Is Bruno Fernandes the answer?

[eire-red]

He's one of the only players in our squad who can be a catalyst. Bruno and Greenwood almost always try something with the ball, unlike others in the squad.

I think we need the 4231 system again, and him as the 10. The problem is that Bruno likes to break from his position and go beyond the striker. The Leeds game is the perfect example. This worked because Greenwood dropped into the pocket, or Cavani would do the same when he plays.

With Ronaldo as the no. 9, he doesn't drop and provide the link when Bruno goes beyond. How many times have we just ended up with both Bruno and Ronaldo as no. 9's, and nobody to link midfield and attack.

I think neither Bruno or Ronaldo have adjusted their games enough to complement each other, and I don't think Bruno can play that free role while Ronaldo plays up top.

Having said all that, at times it felt like he had too much of a free role under Ole. You can imagine Ole telling him to be himself, and try things all the time. While that's Bruno's best quality as a player, at times this season it's been incredibly frustrating watching him give the ball away time and time again.

I don't think he's individually good enough to build your team around. But he's good enough that you're not going to point at him as the issue because when our attack is functioning as it should, he's usually at the heart of it all. One thing I know for sure is that this 4222 isn't going to get the best out of anyone.

 

[TMDaines]

Imagine being a footballer who consistently puts out superb numbers in club football (even after moving to a fairly dysfunctional Manchester United team) yet has never been able to show what he can do for an international team that is set up exclusively to plonk chance after chance in Ronaldo’s direction.

Imagine how frustrating that would be?

Now imagine your club signing Ronaldo. Aged 36 years old.

I know we have clashed on this before, but I really don't think Bruno has the goal-scoring to carry either his club or country to major titles. He was the chief beneficiary of a period in which clubs in general, but Manchester United especially, were being awarded an unsustainable amount of penalties. He's scored 4 non-penalty goals in 40 matches for Portugal and 24 non-penalty goals in 104 matches for United.

I like Bruno, but I think his skill set suits being a midfielder feeding the forwards ahead of him, chipping in with goals, rather than the team being designed to push him into the forward line and putting much of the goalscoring burden on his shoulders. He's undoubtedly an elite creator and has continued to post excellent creative metrics, despite being considered largely out of form. I think that aspect of Bruno's game is sustainable, but I don't believe United can look to win PL titles and CLs by making Bruno Fernandes the main creative and goal-scoring force.

I doubt Bruno's leadership credentials too because he's now behaving at United exactly how it ended at Sporting Lisbon. You can't keep under delivering in big matches, and then act like your teammates are beneath you and the world is against you when the chips are down. Sporting ended up being better off without him, which was considered unfathomable at the time of his leaving.

 

[Jeppers7]

Bruno was the brightest light at United for years in my opinion. Should we not try everything to rekindle the spark. Before we drift into ancient history and evoke the spirit of Bryan Robson, only last year we had possibly the best player in the division.

Yes, he's way off that now, but instead of slinging insults, why don't we try to find a way back to what he was?

Barney Ronay is always a good read.

https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...ster-united-body-language-digital-revisionism

https://www.otbsports.com/soccer/ma...yHoG_AitSEkvVUiOKOywDX1pX8#Echobox=1641312561

He was poor from January last season, prior to that everyone was poor from September to October last season. Prior to that he was only here for half a season…..he was largely very good though.

 

[Jeppers7]

This

This is the thread for me. Bruno was a major step in the right direction. A player entering his genuine prime who didn’t cost the world and left it all on the pitch. Wow we’ve finally figured it out. Then we go and revert to type and sign Ronaldo Varane (and even Sancho) on stupidly huge wages and the whole thing falls apart again.

The hoarding of fringe figures hasn't helped either. Will someone please call a taxi for Matic Mata Ronaldo etc? They gave their best years to other clubs and we owe them nothing. We need to stop signing stop gap players and look at the bigger picture. We get so bogged down in ourselves that we’ve been ignoring the major trends in football to just go and sign another throwaway name. It’s a real shame because managing this club and turning it around is actually a piece of piss with the money we can spend and the exposure we can give the right players.

