

Imagine Keane facing Bruno in a game

 

[Cassidy]

Think he was shite in yet another big game.

 

[Pscholes18]

Fraud captain.

 

[Hackman2210]

He was terrible today - spent a lot of time throwing himself at the floor. Embarrassing really for a captain.

 

[Lay]

Another big game and another shite performance. We’ll never challenge for big honours with this guy as one of the main players

 

[DarkXaero]

He needs to go or at least not be an integral part of the core, for us to be a top club again. You can't win major trophies with him, too flawed of a player and notoriously bad in big matches like these.

 

[Foritfied]

Imagine you and your teammates have been scrapping for 85 minutes. You've only just had a chance chalked off to VAR and you begin to feel a bit hard done by, as if all of your efforts have been for a measly draw. Then, as the minutes die down and the home team gets some momentum, your captain loses the ball and cries out, in desperation really, for a foul that he spends seconds down and out of the play while trying to sell it.

The ref knows its play acting, doesn't even acknowledge it - not once but twice in consecutive attacks. You and your teammates also know, quite clearly, that this is embarrassing from him. More, you deflate even more; your captain can't even believe you'll pull this out without cheating the ref.

What has become of our captains. At least Maguire never downed tools. You have to wonder how much Maguire's confidence issues are down to petulant little know it alls like Bruno berating his every mistake.

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

Unfortunately had a stinker in a big game again.

People complain about Rashford and Bruno being moments players, but Rashford's record in big games is excellent.

Bruno's typically been torrid in big games since his arrival. He's got to pick it up in these games. He's too often a peripheral figure.

 

[UDontMessWith24]

He’s not a midfielder that can play next to another attacking 8 on a consistent basis unfortunately, and not because of effort but he’s just not that type of player. I really hope he’ll be playing in front of Casemiro and Amrabat when the league resumes and he’ll get to play more of a free role higher up the pitch.

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

He’s not a midfielder that can play next to another attacking 8 on a consistent basis unfortunately, and not because of effort but he’s just not that type of player. I really hope he’ll be playing in front of Casemiro and Amrabat when the league resumes and he’ll get to play more of a free role higher up the pitch.

I hope we don't see that.

Rather see ETH stick to his preferred system.

 

[Cassidy]

I hope we don't see that.

Rather see ETH stick to his preferred system.

Whats his preferred system? Eriksen was plenty deep today

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

Whats his preferred system? Eriksen was plenty deep today

2 roaming #8s helping us pin a team back with a lone #6 that receives support from a full-back inverting or a center-back coming infield to support him.

Eriksen didn't play that high up the field today, because he's not physically capable of doing so IMO. And you might as well get him deeper on the ball because of his calmness on the ball.

When Mount returns, he'll play further up the field.

 

[Silas]

Usual big game Bruno.

 

[Fortitude]

The most polemical player performance thread, as usual. Literally the same back and forths season after season.

There'll never be even close to mutual agreement on Bruno with both camps taking it in turn to tell all and sundry what he is/isn't per good/bad game.

Truth is, it can't be settled because both entrenched camps are correct. Which means that the argument presented by whichever side can continue into perpetuity because things cannot and will not change.

Bruno is both states, at the same time.

 

[HookedOnAPhelan]

The most polemical player performance thread, as usual. Literally the same back and forths season after season.

There'll never be even close to mutual agreement on Bruno with both camps taking it in turn to tell all and sundry what he is/isn't per good/bad game.

Truth is, it can't be settled because both entrenched camps are correct. Which means that the argument presented by whichever side can continue into perpetuity because things cannot and will not change.

Bruno is both states, at the same time.

Schrödinger's Bruno

 

[gajender]

United aren't winning anything major with Bruno as focal point and integral part of the team and Bruno becomes redundant if he is just a Support act because his best qualities and production are intrinsically linked with his haphazard and chaotic approach if you take it away then you would be hard pressed to justify his spot in the team .

 

[Fortitude]

Schrödinger's Bruno

Indeed. Until something happens to break the mold, it'll always be so, too.

 

[Kweku Amonoo]

Bruno is the poster boy for me when it comes to proving that the eye test is more important than statistics or any expected goals/assists nonsense.

That would be Lukaku. But Bruno isn't far off.

 

[RedStarUnited]

Usual big game Bruno.

The irony is that the much maligned Pogba has a lot more big game moments than Bruno. Pogbas won us games at Emirates and Etihad.

 

[Sky1981]

Depends how you look at it. From managers point of view - not really, manager likes his style and he is basically perfect player for him in that position.

Even though I agree in general, he can be really poor and annoying, but changing Bruno won't solve our problem until we change our style of play.

He's the solution 10% of the time, but part of the problem 90% of the time.

We can afford 1 player like him if he delivers the output, but a team of the Lazy Bunch of him Rashford and Antony / Sancho is asking for disaster, which the first 3 games have shown.

EPL is a hard league, chances are few and between (unless you're city), you can't keep on losing the ball like giving candy on Halloween

 

[Righteous Steps]

The most polemical player performance thread, as usual. Literally the same back and forths season after season.

There'll never be even close to mutual agreement on Bruno with both camps taking it in turn to tell all and sundry what he is/isn't per good/bad game.

