The Overlap, a fantastic show.
I mentioned once I never see this manager on the touchline giving orders. Even if Bruno is given this licence to roam, one would assume the manager will be out there instructing the player to be more disciplined when this tactic is not going wrong. It appears to me Bruno just does whatever he wants on the pitch and no one pulls him up, which is the biggest frustration. Forget the manager, one of the players should have the minerals to get a hold of him and give him a royal bollicking.
Whether people like him or not, I saw Sancho do this to him once saying to him to shut his mouth, he moans too much.
It has got to a stage for me, I am of the opinion Rashford and Bruno have to go for us to rebuild!
My issue with Bruno is summed up perfectly by Keano at the end.
Always thought that of Bruno. When he gets mad he starts chasing everything down for a while even lost causes. Easy to say 'look, that shows he cares', but in truth is he is often disrupting the shape of the team. Rashford does a similar thing often.
comment by RB&W - One man down, One nil up (U21434)
posted 1 minute ago
Always thought that of Bruno. When he gets mad he starts chasing everything down for a while even lost causes. Easy to say 'look, that shows he cares', but in truth is he is often disrupting the shape of the team. Rashford does a similar thing often.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I think Keane mentioned this on the show. When we are getting absolutely rinsed by City or Pool last year, find it laughable when people say at least player X is running! What else are they to do, they are cra* so running is all there is to offer.
Good post. Bruno's tendency to improvise, try the unexpected, and attempt very low % actions hurts us at times, but I do there are a few reasons why we shouldn't overstate this:
1. Firstly, he's still by a huge margin our most productive player, and I just don't think we can afford to take that creativity / those goal involvements out of the team. We should definitely be working on getting him to think twice between trying the 1/100 probability heroic shot/pass, and working on building a more coherent attack that's not so dependent on individual brilliance. But let's not forget that we've scored a lot of goals thanks to Bruno and not assume the pathway to replacing those goals if we took him out of the team would be smooth.
2. Is he preventing us playing as we're 'supposed' to or has the manager taken a look at the strengths of our squad and decided to give him licence because we don't (yet) have the technical proficiency or athletic profile to dominate possession and play a high defensive line like City? I guess the same question applies to Rashford's relatively limited defensive contributions: is the player being lazy, or is the manager instructing him not to expend too much energy tracking back because his pace once we get him against an isolated defender is one of our biggest weapons?
- I'd question Neville's notion that "these days all successful teams have to play very disciplined positional football". This actually seems a bit thick coming from someone who is paid to study the game. Football tactics are diverse, even when certain methods are dominant, and those cycles of dominance come to an end. Real Madrid have had a decent few years under Ancelotti, while failing to follow the orthodoxies of "positionist" principles. Granted, they've had some decent players in their team. Fluminense have just won the Copa Libertadores deploying a very radically "relationist" style that emphasises spontaneous creative decision making all over the pitch. They're incredible to watch: sometimes it looks like a team of 11 Brunos. And that approach made the club - not the richest or biggest in Brazil - champions of South America for the first time in their history.
- When United are playing well (when we were cresting the wave less than a year ago) no one seems to be worried about Bruno holding back the team. When the coherence of the football starts to break down, and the results follow, that's when we all start to question individual players.
I would like to see the team set up without Bruno for three or four games, I think there will be a general improvement
Ha! Apologies: I went on so long, I forgot that I'd started with numbers and then switched to bullet points. At least I called it a day at 4, I guess.
I've said a lot of this myself. The amount of charging around everywhere fools people into thinking he's super hard working but he causes a lot of issues for us when he does this.
And on the ball as well... You can never really tell what he's going to do. His play in and out of possession contributes to us looking disjointed. Add to the fact that players like Rashford and Garnacho (who is young obviously) are also quite unpredictable on the ball plus two or three others who are not particularly tidy and it comes as no surprise to me that we also look disconnected in possession.