We are probably spending double what Liverpool do and doing half the work. Total shame that is. It’s not like their team grew up wanting to play for Liverpool. They just found extremely hardworking and technically above average players coming into their prime. That’s all successful recruitment is. It’s actually really simple if you’re prepared to write off a few duds along the way. We just can’t seem to get our heads around it or stick with any proper plan for long enough to see it through.

Give it a rest he was abysmal before we signed those players, we scrapped 2 nd last season despite his form and lost the EL final to villereal. Really going places.

 

[Jeppers7]

I know we have clashed on this before, but I really don't think Bruno has the goal-scoring to carry either his club or country to major titles. He was the chief beneficiary of a period in which clubs in general, but Manchester United especially, were being awarded an unsustainable amount of penalties. He's scored 4 non-penalty goals in 40 matches for Portugal and 24 non-penalty goals in 104 matches for United.

I like Bruno, but I think his skill set suits being a midfielder feeding the forwards ahead of him, chipping in with goals, rather than the team being designed to push him into the forward line and putting much of the goalscoring burden on his shoulders. He's undoubtedly an elite creator and has continued to post excellent creative metrics, despite being considered largely out of form. I think that aspect of Bruno's game is sustainable, but I don't believe United can look to win PL titles and CLs by making Bruno Fernandes the main creative and goal-scoring force.

I doubt Bruno's leadership credentials too because he's now behaving at United exactly how it ended at Sporting Lisbon. You can't keep under delivering in big matches, and then act like your teammates are beneath you and the world is against you when the chips are down. Sporting ended up being better off without him, which was considered unfathomable at the time of his leaving.

Not all of those are from open play either.

 

[He'sRaldo]

Bruno brought his poor Utd form to the Euros, rather than the other way around.

As for the player himself, he's not good enough to carry a team to anything significant but he can be an important cog in the machine, ONLY if he realizes and works with his strengths, and accepts a lesser role.

If the question is should we make him the main man, I believe we've already seen the answer for that. I'd rather not have another repeat of the EL final.

 

[Jibbs]

Bruno needs to be assigned the Jota role along with Greenwood and Sancho playing as right and left forwards in most matches. Cavani and Ronaldo should be used in big games up top and in Champions League. They both should be used not more than 30 minutes every week.

 

[Bilbo]

Until this season Bruno was the brightest light at United for years in my opinion. Should we not try everything to rekindle the spark. Before we drift into ancient history and evoke the spirit of Bryan Robson, only last year we had possibly the best player in the division.

Yes, he's way off that now, but instead of slinging insults, why don't we try to find a way back to what he was?

Barney Ronay is always a good read.

https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...ster-united-body-language-digital-revisionism

https://www.otbsports.com/soccer/ma...yHoG_AitSEkvVUiOKOywDX1pX8#Echobox=1641312561

Its obviously no surprise that he's no longer flavour of the month on the cafe. In cafe world, form is never a considered part of any analysis and you are only as good as your last match - maybe last 5 matches if you've built up a massive amount of credit.

In reality Bruno is one of the best players in the PL going through a sticky patch, like every player does. He is hands down the best signing we've made since Van Persie, and we should be building our team around him.

 

[The Purley King]

I'm sure we all remember numerous England managers trying to shoehorn Gerrard and Lampard into the same midfield and it NEVER worked, meaning that the best one of the lot (Scholes) played about half as much as he should.
Sometimes two players just can't work productively together on the pitch and its clear that Bruno & Ronaldo have that issue. We should play one and not the other. Given the ages/wages of the two concerned we should be playing Bruno and benching Ronaldo.
It was a massively knee jerk signing that has messed up the balance of the team. Can't deny I was pretty excited about it at the time, especially after the Newcastle game and wondered if I was worrying about nothing, but its just not going to work out, that much is clear now.