Truth is, it can't be settled because both entrenched camps are correct. Which means that the argument presented by whichever side can continue into perpetuity because things cannot and will not change.

Bruno is both states, at the same time.

Lovely language used in this post.

 

[Idxomer]

He really should sit out those big away games or at the very least bring him off when we start losing control of the game.

 

[Jeppers7]

The most polemical player performance thread, as usual. Literally the same back and forths season after season.

There'll never be even close to mutual agreement on Bruno with both camps taking it in turn to tell all and sundry what he is/isn't per good/bad game.

Truth is, it can't be settled because both entrenched camps are correct. Which means that the argument presented by whichever side can continue into perpetuity because things cannot and will not change.

Bruno is both states, at the same time.

Fancy words, but it’s not 50/50. Currently 4 games into this season and Bruno has had 3 stinkers. Looking back through the threads this is generally true. 75/25%.

You’ve also got trophies won, actual goals and assists v chances created.

It’s only a state in the state of some minds where somehow chances created have become the only counter argument. Yet somehow they’ve bleated on so much about it that it has become something.

It’s desperate, not polemic, when chances created is the only upside.

 

[Jeppers7]

Looking forward to Friday when he becomes better than Beckham again.

 

[slored1]

He was incredibly shite. Probably one of the main reasons behind all the poor away results. Man has to start treating the ball better, but we've been saying this for 3 years and he still does the same things.

 

[AndySmith1990]

Too inconsistent. Too chaotic. Too thick. Him and Rashford are supposedly our star players which I find very concerning, and a big reason as to why we're so unbelievably hopeless away from home

 

[Lyng]

It is a real concern that he mostly dissapears in the big away games. The worst issue is that as soon as things start going bad for us he turns in to the most petulant whingefest possible.
As the captain those are the moments we need a real captain the most and ours becomes the opposite.
Huge headache for Ten Hag. Bruno is our most creative player by far, but he only seems to do it at home or against opposition outside the top 5.
Maybe we should try a different setup for those games.

Eriksen
Casemiro - Amrabat
​

And then use Bruno instead of Eriksen in the other games.

 

[Licha-Vidic]

Fancy words, but it’s not 50/50. Currently 4 games into this season and Bruno has had 3 stinkers. Looking back through the threads this is generally true. 75/25%.

You’ve also got trophies won, actual goals and assists v chances created.

It’s only a state in the state of some minds where somehow chances created have become the only counter argument. Yet somehow they’ve bleated on so much about it that it has become something.

It’s desperate, not polemic, when chances created is the only upside.

ETH has to be courageous enough to bin Bruno and change the teams structure. True as you've said, 4 games in he's already dropped stinkers.
His fans will never accept but you can't win anything big with Bruno in a team.

He's turning 29 years in 4 days time yet he's never won a big title in his life, never delivered in a club big game, he's never been involved in big matches frequently, guy has never played in UCL semi final game even once in his life, but in someway he's the one to deliver us to glory.

The guy has been unable to deliver for himself as a player but we expect him to deliver for Man United?
In 18 months for sure he will not be at United, either him or ETH will not be around. Something has to give.

 

[kouroux]

It is a real concern that he mostly dissapears in the big away games. The worst issue is that as soon as things start going bad for us he turns in to the most petulant whingefest possible.
As the captain those are the moments we need a real captain the most and ours becomes the opposite.
Huge headache for Ten Hag. Bruno is our most creative player by far, but he only seems to do it at home or against opposition outside the top 5.
Maybe we should try a different setup for those games.

Eriksen
Casemiro - Amrabat
​

And then use Bruno instead of Eriksen in the other games.

As ETH has his favorites, he will always play Bruno and even more as he is the captain

 

[Lyng]

As ETH has his favorites, he will always play Bruno and even more as he is the captain

Yeah sadly Antony is proof of that.
Still hoping Ten Hag will make changes.

 

[Cassidy]

2 roaming #8s helping us pin a team back with a lone #6 that receives support from a full-back inverting or a center-back coming infield to support him.

Eriksen didn't play that high up the field today, because he's not physically capable of doing so IMO. And you might as well get him deeper on the ball because of his calmness on the ball.

When Mount returns, he'll play further up the field.

Mount played deeper against Spurs. We have not played with 2 roaming 8s more than we have played with a double pivot under ETH

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

Mount played deeper against Spurs. We have not played with 2 roaming 8s more than we have played with a double pivot under ETH

Heat maps have him and Bruno pretty close together. Mount is actually slightly higher up on the 1 graph I see.

For the bolded: Of course we haven't, because Eriksen can't play that role. It's why Mount was signed.

ETH didn't sign Mount to use him a double pivot with Casemiro.

 

[Cassidy]

Heat maps have him and Bruno pretty close together. Mount is actually slightly higher up on the 1 graph I see.

For the bolded: Of course we haven't, because Eriksen can't play that role. It's why Mount was signed.

ETH didn't sign Mount to use him a double pivot with Casemiro.

He did sign Amrabat didn’t he who he explicitly said can play next to Casemiro

He also explicitly said Mount can learn to play deeper

Fact is he will play both ways depending on the opposition