I know people like to point to his 'chances created' stats and so on... I don't care for these stats personally. The fact is that he's one of our key attacking players and in the last three seasons we've struggled to score goals. Teams that don't have a player like him score more than us and we never had one single player in our pomp under Fergie who posted such stats either (but we never struggled to score goals or make chances). What we did have was a squad of quality players across the board and a certain degree of predictability in what they'd do and where they would be on the pitch. You knew what Beckham wanted to do or what Giggs would try and do (even if the opposite know what you want to do - if you're good enough, more of ten than not they won't be able to stop you). Strikers knew which areas to run into and you'd see coordinated movements and patterns. You see this with De Bruyne all the time, getting into the inside right area and creating threats with his passing, crossing or ability to drive with the ball.
comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 1 minute ago
Ha! Apologies: I went on so long, I forgot that I'd started with numbers and then switched to bullet points. At least I called it a day at 4, I guess.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
As usual a good post. Not usual for me is I don't agree.
I think he's hurting the team by trying heroics as you put it, and moaning. Goals don't have to come from 'moments' but can come from good play.
comment by BerbaKing11 (U6256)
posted 4 minutes ago
I've said a lot of this myself. The amount of charging around everywhere fools people into thinking he's super hard working but he causes a lot of issues for us when he does this.
And on the ball as well... You can never really tell what he's going to do. His play in and out of possession contributes to us looking disjointed. Add to the fact that players like Rashford and Garnacho (who is young obviously) are also quite unpredictable on the ball plus two or three others who are not particularly tidy and it comes as no surprise to me that we also look disconnected in possession.
I know people like to point to his 'chances created' stats and so on... I don't care for these stats personally. The fact is that he's one of our key attacking players and in the last three seasons we've struggled to score goals. Teams that don't have a player like him score more than us and we never had one single player in our pomp under Fergie who posted such stats either (but we never struggled to score goals or make chances). What we did have was a squad of quality players across the board and a certain degree of predictability in what they'd do and where they would be on the pitch. You knew what Beckham wanted to do or what Giggs would try and do (even if the opposite know what you want to do - if you're good enough, more of ten than not they won't be able to stop you). Strikers knew which areas to run into and you'd see coordinated movements and patterns. You see this with De Bruyne all the time, getting into the inside right area and creating threats with his passing, crossing or ability to drive with the ball.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Top post!
Bruno is our most creative player. To not play him would be madness. Unless/until we can replace him, what he offers outweighs what he doesnt and meanwhile its up to the coach to show him when he is going wrong.
comment by RB&W - One man down, One nil up (U21434)
posted 2 minutes ago
Bruno is our most creative player. To not play him would be madness. Unless/until we can replace him, what he offers outweighs what he doesnt and meanwhile its up to the coach to show him when he is going wrong.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Madness? I would not go this far. Our season mate is over. It is not time to try the unthinkable, we have nothing here to lose.
I do agree with you I have said it numerous times I do not see this manager on the touch line giving instructions. Like the players he picks and choose to have a fight with, I saw him giving Martial a bollocking once (deservedly so). Why this same treatment is not happening to Bruno is bewildering.
comment by RB&W - One man down, One nil up (U21434)
posted 4 minutes ago
Bruno is our most creative player. To not play him would be madness. Unless/until we can replace him, what he offers outweighs what he doesnt and meanwhile its up to the coach to show him when he is going wrong.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
How have we played without him?
Bruno is our most creative player. To not play him would be madness.
……
Would it though? I don’t think we could be any the worse off.
comment by manusince52 (U9692)
posted 2 minutes ago
comment by RB&W - One man down, One nil up (U21434)
posted 4 minutes ago
Bruno is our most creative player. To not play him would be madness. Unless/until we can replace him, what he offers outweighs what he doesnt and meanwhile its up to the coach to show him when he is going wrong.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
How have we played without him?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
52, we did go a spell without him and Rashford where most people did say they should go out. We played one game very well and the other I believe we were terrible.
As you said though, this is not a quick fix. We won't really see the impact unless they are dropped for 4/5 games, which won't happen.
Ultimately, they have to go.