 

[romufc]

The thing I don't get is we don't have out and out strikers, we play one our most promising strikers as a 10. We want to press, and create chances so surely Bruno as one of the 2 forwards should be considered an option?

He presses like a headless chicken, in possession he can either drop in and create or go beyond and score. Isn't that what we want our forwards to do?

 

[el3mel]

While he's a great player, he shouldn't be undroppable. That's my issue with not only him but other players like Ronaldo, Rashford..etc. If they're shit, drop them. Bruno is great on his day but when he's off form he becomes a hindrance to the team rather than a help, bench him.

 

[T00lsh3d]

Until this season Bruno was the brightest light at United for years in my opinion. Should we not try everything to rekindle the spark. Before we drift into ancient history and evoke the spirit of Bryan Robson, only last year we had possibly the best player in the division.

Yes, he's way off that now, but instead of slinging insults, why don't we try to find a way back to what he was?

Barney Ronay is always a good read.

https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...ster-united-body-language-digital-revisionism

https://www.otbsports.com/soccer/ma...yHoG_AitSEkvVUiOKOywDX1pX8#Echobox=1641312561

He’s brilliant and has been our brightest spark in ages. In terms of pure numbers his drop in output must be the biggest factor in our slump. We should be playing him where he wants to play and getting him back to form, and Frankly feck everything else

 

[Rozay]

To answer this, you need to have a clear question. Answer to what, exactly? If you know specifically what it is that you want to do, then you can have a better idea as to whether Bruno Fernandes - a player with both strengths and weaknesses - is the answer to that question.

Been said loads, but the biggest issue is us seemingly not knowing what we want to do. Bruno Fernandes and Jadon Sancho are extremely unlikely to provide answers to the same question, for example. Sancho and VDB - or Bruno and Elanga, more likely.

 

[T00lsh3d]

He's one of the only players in our squad who can be a catalyst. Bruno and Greenwood almost always try something with the ball, unlike others in the squad.

I think we need the 4231 system again, and him as the 10. The problem is that Bruno likes to break from his position and go beyond the striker. The Leeds game is the perfect example. This worked because Greenwood dropped into the pocket, or Cavani would do the same when he plays.

With Ronaldo as the no. 9, he doesn't drop and provide the link when Bruno goes beyond. How many times have we just ended up with both Bruno and Ronaldo as no. 9's, and nobody to link midfield and attack.

I think neither Bruno or Ronaldo have adjusted their games enough to complement each other, and I don't think Bruno can play that free role while Ronaldo plays up top.

Having said all that, at times it felt like he had too much of a free role under Ole. You can imagine Ole telling him to be himself, and try things all the time. While that's Bruno's best quality as a player, at times this season it's been incredibly frustrating watching him give the ball away time and time again.

I don't think he's individually good enough to build your team around. But he's good enough that you're not going to point at him as the issue because when our attack is functioning as it should, he's usually at the heart of it all. One thing I know for sure is that this 4222 isn't going to get the best out of anyone.

Good post

 

[DWelbz19]

I would like to see us play a 4-3-3 with Bruno on the left wing. I don't like him in the midfield. He gives the ball away to cheaply in bad areas at times. I'd rather 3 proper midfielders and see what he can do in a more attacking position. My guess is that in a proper 4-3-3 he will score and assist even more than he already was...

You can’t play him out wide because he can’t particularly run or dribble. He’s at his best in pretty high up the middle of the field.

 

[KingCavani]

Do people not remember what we were like before Bruno?

 

[Jeppers7]

Bruno needs to be assigned the Jota role along with Greenwood and Sancho playing as right and left forwards in most matches. Cavani and Ronaldo should be used in big games up top and in Champions League. They both should be used not more than 30 minutes every week.

I’d like to see that

 

[moses]

To answer this, you need to have a clear question. Answer to what, exactly? If you know specifically what it is that you want to do, then you can have a better idea as to whether Bruno Fernandes - a player with both strengths and weaknesses - is the answer to that question.

