We had a four year thread like this with Pogba which was ultimately proven right, and it's high time that this was said in the same direct manner.
Bruno Fernandes is a pseudo midfielder without any top level ability to play a short game. He has no ability to retain the ball under pressure and compensates for this by swinging the ball with his first touch (or falling over) if he receives the ball with an opponent on him. He gives us no real advantage on the ball with the exception of an ability to at times play some outrageous final passes. He cannot open up a game with a quick one-two, a dribble or a carry, so in real terms - he does not add as much creativity to the team as is made out, because the ability to step away from two players and then play in Sancho to get an assist is of greater value to the team as a whole than the assists he may get himself from swinging it in behind first time from deep.
We effectively need to rely on two midfielders to keep the ball rather than 3, which is fine against the few teams that are scared shitless of us, but there are not many of those any more. This is a part of why we cannot keep the ball at a top level. In order to be a 'possession team', you absolutely need players with courage on the ball. Courage is not 'trying a risky pass', but it is trusting yourself to take it and absolutely ensure that the next person that gets it is one of your teammates, regardless of pressure around you. Preferably at speed.
Bruno is good at a few things, but whatever they are, he is not good at being a midfielder in any fundamental sense of the word. Given that the act of scoring or creating a chance comes so infrequently for any player, he is too poor at anything else for us to have a top class midfield 3 with him in it. Similarly to Pogba - he's a cherry on top player. It's not as noticeable to many as it is with Pogba because the issue and complaint there was that he needed to be carried without the ball. With Bruno, it is more the opposite in that without the ball he will do his bit, but a top team needs to carry him with the ball, i.e - find a way of becoming a dominant possession team bizarrely without much contribution from it's #10, probably the player supposed to be most fundamental to it. I say we'd never win the league like this because simply, over 38 games, any sort of throwback football Bruno may excel in will almost certainly fall short. The only title winner he could have played for is Leicester's anomaly of 2016 - whose football he would have suited perfectly.
The quicker we accept that we cannot cheat the process by sticking a few goals in the side and instead need to establish foundations, the quicker we will be on our way. And the shrinking minority who seem to believe that this can happen with Bruno in the team need to wake up and see what has been staring them in the face. There is no 'Bruno hatred' not even any 'Bruno vs Pogba' anymore. This is just what it is.
Bruno Fernandes is a pseudo midfielder without any top level ability to play a short game. He has no ability to retain the ball under pressure and compensates for this by swinging the ball with his first touch (or falling over) if he receives the ball with an opponent on him. He gives us no real advantage on the ball with the exception of an ability to at times play some outrageous final passes. He cannot open up a game with a quick one-two, a dribble or a carry, so in real terms - he does not add as much creativity to the team as is made out, because the ability to step away from two players and then play in Sancho to get an assist is of greater value to the team as a whole than the assists he may get himself from swinging it in behind first time from deep.
We effectively need to rely on two midfielders to keep the ball rather than 3, which is fine against the few teams that are scared shitless of us, but there are not many of those any more. This is a part of why we cannot keep the ball at a top level. In order to be a 'possession team', you absolutely need players with courage on the ball. Courage is not 'trying a risky pass', but it is trusting yourself to take it and absolutely ensure that the next person that gets it is one of your teammates, regardless of pressure around you. Preferably at speed.
Bruno is good at a few things, but whatever they are, he is not good at being a midfielder in any fundamental sense of the word. Given that the act of scoring or creating a chance comes so infrequently for any player, he is too poor at anything else for us to have a top class midfield 3 with him in it. Similarly to Pogba - he's a cherry on top player. It's not as noticeable to many as it is with Pogba because the issue and complaint there was that he needed to be carried without the ball. With Bruno, it is more the opposite in that without the ball he will do his bit, but a top team needs to carry him with the ball, i.e - find a way of becoming a dominant possession team bizarrely without much contribution from it's #10, probably the player supposed to be most fundamental to it. I say we'd never win the league like this because simply, over 38 games, any sort of throwback football Bruno may excel in will almost certainly fall short. The only title winner he could have played for is Leicester's anomaly of 2016 - whose football he would have suited perfectly.
The quicker we accept that we cannot cheat the process by sticking a few goals in the side and instead need to establish foundations, the quicker we will be on our way. And the shrinking minority who seem to believe that this can happen with Bruno in the team need to wake up and see what has been staring them in the face. There is no 'Bruno hatred' not even any 'Bruno vs Pogba' anymore. This is just what it is.