According to Manchester United icon Roy Keane, Bruno Fernandes’ lack of discipline and positional awareness off the ball is something that is costing the team.
Even though Keane thinks he can perform magic with the ball, he feels that when United aren’t winning, his off-the-ball work is a concern.
The Portuguese midfielder has been the best player at the club since joining in 2020 but sometimes his decision making and positioning sense can be erratic.
“If you watch him [Bruno Fernandes] at international level, he does the same [with floating around]. It can’t all be the coaches and managers,” Keane told the Stick to Football podcast.
“There is a player out there and if he’s doing all that stuff and producing magic, you almost forgive him but if you’re in a struggling team and you’re doing all that stuff, that’s where it stands out and you go ‘you’re killing us, you’re costing us’.
“I reckon if you look back at his career, he’s done it in every team. It’s a trait – it’s not as if he’s an inexperienced player – leopards and spots.
“He’ll get away with it if [Manchester] United were winning more matches and he was producing his bits of magic, which he has done before.”
“I always used to describe [Paul] Pogba a bit like this – I think there’s a difference between a great talent and a great player. Pogba was a great talent, but I didn’t think he was a great player and the same with Bruno Fernandes.
“No doubt the talent is there but there’s just something [missing] and the great players, it’s in their head of where they need to be whether it’s defensively or to receive the ball – like [Kevin] De Bruyne.
“De Bruyne is better than Fernandes but in terms of creating chances and different things, Fernandes is not a million miles away from him.
“We’ve seen him under Ole Gunnar Solskjær, I’ve watched him where – and it’s not being lazy by the way – he’s just running everywhere and this is without the ball by the way.
“He’s [Bruno Fernandes] very emotional. Sometimes when the game’s not going well, I’ve seen him running 30 yards to close the goalkeeper down and people sometimes get kidded by it and think ‘he’s working hard’.”
100% agree