Been said loads, but the biggest issue is us seemingly not knowing what we want to do. Bruno Fernandes and Jadon Sancho are extremely unlikely to provide answers to the same question, for example. Sancho and VDB - or Bruno and Elanga, more likely.

Really? I thought it was obviously referring to our poor form. I don't think there is one clear question. Only many many closely related ones.

 

[FriedClams]

If only there was another thread for people to highlight the problems with the squad.

Well to give a more serious and analytical answer, yes he could be the answer but it's entirely hypothetical at this stage. We have seen players before come into this league and have an instant impact in their first season (even Sergei Rebrov got off to a flyer and was being raved about when he joined Spurs) and then tail off somewhat. It could be that this is what's happening with Bruno, only it would be a much steeper fall from grace due to the levels he set himself. I call him the most frustrating player in our team not because we know what level he can achieve, but because he clearly refuses to get out of his own way and do the simple thing, which more often than not, is the best thing a footballer can do. With such talent around him, he needs to learn so much better to pick and choose his moments to try something audacious, because at any given time he's on the field with minimum 3 players who are also capable of something completely out of the ordinary.

I also think with Bruno we have been led to believe that he is effective at pressing the ball, but I would love to see the stats on how many times he has actually won the ball back, or the amount of times we have won the ball back within 6 seconds of Bruno initiating a press. From my armchair, it very much looks like he is just running chasing a ball for the sake of it, without any type of intelligence or understanding of what's going on behind him. Both he and Ronaldo are guilty of being annoyed when they don't win the ball back, then being visibly frustrated with their teammates who haven't joined the press with them. But why would they? Both players don't press intelligently. I feel much better when we decide to hold our shape and not follow the lead of a Ronaldo/Bruno headless chicken press.

Now, we know Bruno can pick a pass, and he more often than not whips dangerous crosses in, so he needs to find a way to get into those positions more frequently and he can do that by being less predictable. Right now, if you're a defender and Bruno has the ball and one of our attackers makes a run off you, you can say with 90% certainty Bruno is trying the difficult pass, and that it wont be slid in behind you along the ground (more difficult to defend) but will have some height on it and will give you and others time to react. Whilst we appreciate fast, incisive build up play at this club, we do need to slow things down a little and Bruno is a huge reason why we cannot, because he simply refuses to.

In terms of finding a way back to what he was, you have to factor in the element of surprise he had when he joined the league (and lets be honest, a goals tally inflated quite a fair bit by penalties).The only way for him to do this is to mix up his play, and be a lot less urgent on the ball. If you're an opposing manager/player against him, you know that you just have to get him a little frustrated and he'll throw the toys out the pram. He needs to get control of his emotions just as much as he needs to get a hold of the ball, put his foot on it, and find the best option, not the one that is most difficult.

 

[Rozay]

Really? I thought it was obviously referring to our poor form. I don't think there is one clear question. Only many many closely related ones.

Our poor form or poor results? Over the last decade, Manchester United rarely ever ‘play well’. Poor form is a constant. How many times do we actually play well in an average season? I’d say that has been a bit higher in recent years with Ole, but even still, invariably, we can be counted on to not impress anyone, regardless of the result, and that is because we do not seem to know how we want to play football.

 

[Ali Dia]

Give it a rest he was abysmal before we signed those players, we scrapped 2 nd last season despite his form and lost the EL final to villereal. Really going places.

Im not saying he was guiding us to victory. As @Rozay said above. I don’t think as an organisation we actually know how we want to play the game, even under Fergie? Winning football? Pragmatic football? Beautiful football? What even is that? That can mean winning ugly, counter attacking or dominating games in an aggressive front foot fashion and we’ve been all 3 under him. It doesn’t leave us any clear basis on which to build going forward.

Bruno could almost do no wrong on his hot streak and since then he’s been overplayed and asked to do almost all our conducting and thinking in the final third and when that doesn’t work the rest got nothing much to offer for whatever reason. That’s obviously not sustainable in the modern game as the team rises and falls on the success of one player rather than a clever system or getting several suitable players in form at the same time. That player this season is Ronaldo, for better or worse.