There were similar arguments about playing or not playing Ronaldo in his last spell. Selling him hasn't exactly made a difference either way.
comment by 115 reasons why ours is better (U22832)
posted 1 minute ago
There were similar arguments about playing or not playing Ronaldo in his last spell. Selling him hasn't exactly made a difference either way.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Oh 🤣🤣.
This is a story for another day.
Bruno was at fault for Spurs second equaliser. He was running back, but the nearest player to him was Bentancur who he failed to track. By the time Bentancur got into the box Eriksen was the nearest player and it appeared that it was he and not Bruno that had failed to track a midfield runner, but if you watch the whole goal it was 100% Bruno’s slack arrse back tracking.
It's quite hard for any of us to substantiate our views about playing without Bruno because it's pretty hypothetical, isn't it? He's never injured and almost always plays, so the sample size of United without Bruno is so tiny we can only really guess.
For the time being, we can speculate about who would take his place. We've seen potential candidates come and go while hardly making a mark. Donny looked like an attacking midfielder who could keep it simple, bring other players into the game, be a bit more ball secure than Bruno, and arrive late into the box to contribute goal threat. On paper that looked great. Sancho was another player who theoretically seemed like he could be very creative in the centre, while less likely to lose possession cheaply. Once again: didn't turn out that way.
Mount could have been a Bruno understudy, or a player who could work in a system with two 8s rather than having a 10. Hard to judge his impact or potential with all the time spent injured. Amad looks very gifted, and if he could have the same impact in the PL as he did in the Championship, he could be a credible alternative to Bruno (or Antony) but that's a big 'if' and again injury has prevented us from testing out that proposition.
Who else is there at this point of time?
Classic case of pundits and media workers having to come out with something every now and then, which is why they're all full of sheet.
I mean, you're a pundit, you're paid to say things and eventually you inevitably run out of interesting things which are also true and relevant to say, so you resort to abstract concepts and some even lie.
comment by 115 reasons why ours is better (U22832)
posted 10 minutes ago
There were similar arguments about playing or not playing Ronaldo in his last spell. Selling him hasn't exactly made a difference either way.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Except that Ronaldo wasn't scoring or creating goals and was a toxic presence in the locker room. Bruno is still creating a large % of our goals and scoring opportunities, so we do have to think about replacing his contribution in a way we didn't Ronaldo's.
comment by Thorgen Kloppinson - "When the facts are in your favour, you argue the facts. When facts are not in your favour you argue the process." (U1282)
posted 6 minutes ago
Classic case of pundits and media workers having to come out with something every now and then, which is why they're all full of sheet.
I mean, you're a pundit, you're paid to say things and eventually you inevitably run out of interesting things which are also true and relevant to say, so you resort to abstract concepts and some even lie.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
They have a podcast show every week, so they have to say something!
Bruno is kinda part of the reason why we're so poor in possession. 90% of the time, all he wants to do is play that killer pass which results in losing possession most of the time, you play enough killer balls, you're bound to land one in a 100 attempts.
There needs to be a time in play when you think just keep it simple, but all we see him do is either a flick, a stylish pass looking the opposite direction which is so annoying or a Hollywood ball.
comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 6 minutes ago
It's quite hard for any of us to substantiate our views about playing without Bruno because it's pretty hypothetical, isn't it? He's never injured and almost always plays, so the sample size of United without Bruno is so tiny we can only really guess.
For the time being, we can speculate about who would take his place. We've seen potential candidates come and go while hardly making a mark. Donny looked like an attacking midfielder who could keep it simple, bring other players into the game, be a bit more ball secure than Bruno, and arrive late into the box to contribute goal threat. On paper that looked great. Sancho was another player who theoretically seemed like he could be very creative in the centre, while less likely to lose possession cheaply. Once again: didn't turn out that way.
Mount could have been a Bruno understudy, or a player who could work in a system with two 8s rather than having a 10. Hard to judge his impact or potential with all the time spent injured. Amad looks very gifted, and if he could have the same impact in the PL as he did in the Championship, he could be a credible alternative to Bruno (or Antony) but that's a big 'if' and again injury has prevented us from testing out that proposition.
