Bruno Fernandes against the Premier League Top 6 sides

Chief123

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3 is fair. How would you have rated him? I can only remember the free kick being the only good thing he did.
Amazing! :lol: So if you think Bruno is a 3, then surely you must think Salah, Mane and Firmino were all a 2 out of 10? Not a single worthy shot on target between them. Less than what Bruno did.
 

Lee565

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To be fair to bruno didn't ronaldo also have a iffy record against the big sides in the premier league?

It doesn't help that in the big games ole sets the team up in a pragmatic way with rashford being the main benefactor in attack because the hitting teams on the counter tactic plays into his strengths.
 
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MacabbiUnited

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Why are the Leicester and Everton games being ignored? They are up there with the best in the league and Bruno did great againts them. I think the problem is deeper than any particular player.
 

Stacks

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KDB was always a great passer, only thing that changed was his position on the pitch. Before Pep, he played out wide a lot so obviously his pass completion would be lower. KDB is still a risky passer, but it just shows his quality that he's able to continue to be risky and have around 82% PS.

Bruno can make fantastic passes but the number of attempts he needs to pull this off is too many for a No.10 in my opinion. I certainly agree with the poster that said Pep would not be a fan at all.
Making lots of attempts isn't bad, its more he tries it when it clearly isn't on. He can do it with fewer attempts as he has the quality to make good passes but he tries some outrageous ones that were never on and he needs to cut that out.
 

Mainoldo

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Great analysis. Ive noticed he is very immobile on the ball which is the difference between him and De bruyne. Debruyne can power run with the ball and dribble one or two players while bruno cant. If you watch bruno closely you will see that sometimes he crosses from a standstill.

I think a quick solution may be a prolonged rest for him. Its my only explanation for why more times he doesn't run with the ball and other times he does. Maybe he is reserving energy or something.
Or maybe he’s just not Iniesta. I think we are over doing what he is. Besides the reputation he currently has, he doesn’t have that skill set in his locker. Regardless of rest, but he does need to learn how to take care of it better regardless of the risk reward rubbish people say.
 

Mainoldo

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Why are the Leicester and Everton games being ignored? They are up there with the best in the league and Bruno did great againts them. I think the problem is deeper than any particular player.
Yeah he’s turned up on big games. The tactics don’t help, it’s pretty simple.
 

always_hoping

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I genuinley didnt realise.
This season does affect things, the top 6 is the best top 6 in the league. To the point City have the grand total of 0 wins v the top 6.
Why is Chelsea harder to play against then Everton? Arsenal over Villa?
It makes no sense.
Traditional top 6 is a useless stat to bring up to be honest. Chelsea and Arsenal are not among the best top 6 sides in the league.
Couldn't agree more. This Traditional top 6 talk has to stop.
 

Renegade

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Amazing! :lol: So if you think Bruno is a 3, then surely you must think Salah, Mane and Firmino were all a 2 out of 10? Not a single worthy shot on target between them. Less than what Bruno did.
What’s funny? I’d give them a 3/4 too. They didn’t do anything also.

Only the defenders from both sides can come out of this game with any credit or decent rating.
 

Chief123

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What’s funny? I’d give them a 3/4 too. They didn’t do anything also.

Only the defenders from both sides can come out of this game with any credit or decent rating.
That’s even more hilarious. You’d give them up to a 4 out of 10 despite all three of them being non existent in the whole game, yet Bruno gets a 3 even though he nearly scored twice with a brilliant free kick and a shot which was a good save by the keeper. Some of you are something else.
 

Borys

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Seems a bit lost lately, had a fantastic game against Leeds, then Ole started tinkering with formations again and his form dropped.
Him misplacing a few passes is not a problem, but his decision making is.
 

Brad2020

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I'm sure someone has touched on this, but the reason I think Fernandez is less effective against top 6 teams is really the result of picking Fred and McTominay consistently to bolster our poor center back pairing (Maguire/Lindelof) ,who both despite being good players don't seem to complement each other.

Let's face it, Fred and McTominay are pretty much your average brick and motor midfielders Good defensively but lacking the creative passing talent of Pogba and Van De Beek. As consequence, all the opposing teams have to do is put pressure on Fernandez, shut him down, and then the service to the forwards pretty much dries up.

I would like to see Van De Beek and Fred instead, because I think Van de Beek is also very good defensively, but I think Ollie likes McTominay's physicality, and I don't make the coaching decisions, so....
 

Fluctuation0161

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4 goals v the top 6 is a great record? Unless im reading it wrong?
I think the problem has been our overall performance against the top 6 teams rather than Bruno specifically.

Bruno was below his usual standards vs Liverpool because he is fatigued. He has looked like he needs a rest for over a month now. Even when rested he sits on the bench and had to come on for 45mins.
 

Loon

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Love that he is clearly unhappy when things aren't working for him rather than strolling to a pay cheque like some other players.
 

0le

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This reminds me of the time when people used to say Ronaldo wasn't a big game player. :D
 

Murray3007

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not worried at all, we play alot deeper in the big games so harder for him to get on the ball, clearly v pool the plan was to try release the ball early to Rashford, he just like Rashford and Martial had an awful game, dont think anyone moaned about his performances v chelsea and city last season in the league, more confident ole gets the more he will attack more in the bigger games, look at the pool front 3's record v us, its pretty dreadful.
 

