If not Bruno, who should be captain?

[harms]

The three outside of Bruno & Maguire is pretty obvious — Casemiro, Varane and Martinez. Varane is more of a calming influence (although he has some fire in him — watch him trying to make our players acknowledge the fans at Anfield straight after the game instead of immediately sneaking into the dressing room) while Casemiro and especially Martinez are extremely vocal and aggressive — it really depends on what type of captain do you prefer to have.

De Gea sometimes appears in these discussions due to the length of his stay but let's be honest, if he had any leadership qualities, he would've

• been made a captain already
• been able to organize his defense — if you can't deal with 4-5 players, how are you supposed to deal with the entire squad?

But let's be honest — Bruno will be a captain or one of vice-captains at worst, despite the understandable criticism. He's very vocal, his work-rate and attitude is spot on 95% of the time (him switching off against Liverpool really isn't something that he does regularly), he's always there and he's very popular in the squad.

 

[Raees]

Casemiro seems a no brainer to me as a short term choice for next few years.

 

[Who's Kissing Cameras?]

Bruno.

 

[Mr Pigeon]

Wasn’t it true that Valencia couldn’t speak English? He was the captain for a bit

Language barriers aren't really a problem. This entirely accurate and not remotely fake video proves it.

 

[Massive Spanner]

this seems like a bit of an overreaction based on Neville wrongfully calling him out yesterday.

 

[clarkydaz]

Wasn’t it true that Valencia couldn’t speak English? He was the captain for a bit

correct

 

[Zoo]

Still Bruno.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Varane would be my choice if he could stay fit.

He seems to be a one game a week player this season. Which would rule him out. Hopefully temporary but heard worrying comments about the state of his knee(s) on a United podcast.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

this seems like a bit of an overreaction based on Neville wrongfully calling him out yesterday.

All in the caf, yo.

 

[Siorac]

My mind read this as a haiku to begin with.

I tried to read it to the tune of Ghostbusters.

 

[TheReligion]

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[Mcking]

Has to be Bruno. Comfortably the best option in the squad imo, and I haven't seen any reason why it shouldn't be him. If not him though, then it would be a tough one.

 

[Nep77]

Casemiro as Captain and Martinez as deputy.

 

[darko1963]

Martinez, Casemiro, Varane, De Gea, Show... anybody but Bruno Fernandes cause he is not even close to captain material.

 

[berbatrick]

i'm ddg's biggest fan.
please don't make him captain.

any of the defensive 3 might be ok i guess.

 

[JB7]

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Is that why people are discussing changing captain? For fecks sake

I'm sure the players were absolutely delighted with Eric for getting himself sent off & then obviously banned long term in 95. And with Roy Keane getting himself sent off what, 5 or 6 times as captain?

 

[CM]

Casemiro is certainly the player who behaves most like a captain.

Captaincy feels like more of a symbolic thing these days though. As long as you have a group of players working well within a system, it shouldn't really matter who is wearing the armband. Odegaard at Arsenal case in point.

 

[Jam]

Is that why people are discussing changing captain? For fecks sake

I'm sure the players were absolutely delighted with Eric for getting himself sent off & then obviously banned long term in 95. And with Roy Keane getting himself sent off what, 5 or 6 times as captain?

To be fair they’re very different situations.

 

[Dan_F]

I think Ten Hag did well to keep Maguire captain and buy time to see who he wants as permanent captain. Appointing Bruno full time at the start of the season and then removing it would have been a disaster.

By all accounts Casemiro hasn’t really been involved in leadership groups for Real or Brazil, although he’s clearly a logical choice in terms of leading by example. There’s a very good argument for Varane or even Martinez at the end of the season. I can’t see how it comes from any other than those three if it’s not Bruno.

 

[ZahaWilf]

Varane and Martinez vice

 

[JB7]

To be fair they’re very different situations.

The general premise is that the players were "irritated" by his actions, I'm sure the players would've been "irritated" with previous captains on occasion. That doesn't mean you change the captain.

 

[harms]

Wasn’t it true that Valencia couldn’t speak English? He was the captain for a bit

He could but preferred not to on camera. I can’t imagine that he was very vocal in the dressing room though.

 

[HBFSTR00]

I understand the criticism he is getting and I haven’t seen the images as I turned the game off after 5-0 but I think we shouldn’t forget that he has played almost all games and against West Ham he looked like zombie.
So yeah, the combination of Liverpool scoring 7, playing at Anfield and obviously being fatigued hasn’t helped and probably broke him mentally.

 

[Von Mistelroum]

Varane or Casemiro.

 

[Herschel Krustofsky]

Fred

 

[CloneMC16]

In an ideal world, it would be Casemiro. I think someone that speaks English should be captain, though.

Out of the other options, Varane is probably the best choice. I still think it should be Bruno. How many games have we won this season with him as captain?