Who else is there at this point of time?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Antony at no10.
I think he's too slow for a wide position in this team but I do think he has qualities that could work as a No10/AM.
He's a decent dribbler.
Has a decent shot.
Likes a nice slide through pass.
Keeps it simple (frustratingly!) a lot of times out wide.
Works hard.
Is disciplined positionally.
I do think it is down to the manager/coaches to get Bruno to be more disciplined though. To see the very best of Bruno though I do think we'd need a pair of wide players that are both fast and work hard. Otherwise we may find we'd be better with a midfield three. Is this where Mount comes in alongside Casemiro and Mainoo?
I think it's more of a positional issue than Bruno himself.. This has been a UTD headache since Juan Mata got helicoptered in.
For some reason 5 successive managers have tried to play a proper #10 type who can drift around the pitch. I have zero understanding as to why this keeps happening, but it does.
I'm not entirely sold on Neville's point either... I imagine a averaged heat map would show that Bruno stays fairly central through any given match and doesn't drift too much more than any other play in that AMF/#10 role.
These ex-players are good at times, but never forget they are paid talking heads in a society where the goal is to create interactions and heated debate.
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Bruno
Page 1 of 3
posted on 19/1/24
The Overlap, a fantastic show.
I mentioned once I never see this manager on the touchline giving orders. Even if Bruno is given this licence to roam, one would assume the manager will be out there instructing the player to be more disciplined when this tactic is not going wrong. It appears to me Bruno just does whatever he wants on the pitch and no one pulls him up, which is the biggest frustration. Forget the manager, one of the players should have the minerals to get a hold of him and give him a royal bollicking.
Whether people like him or not, I saw Sancho do this to him once saying to him to shut his mouth, he moans too much.
It has got to a stage for me, I am of the opinion Rashford and Bruno have to go for us to rebuild!
posted on 19/1/24
My issue with Bruno is summed up perfectly by Keano at the end.
posted on 19/1/24
Always thought that of Bruno. When he gets mad he starts chasing everything down for a while even lost causes. Easy to say 'look, that shows he cares', but in truth is he is often disrupting the shape of the team. Rashford does a similar thing often.
posted on 19/1/24
comment by RB&W - One man down, One nil up (U21434)
posted 1 minute ago
Always thought that of Bruno. When he gets mad he starts chasing everything down for a while even lost causes. Easy to say 'look, that shows he cares', but in truth is he is often disrupting the shape of the team. Rashford does a similar thing often.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I think Keane mentioned this on the show. When we are getting absolutely rinsed by City or Pool last year, find it laughable when people say at least player X is running! What else are they to do, they are cra* so running is all there is to offer.
posted on 19/1/24
Good post. Bruno's tendency to improvise, try the unexpected, and attempt very low % actions hurts us at times, but I do there are a few reasons why we shouldn't overstate this:
1. Firstly, he's still by a huge margin our most productive player, and I just don't think we can afford to take that creativity / those goal involvements out of the team. We should definitely be working on getting him to think twice between trying the 1/100 probability heroic shot/pass, and working on building a more coherent attack that's not so dependent on individual brilliance. But let's not forget that we've scored a lot of goals thanks to Bruno and not assume the pathway to replacing those goals if we took him out of the team would be smooth.
2. Is he preventing us playing as we're 'supposed' to or has the manager taken a look at the strengths of our squad and decided to give him licence because we don't (yet) have the technical proficiency or athletic profile to dominate possession and play a high defensive line like City? I guess the same question applies to Rashford's relatively limited defensive contributions: is the player being lazy, or is the manager instructing him not to expend too much energy tracking back because his pace once we get him against an isolated defender is one of our biggest weapons?
- I'd question Neville's notion that "these days all successful teams have to play very disciplined positional football". This actually seems a bit thick coming from someone who is paid to study the game. Football tactics are diverse, even when certain methods are dominant, and those cycles of dominance come to an end. Real Madrid have had a decent few years under Ancelotti, while failing to follow the orthodoxies of "positionist" principles. Granted, they've had some decent players in their team. Fluminense have just won the Copa Libertadores deploying a very radically "relationist" style that emphasises spontaneous creative decision making all over the pitch. They're incredible to watch: sometimes it looks like a team of 11 Brunos. And that approach made the club - not the richest or biggest in Brazil - champions of South America for the first time in their history.