You’re right, Bruno’s been in poor form for as long as he’s been in good form at this stage but we simply had and have no plan b. Then it was the same idea and broken system that Ronaldo Sancho and Varane have come into and they also look lost more often than not. Same thing just attack more and press even less. teams know that they can fully turn us on the counter and we are wide open. Ironically almost the exact same tactic that got us to 3rd and 2nd. Nothing fancy. Fred and McT win the second ball and get it forward to Bruno to Rashford or Martial or out to Shaw and back in. That’s still all we got but Ronaldo up top pressing even less than Rashford did last year (and that’s very very little and a huge problem) Teams can sit back and easily soak us up, frustrate and wait for openings when we aren’t coming at them in an organised way. Wait for the whinging to start and the heads to drop and we are there for the taking.

 

[BlueHaze]

We all know he's top class when in form. We've all seen it. I've not given up on him yet. He needs to rekindle that spark and he will start producing more.

 

[Beans]

I'm not sure a team can win it all with a player like him at no.10. His offense is doubtlessly incredible. But he turns the ball over a lot and is often out of position when this happens for pressing, and his position is crucial for pressing in the modern game.

Pushing him out onto the wing seems like a waste, he doesn't seem as productive out there. I wonder if we can play him deeper, in central midfield? Just being a bit deeper would give him time to recover, and he wouldn't be drifting out of position as much to find space. With his passing skill I'd think he could do it from deeper as well, but then that hasn't really worked for Pogba has it?

Honestly Bruno hasn't created enough this season to justify his defensive weakness. We need him to be near the top of the league in goals and assists to get away with his poor defending.

 

[Born2Lose]

I think the bigger worry is if he decides at 27 that he's wasting his time at a club that looks miles off winning anything.

Top for assists in the CL this season and 2nd in the league for Key passes, only at a club this badly run could he be considered "a problem".

Wouldn't blame him for not signing a contract to be honest and I think it's pretty telling he's refusing to sign a new contract which will probably multiple his salary by 1.5 to 2x.

 

[mu4c_20le]

Said it before, Bruno will be key to saving our/Ralf's season. He'll need to get a tune out of him and very very soon

 

[Smores]

I'd play him up top with Ronaldo in the 4222 formation and if we switch to a front 3 try him as the false 9 with Ronaldo on the left.

I think he might of been a victim of his own success a little, he definitely got frustrated with the team last season and looks like he tries too hard these days. If he loses the ball playing up front that's much less of an issue and a few goals and he might regain his mojo.

 

[Jeppers7]

It’s the same every single time we start without him and he comes on off the bench.

Like Burnley when he was suspended, didn’t start and we won more convincingly than any game since the start of the season? Or the Wolves game that was 0-0 when he came on…..he proceeded to miss an absolute sitter that cost us and turned back in to Hollywood Bruno after 5 minutes….we went on to lose 1-0.

Yeah the same every single time

But of course it’s all somebody else’s fault.

 

[Kag]

He’s an extremely good player. One of very few that we are genuinely lucky to have on the books.

 

[Jeppers7]

Im not saying he was guiding us to victory. As @Rozay said above. I don’t think as an organisation we actually know how we want to play the game, even under Fergie? Winning football? Pragmatic football? Beautiful football? What even is that? That can mean winning ugly, counter attacking or dominating games in an aggressive front foot fashion and we’ve been all 3 under him. It doesn’t leave us any clear basis on which to build going forward.

Bruno could almost do no wrong on his hot streak and since then he’s been overplayed and asked to do almost all our conducting and thinking in the final third and when that doesn’t work the rest got nothing much to offer for whatever reason. That’s obviously not sustainable in the modern game as the team rises and falls on the success of one player rather than a clever system or getting several suitable players in form at the same time. That player this season is Ronaldo, for better or worse.

