A New Hope in the Theatre of Dreams
The last time Manchester United bought an attacker from a top-flight European club was when they landed Romelu Lukaku from Everton back in summer 2017. They did sign Alexis Sanchez later that season but the deal was an old-school trade with Arsenal which sent Henrikh Mkhitaryan to London, rather than a purchase. Three calendar years after, the Red Devils finally land another attacking player from a top European club; and he goes by the name of Bruno Fernandes.
Prior to joining United, Fernandes played for Sporting Lisbon. The same club where United found Cristiano Ronaldo and Nani before taking them to Old Trafford. Last season, Fernandes helped Sporting to win a domestic cup double; including back-to-back Taca de Liga triumphs. What can United expect from the 25-year-old Portuguese?
Fernandes is mainly an attacking midfielder, and very capable playing in 4–2–3–1. However, he’s also capable to play in a deeper role and also as a right-side midfielder. It means he can play as a central midfielder in a 4–3–3 or 4–1–2–1–2, or as a right-winger in a 4–4–2.
Despite not being an out-and-out forward, Fernandes managed to score eight league goals for Sporting this season; not to mention additional five goals in the Europa League. Fernandes is an aggressive player, which shown by the rate of 3.5 shots per game he made in Liga NOS this season; highest in the league. On top of that, the 25-year-old was even more aggressive in Europe, with an average of 4.7 shots per match in the Europa League.
For comparison, no United player has reached that number in this campaign. Their talisman, Marcus Rashford, has only managed to take 3.4 shots per game in the Premier League. Furthermore, Andreas Pereira, Jesse Lingard, and Juan Mata — United’s attacking midfielders — just averaged 1.7, 1.1, and 1.6 shots per match in the league respectively.
Not only having an eye for a goal, but Fernandes also has the eye for his teammates. The Portuguese is very smart at creating chances for others as shown by an average of 3.7 key passes per game he made in Liga NOS; best in the league. Fernandes also made 0.4 successful through-balls per match; topping the chart in Sporting. This allowed him to get seven league assists to his name this campaign; with an additional three from five matches in Europe.
Well, it doesn’t stop there. Fernandes has more in his armory. He is known as a good dribbler, as proven by an average of 1.8 successful dribbles per match. With that ability, he’s also being a constant target by the opponents, as he got fouled 2.6 times per game. Both numbers are the highest among Sporting players this season.
However, quality-wise we must realize that Liga NOS is a tier under the Premier League. It’s not fair if we expect Fernandes to translate those attacking numbers to the arguably best league in the world rather smoothly. The 25-year-old indeed has some flaws in his game which can hinder United from getting the best from him.
Fernandes is quite known to lose the ball rather easily, as shown by an average of 2.5 bad touches per game; joint-tenth highest in the league. Furthermore, he also gets dispossessed quite often. His rate of 2.1 turnovers per match is the third highest across the Liga NOS. Such numbers is not acceptable in the Premier League; let alone for a club as big as United.
Despite everything, it will be very interesting to see how Fernandes cope at United. With Pereira, Lingard, and Mata playing below standard, Fernandes is somehow expected to be United’s messiah behind the main striker. Can he fulfill the sky-high expectation in the Theatre of Dreams?
Let’s wait and see.
Credit: transfermarkt.com, whoscored.com
I‘m Petrick Sinuraya, a 22-year-old football writer based in Indonesia.
Currently, I work as a freelance writer at Ronnie Dog Media; mostly writing match analysis pieces for totalfootballanalysis.com. I’m also actively writing as a freelance contributor for panditfootball.com, Indonesia’s biggest football site.
For inquiries, please contact me at petricksinuraya@gmail.com.