- When United are playing well (when we were cresting the wave less than a year ago) no one seems to be worried about Bruno holding back the team. When the coherence of the football starts to break down, and the results follow, that's when we all start to question individual players.
posted on 19/1/24
I would like to see the team set up without Bruno for three or four games, I think there will be a general improvement
posted on 19/1/24
Ha! Apologies: I went on so long, I forgot that I'd started with numbers and then switched to bullet points. At least I called it a day at 4, I guess.
posted on 19/1/24
I've said a lot of this myself. The amount of charging around everywhere fools people into thinking he's super hard working but he causes a lot of issues for us when he does this.
And on the ball as well... You can never really tell what he's going to do. His play in and out of possession contributes to us looking disjointed. Add to the fact that players like Rashford and Garnacho (who is young obviously) are also quite unpredictable on the ball plus two or three others who are not particularly tidy and it comes as no surprise to me that we also look disconnected in possession.
I know people like to point to his 'chances created' stats and so on... I don't care for these stats personally. The fact is that he's one of our key attacking players and in the last three seasons we've struggled to score goals. Teams that don't have a player like him score more than us and we never had one single player in our pomp under Fergie who posted such stats either (but we never struggled to score goals or make chances). What we did have was a squad of quality players across the board and a certain degree of predictability in what they'd do and where they would be on the pitch. You knew what Beckham wanted to do or what Giggs would try and do (even if the opposite know what you want to do - if you're good enough, more of ten than not they won't be able to stop you). Strikers knew which areas to run into and you'd see coordinated movements and patterns. You see this with De Bruyne all the time, getting into the inside right area and creating threats with his passing, crossing or ability to drive with the ball.
posted on 19/1/24
comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 1 minute ago
Ha! Apologies: I went on so long, I forgot that I'd started with numbers and then switched to bullet points. At least I called it a day at 4, I guess.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
As usual a good post. Not usual for me is I don't agree.
I think he's hurting the team by trying heroics as you put it, and moaning. Goals don't have to come from 'moments' but can come from good play.
posted on 19/1/24
comment by BerbaKing11 (U6256)
posted 4 minutes ago
I've said a lot of this myself. The amount of charging around everywhere fools people into thinking he's super hard working but he causes a lot of issues for us when he does this.
And on the ball as well... You can never really tell what he's going to do. His play in and out of possession contributes to us looking disjointed. Add to the fact that players like Rashford and Garnacho (who is young obviously) are also quite unpredictable on the ball plus two or three others who are not particularly tidy and it comes as no surprise to me that we also look disconnected in possession.
I know people like to point to his 'chances created' stats and so on... I don't care for these stats personally. The fact is that he's one of our key attacking players and in the last three seasons we've struggled to score goals. Teams that don't have a player like him score more than us and we never had one single player in our pomp under Fergie who posted such stats either (but we never struggled to score goals or make chances). What we did have was a squad of quality players across the board and a certain degree of predictability in what they'd do and where they would be on the pitch. You knew what Beckham wanted to do or what Giggs would try and do (even if the opposite know what you want to do - if you're good enough, more of ten than not they won't be able to stop you). Strikers knew which areas to run into and you'd see coordinated movements and patterns. You see this with De Bruyne all the time, getting into the inside right area and creating threats with his passing, crossing or ability to drive with the ball.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Top post!
posted on 19/1/24
Bruno is our most creative player. To not play him would be madness. Unless/until we can replace him, what he offers outweighs what he doesnt and meanwhile its up to the coach to show him when he is going wrong.
posted on 19/1/24
comment by RB&W - One man down, One nil up (U21434)
posted 2 minutes ago
Bruno is our most creative player. To not play him would be madness. Unless/until we can replace him, what he offers outweighs what he doesnt and meanwhile its up to the coach to show him when he is going wrong.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Madness? I would not go this far. Our season mate is over. It is not time to try the unthinkable, we have nothing here to lose.