You’re right, Bruno’s been in poor form for as long as he’s been in good form at this stage but we simply had and have no plan b. Then it was the same idea and broken system that Ronaldo Sancho and Varane have come into and they also look lost more often than not. Same thing just attack more and press even less. teams know that they can fully turn us on the counter and we are wide open. Ironically almost the exact same tactic that got us to 3rd and 2nd. Nothing fancy. Fred and McT win the second ball and get it forward to Bruno to Rashford or Martial or out to Shaw and back in. That’s still all we got but Ronaldo up top pressing even less than Rashford did last year (and that’s very very little and a huge problem) Teams can sit back and easily soak us up, frustrate and wait for openings when we aren’t coming at them in an organised way. Wait for the whinging to start and the heads to drop and we are there for the taking.

I think this post is extremely disingenuous to some of our other players like Shaw, Greenwood, Pogba, Cavani last season. It’s completely overplaying his importance and downplaying every other player in the team. From January to the end of last season we scored 43 league goals and Bruno scored 3 non penalty goals and got 4 assists in addition to playing poorly. To say he’s our only creator and that we literally have nothing when he’s in poor form is nonsense. It’s not that anyone is even claiming our poor form this season is down to him, he’s just playing poorly. But claiming his good form is the only reason for anything we’ve done since he was signed is rubbish. He had a great 6-8 games pre lockdown and then post lockdown was great along with Shaw, Maguire, Pogba, Greenwood, Martial.

As for the rest I agree. The lack of direction will have an impact on ALL players over time. We don’t have any consistent players. Particularly creative players as we don’t have any structure to our play to fall back on when we aren’t playing great. So we accept to some extent that it is understandable that our players are inconsistent and that the balance of the team needs to improve to get the best out of our best players.

Is this fair? Or is it just excuses for some players?

 

[Desert Eagle]

Well first I agree with your OP, even if you don't agree with my reasoning. When you look at last season - who did people want as our captain instead of Maguire? Who was playing like the captain at United? It was Bruno.He was our main man. Everything was running through him just as much as for him. Playing centrally almost as part of our core, hard working and all.

For me this changed when Ronaldo entered.
Do you remember how Bruno Fernandes missed the first penalty he took when Ronaldo was on the pitch. He looked a different player as he went to take it, like he was different player. He knew Ronaldo was there and was wanting to take/has history with the penalties.

Who do people want as a captain now instead of Maguire? It's turned to C Ronaldo rather than Bruno. Some people pick De Gea because it's wrong to pick Ronaldo over Bruno or vice versa.

Our main man is now Ronaldo. Our tactics have turned to getting the best out of him than last years - getting the best out of Bruno and for him to get the best out of everyone else.
People are now talking about how Bruno's not passing well (because now he is heavily perceived by his passes to our central striker), for losing possesion, not assisting or playing like he used to. No one complains about Ronaldo losing possesion with a first touch that bounces off his knee though.

Why do people want Bruno dropped unlike last season? I said this in the Ronaldo thread- we didn't play like a team that played with a sole number 9 requiring the creativity from the rest of team last season. Did Cavani or even Martial need that? We instead had inverted forwards, a ST who tried to hold up play and play interlinking passes inbetween the IF's, all trying equally to score a goal whilst Bruno would either be trying to also score or assist them.

Our attack has gone more simplistic, turning from a 3 forward team set up by Bruno - to a team that all now tries to get the best out of one player in Ronaldo.
Ronaldo is now the main man at United and Now Bruno plays like how he does for the Portugal, not how he did with Sporting Lisbon and United where he was the main man of our team.

Good post and I will just add all this dressing room unrest is unlikely to be a coincidence.

 

[devilo]

I would like to see us play a 4-3-3 with Bruno on the left wing. I don't like him in the midfield. He gives the ball away to cheaply in bad areas at times. I'd rather 3 proper midfielders and see what he can do in a more attacking position. My guess is that in a proper 4-3-3 he will score and assist even more than he already was...

