The Genius of Bruno Fernandes: Watch and Learn — The Soccer Mentor
By: James Johnson
Tags: Football, Brunofernandes, Analysis, Manchester United, Soccer

Bruno Fernandes is a player who I love to watch. The difference in Manchester United’s play with and without Bruno Fernandes is night and day. For someone to have such an impact, they must be a special player. This warrants an article dedicated to the genius of Bruno Fernandes.

Under Sir Alex Ferguson, Manchester United gained a reputation for developing bright young players, signing world class-to be talents, and generally bettering the careers of countless footballers. United were the team to sign for between 1990 and 2013; aside from Barcelona or Real Madrid, playing for the Red Devils was the pinnacle of a player’s career.

Oh, how times have changed.

Since Ferguson retired in 2013, only a handful of United’s new signings have made a positive impact since their arrivals in Manchester. The likes of Marouane Fellaini, Memphis Depay, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Angel Di Maria, and Alexis Sanchez will all likely be remembered for their time elsewhere, despite arriving at United as superstars (or superstars-to-be).

Essentially, in the last six or seven years, Manchester United have signed a lot of good players who, by the time they left Old Trafford, weren’t as good.

From top to bottom, Manchester United are a club in transition. There’s unrest off the field, a divided fanbase, a load of underperforming superstars, and a lack of trophies. The Manchester United that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer inherited in 2018 was a far cry from the glory filled squad that had last won the title in 2013. Solskjaer needed to revitalise the team, and to an extent he has done this.

Progress at United is slow. But, if there is one man who will play an integral part in changing their fortunes, it’s a tricky midfielder from Portugal…

Bruno Fernandes arrived at Old Trafford in January 2020, and immediately made an impact.

Coveted by both Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool as well as United, Fernandes chose to join the latter when the Red Devil’s £47 million bid was accepted in January 2020. Fernandes brought something a little bit different to the Manchester United midfield; a technicality and finesse that Paul Pogba, and formerly Ander Herrera and Marouane Fellaini had lacked.

Fernandes’s stats speak for themselves. In 83 appearances for Sporting Lisbon, Fernandes scored 39 goals and recorded a further 28 assists, all from a creative midfield role. He’s continued in this vein at United, scoring 15 times and assisting only one less in 27 appearances.

But what is it that sets Fernandes apart? We break that down below…

His End Product

One thing that sets great players apart from good players is their ability to deliver when it matters. Whether this be in terms of performing to their best in a big match, stepping up and taking the winning penalty in the cup final, or cultivating a strong team atmosphere, great players do the hard things.

One of the most frustrating things to see in a creative midfielder is an ability to do all the hard things, only to blunder the finish. Bruno Fernandes does the hard part, and the ‘easy’ part.

The best creative midfielders all have impressive goal tallies. Philippe Coutinho scored 42 goals in 152 appearances at Liverpool, David Silva 60 in 309 at Man City (and 35 for Spain making him their fourth highest-ever goal scorer), Kaka 70 in 193 at AC Milan and Thomas Muller 124 in 362 at Bayern Munich.

Whilst the aforementioned did often play in slightly more advanced roles, the point still stands. They were not out and out strikers, and their role mainly consisted of creating chances. In January, it was reported that Fernandes had contributed a goal or assist every 88 minutes since the start of the 2018/19 season — an undeniably eye-catching statistic.

Fernandes creates and finishes. His end product is consistently good, and thus he, simply, is involved in a lot of goals.

His Penalties

Fernandes is often criticised by rival fans for the high proportion of his goals that comes from penalties. It is true that Manchester United seems to be awarded a high number of penalties by the controversial VAR, and Fernandes has capitalised.

The Portuguese midfielder has scored 13 out of the 14 penalties he’s taken for Manchester United. It’s understandable that this somewhat smears his statistical goal scoring record — he hasn’t scored many for United that haven’t been penalties — but regardless, scoring penalties is a skill in itself.

It takes nerve and precision to convert a penalty. A player that you’d always bet on to convert from the spot would be welcome in any team. Especially with the increased number of penalties given due to the introduction of VAR, penalty champions such as Fernandes are vital.

His Intelligence and Spatial Awareness

Arguably, it isn’t what Fernandes does with the ball that is his biggest strength; it’s what he does without it. Pundits have picked up on Fernandes’s incredible footballing brain. He constantly seems to be in the right place at the right time, finding space and generally being on the same wavelength as his teammates.

Manchester United teammate Odion Ighalo has expressed his amazement at Fernandes’s vision, saying ‘He is intelligent, he has foresight…he sees what he wants to do with the ball before it comes to him’. Furthermore, nearly every analysis of Bruno Fernandes pinpoints his spatial awareness and intelligence.

A sign of any great footballer is how quickly they process events on the pitch. In order to score and assist goals, one has to be in a position to do so, and this isn’t a skill that can be taught, per say. Developing this mental ability simply comes through match experience, thus why it is vital that young footballers play as many games as possible.

Fernandes is simply a step above the rest when it comes to the thinking side of football, and should he continue in his goal scoring and assisting vein, the dynamic midfielder could prove to be one of Manchester United’s greatest players in recent years.

You can learn from any professional footballer. After all, they’re still learning themselves. However, if you’re a creative midfielder, then Bruno Fernandes is definitely one to watch.