 

[UnofficialDevil]

Is that why people are discussing changing captain? For fecks sake

I'm sure the players were absolutely delighted with Eric for getting himself sent off & then obviously banned long term in 95. And with Roy Keane getting himself sent off what, 5 or 6 times as captain?

Can't compare Bruno with Cantona or Roy Keane though.

 

[Orange Tree]

Casemiro and Martinez do not speak much english, right?
Otherwise one of those two would have made a good captain.

Varane is a no go. He will break down if played every 3 days.

 

[wangyu]

What actually happened with Bruno yesterday? I was watching the 2nd half in a haze (from shock) which means I was aware of the score but I mentally switched off after the 3-0. I can’t even remember the goals. Did he do something controversial?

 

[slored1]

Casemiro.

 

[frostbite]

Who is the captain of Man City? I just realized I don't know. And I don't care.

Perhaps it is not important who our captain is? Maybe it was important 30 years ago, but not any more.

 

[Gandalf]

What actually happened with Bruno yesterday? I was watching the 2nd half in a haze (from shock) which means I was aware of the score but I mentally switched off after the 3-0. I can’t even remember the goals. Did he do something controversial?

He did a lot of hand waving, dived a bit and got into an altercation with a linesman which the officials were not bothered about. He didn't really put in the effort defensively in the last 30 minutes but would have to say that is an anomaly as he is usually one of the hardest workers in the team, the fact he has played more than 500 minutes more than anyone else is maybe catching up to him.

The uproar is down to Neville calling him out and then falsely accusing him of asking to be substituted during the match. I don't normally mind Neville but he was bang out of order for that. I think Gary was feeling embarrassed after he decided to call out Souness in the build up and then ended with egg all over his face. To hear him and Keane talk you would believe we never shat the bed in their era which is frankly nonsense. In general people have rose colored spectacles about the past as evidenced by this thread.

 

[ROFLUTION]

Martinez for me.

A hard hitter to show everyone how big balls you need to make it here. I think his spirit has lifted us the most, and thats what you need in a captain. Mentality over skills for me. (Else it would be Casemiro)

 

[wangyu]

He did a lot of hand waving, dived a bit and got into an altercation with a linesman which the officials were not bothered about. He didn't really put in the effort defensively in the last 30 minutes but would have to say that is an anomaly as he is usually one of the hardest workers in the team, the fact he has played more than 500 minutes more than anyone else is maybe catching up to him.

The uproar is down to Neville calling him out and then falsely accusing him of asking to be substituted during the match. I don't normally mind Neville but he was bang out of order for that. I think Gary was feeling embarrassed after he decided to call out Souness in the build up and then ended with egg all over his face. To hear him and Keane talk you would believe we never shat the bed in their era which is frankly nonsense. In general people have rose colored spectacles about the past as evidenced by this thread.

Thanks. I did read he asked to be substituted Which I did not automatically believe. So Neville started this? What on earth is wrong with our ex players being so toxic about man utd? If they don’t have anything better to say they’d better keep their mouths shut.

Other than that Bruno waving his arms around and going into heated discussions with officials isn’t anything new. I like him doing the latter.

He was awfully quiet though, didn’t seem like an energized bunny in the first half either.

 

[Leftback99]

Don't care at this point as long as its never Bruno again.

 

[Robertd0803]

Still Bruno because:

1. He is always fit
2. He has the right attitude (last night was an anomaly)
3. He is one of our best players
4. He speaks English
5. He has been at club for longer than all his competitors (except for DDG)
6. It pisses off the worst posters on RedCafe

Not every captain can be Keane.

Exactly.

Casemiro/Martinez would be be pick for vice-captain.

Varane wont play every game.

De Gea shouldnt be captain in a million years.

 

[davidmichael]

Casemiro as captain and Martinez as vice captain so Martinez can grow into the role longer term, Fernandes should never have been made de facto captain as he’s too individualistic and as shown yesterday when the chips are down he’s all about himself.

 

[Davie Moyes]

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Quite easy to spot this made up kind of sh*t. These journalists have no accountability. I doubt any of the other players are looking beyond their own performances. Beyond Bruno there are no stand-out candidates and that's mainly down to them not being here long enough or lack of English.

Erik needs a word with Bruno to cut out the behaviour. He could also start with resting him a bit more and not shunting him out wide all the time and especially not on the left.

 

[VeevaVee]

Varane or Cas. They have that mixture of leadership, experience, and level headedness (most of the time) but are still fiery. Martinez is probably too fiery. The likes of Martinez and Bruno can still be leaders, but probably need a Cas type to pull them in when needed.

 

[the gafferjs]

Casemiro as Captain is a horrific shout same as Martinez. Just because you are the best on the team does not mean you automatically should be Captain, anyone with any sort of football knowledge will know that the qualities to be a Captain are different from that of being a quality player

Sadly there isn’t a captain amongst any of the favoured 11.The hated Maguire and Mct are probably closest to it but they won’t be around much longer.