Yeah, i've thought about using him in a 4-3-3, but i'm not sure I'd want to sacrifice one of our wide players in the forward positions. I completely agree with you about him playing in midfield though and his tendancy for giving away possession.

 

[CloneMC16]

The article is not correct. Bruno wasn't playing well in the early part of 2021. He has played poorly throughout the entire year. He was unplayable in 2020. Clearly our best player in the post Sir Alex era. The only negative during 2020 was his lack of good performances against any top team. He has still not played well against an elite side.

There will be people wanting to blame Ronaldo for his drop in form, but it was before he arrived that we saw that. His goals drying up makes some sense with Ronaldo being here and the lack of penalties. With his lack of G/A over the past few months, one big issue that can't be ignored is his knack of giving the ball away way too much. We do need a players that take risks, but Bruno takes it too far. It's not only failed Hollywood passes. He fails very simple 5 yard passes, but the whole team has been doing that. His whinging is also well documented.

I would like to see Bruno tried as a false #9. He has major quality to create for our wide forwards. They would need to up their goal count quite a lot to make it work. The 4-2-2-2 formation is shocking and isn't going to work for Bruno or anybody in this team.

 

[Crashoutcassius]

he is one of the best second strikers in the world. he has shown himself to be wierdly inflexible in where and how he can play. if we find a system with a second striker, he will thrive, if we can't then he should get a chance to adapt but ultimately might be worth more to someone else

 

[MyOnlySolskjaer]

he is one of the best second strikers in the world. he has shown himself to be wierdly inflexible in where and how he can play. if we find a system with a second striker, he will thrive, if we can't then he should get a chance to adapt but ultimately might be worth more to someone else

I think he'd work next to Ronaldo.

 

[432JuanMata]

So the player that since he joined us nobody matched his assists and coming into this season he was top of G&A since he arrived but now in bad form he isn’t the right player?

 

[Crashoutcassius]

I think he'd work next to Ronaldo.

i think rangnick will want a runner next to ronaldo to stretch the play, rashord or cavani always

 

[RedCurry]

Him playing just behind Greenwood, then just everyone else designed to press the hell out of the opposition. We’ll squeeze enough points like that. So I guess what I am saying is that Bruno and Greenwood combined are the answer.

 

[KeanoMagicHat]

I think he'd work next to Ronaldo.

He's played many matches with Ronaldo now and it hasn't worked. In theory you could get a team work with Ronaldo poacher and Fernandes second striker, but it would require a solid 4-4-2 shape and to be very careful with the shape and balance of the team. Fernandes and Ronaldo are both risky players that give away the ball, like to shoot and try things, so to support them we'd need different kind of players to what we have.

We'd need a stronger midfield (although that goes for every potential United selection) but more importantly we'd need true wingers, and not Greenwood or Rashford, who are striker-turned-wingers. Sancho could work on one side but I feel like at least one of the wingers would have be a pure support player who would be willing to run like hell, make dummy runs and be happy to accept no praise for it (again Greenwood and Rashford would never accept that role). I'm thinking some sort of Park Ji Sung/Thomas Muller hybrid. The closest thing in the squad probably willing to do that would be Lingard, but ideally you'd find a new player for that. Long story short, indulding Ronaldo and Fernandes would require quite a lot of indulging and players that drop their ego at the door, and they are in short supply in this United team.

 

[NoPace]

Yeah of course, to the question "who should be the most attacking member of a trio in midfield with 2 players who can pass the ball and control play next to/behind him"

Sancho-Greenwood-Rashford (Diallo)
---------------------Bruno----------------
------------#8------------------------------
-----------------#6-------------------------
Shaw----LCB------Varane--------RB

really not much has changed in a while, other than Wan-Bissaka completely stagnating, Maguire getting worse.

 

[Greck]

Not as enamored by his play. Been through so many debut season wonders already, the squad is half debut season wonders. Teams adjusted and he hasn't adjusted back. If not, he'll remain one of several tools in our kit but not a centerpiece. No one in a period of prolonged poor form really needs to be catered to beyond giving them a couple games to perform.