Eternitiy

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We give Bruno a free role in how we're set up. We need him to produce in all our games. His contribution against Liverpool was inexcusable, let's not turn a blind eye to this. I also think his petulance needs to be toned down a bit. It's great that he's a competitor and a fighter, but he needs to be humble at times, he is always pointing the finger at others even when he's the one culpable for a poor pass or control.
 

cyril C

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could we not have said the same about lukaku? That was everyone’s big complaint about him that he was only bullying the smaller teams and padding his stats
I used the term target man, may be I should used a different term. Bruno is the playmaker, Lukaku is the #9 striker. Both are likely to be man-marked but the effect should be different, although end-result may be the same. In our case, there are only 2 ways to deliver a ball to our striker target man (whether Lukaku if he stays, or Cavanio, or Martial), either long ball, or go through Bruno. If Bruno is marked well then long pass is the only option, Pogba or Fred, and Lindelof as I recall once might do it. Fullback Shaw and AWB are rare option, although these are our unique problem.

When a striker/target-man is marked-out, which is a universal situation, all he has to do is to perform his primary role - hold the ball, pass it to follow up players, and run. Firmino fails to score enough, but he does his primary role. Without the hold-up play, how are you going to attack?

Ole found Lukaku's hold-up function (alone) is not good enough as he is slow/weak in other area, meanwhile Arteta believe Lacazette's similar performance is good enough and essential, as his most prolific striker Aubameyang can't perform the hold-up function.

p.s. rumour said Lukaku has been identified as 1 of the 3 replacement for Aguero, or you think Ole knows more than Pep?
 

Nikelesh Reddy

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Honestly I wouldn’t mind it even if he’s just a flat track bully.We have struggled consistently against the weaker teams over the last 7 seasons,so even if Bruno ends up being a flat track bully I would still be satisfied....
 

Red & White

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He was poor on Sunday and hopefully he improves in the big games but I think all our forwards need to improve in the big games. His ‘stats’ against the big 6 are the same as the team as a whole his season, played 6 scored 1 (his pen against Spur).

We’ve got Liverpool in the cup and Arsenal in the league in the next 2 weeks so a chance to change those stats.
 

cyberman

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Against the ‘top 6’ in the league this season Bruno Fernandes - 6 G/A Kevin De Bruyne - 1 G/A
Better than that, off the top of my head he has played Spurs, Chelsea, Leicester, City from top 6 last year, 2 goals and 2 assists in 4.
This years top 6 he has goal and assist v Leicester, 2 goals v Everton and a goal v Spurs.
10 games v sides in the top 6 positions, 6 goals and 3 assists so 9 goal involvements in 10 games v sides sitting in top 6 positions since he got here.
We can add a goal on v Villa when they beat City tonight..
 

Stacks

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Better than that, off the top of my head he has played Spurs, Chelsea, Leicester, City from top 6 last year, 2 goals and 2 assists in 4.
This years top 6 he has goal and assist v Leicester, 2 goals v Everton and a goal v Spurs.
10 games v sides in the top 6 positions, 6 goals and 3 assists so 9 goal involvements in 10 games v sides sitting in top 6 positions since he got here.
We can add a goal on v Villa when they beat City tonight..
For the agenda it has to be the "big 6" "traditional 6" because current ability of teams is not important. Fact is when Bruno plays against mid table teams who were decent 5 years ago, he bottles it.
 

romufc

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Lingard has scored in a cup final for the club while Bruno has gone missing in 4 semi finals and bottles every big game. So you're right maybe they deserve Lingard
The state of some fans on here... I guess some fans use the word bottle freely without any substance.

Which 4 semi finals has he gone missing in?

Bottling means he has no impact in big games... got an assist against Chelsea, City and scored against Spurs and Sevilla...
 

cyberman

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The state of some fans on here... I guess some fans use the word bottle freely without any substance.

Which 4 semi finals has he gone missing in?

Bottling means he has no impact in big games... got an assist against Chelsea, City and scored against Spurs and Sevilla...
He bottled City last year by not joining us in tine and bottled the next 3 by scoring in 2 of them
Bottler
 

romufc

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He bottled City last year by not joining us in tine and bottled the next 3 by scoring in 2 of them
Bottler
I wasn't aware only at the Caf is scoring penalties bottling it... no wonder when teams win CL / WC finals on Penalty shoot outs its called the bottle cup.
 

Acole9

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Laughable that he's being criticised. He's been a brilliant signing for us.
 

McTerminator

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Why are the Leicester and Everton games being ignored? They are up there with the best in the league and Bruno did great againts them. I think the problem is deeper than any particular player.
... because that doesn’t fit in with the agenda.

it’s like some ‘fans’ miss the pre-Bruno days when we were awful.
 

romufc

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... because that doesn’t fit in with the agenda.

it’s like some ‘fans’ miss the pre-Bruno days when we were awful.
What I am more surprised about is since when did set pieces stop becoming important in football games?
 

tjb

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I don't even think he gives the ball away that much, especially when you consider how poor the movement can be around him at times. He tries to make things happen, plus when you factor in that in the big games he usually has to play on the counter, I don't see how people can criticize him for giving the ball away. Fred and Mctominay combine for barely any through balls, Martial doesn't do much, Greenwood is also not a passer, leaving rashford as the only other player in the front 6 who can play a through ball in the even Pogba doesn't play. Outside of that, we are relying on Maguire or Telles from deep.

For me, it's annoying how people can look at our most impactful players and not see that some of the issues they have in games are due to the low quality of others around them. Would Bruno misplace that many passes if United's midfielders could supply him with more possession opportunities?