I do agree with you I have said it numerous times I do not see this manager on the touch line giving instructions. Like the players he picks and choose to have a fight with, I saw him giving Martial a bollocking once (deservedly so). Why this same treatment is not happening to Bruno is bewildering.
posted on 19/1/24
comment by RB&W - One man down, One nil up (U21434)
posted 4 minutes ago
Bruno is our most creative player. To not play him would be madness. Unless/until we can replace him, what he offers outweighs what he doesnt and meanwhile its up to the coach to show him when he is going wrong.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
How have we played without him?
posted on 19/1/24
Bruno is our most creative player. To not play him would be madness.
……
Would it though? I don’t think we could be any the worse off.
posted on 19/1/24
comment by manusince52 (U9692)
posted 2 minutes ago
comment by RB&W - One man down, One nil up (U21434)
posted 4 minutes ago
Bruno is our most creative player. To not play him would be madness. Unless/until we can replace him, what he offers outweighs what he doesnt and meanwhile its up to the coach to show him when he is going wrong.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
How have we played without him?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
52, we did go a spell without him and Rashford where most people did say they should go out. We played one game very well and the other I believe we were terrible.
As you said though, this is not a quick fix. We won't really see the impact unless they are dropped for 4/5 games, which won't happen.
Ultimately, they have to go.
posted on 19/1/24
There were similar arguments about playing or not playing Ronaldo in his last spell. Selling him hasn't exactly made a difference either way.
posted on 19/1/24
comment by 115 reasons why ours is better (U22832)
posted 1 minute ago
There were similar arguments about playing or not playing Ronaldo in his last spell. Selling him hasn't exactly made a difference either way.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Oh 🤣🤣.
This is a story for another day.
posted on 19/1/24
Bruno was at fault for Spurs second equaliser. He was running back, but the nearest player to him was Bentancur who he failed to track. By the time Bentancur got into the box Eriksen was the nearest player and it appeared that it was he and not Bruno that had failed to track a midfield runner, but if you watch the whole goal it was 100% Bruno’s slack arrse back tracking.
posted on 19/1/24
It's quite hard for any of us to substantiate our views about playing without Bruno because it's pretty hypothetical, isn't it? He's never injured and almost always plays, so the sample size of United without Bruno is so tiny we can only really guess.
For the time being, we can speculate about who would take his place. We've seen potential candidates come and go while hardly making a mark. Donny looked like an attacking midfielder who could keep it simple, bring other players into the game, be a bit more ball secure than Bruno, and arrive late into the box to contribute goal threat. On paper that looked great. Sancho was another player who theoretically seemed like he could be very creative in the centre, while less likely to lose possession cheaply. Once again: didn't turn out that way.
Mount could have been a Bruno understudy, or a player who could work in a system with two 8s rather than having a 10. Hard to judge his impact or potential with all the time spent injured. Amad looks very gifted, and if he could have the same impact in the PL as he did in the Championship, he could be a credible alternative to Bruno (or Antony) but that's a big 'if' and again injury has prevented us from testing out that proposition.
Who else is there at this point of time?
posted on 19/1/24
Classic case of pundits and media workers having to come out with something every now and then, which is why they're all full of sheet.
I mean, you're a pundit, you're paid to say things and eventually you inevitably run out of interesting things which are also true and relevant to say, so you resort to abstract concepts and some even lie.
posted on 19/1/24
comment by 115 reasons why ours is better (U22832)
posted 10 minutes ago
There were similar arguments about playing or not playing Ronaldo in his last spell. Selling him hasn't exactly made a difference either way.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Except that Ronaldo wasn't scoring or creating goals and was a toxic presence in the locker room. Bruno is still creating a large % of our goals and scoring opportunities, so we do have to think about replacing his contribution in a way we didn't Ronaldo's.
posted on 19/1/24
comment by Thorgen Kloppinson - "When the facts are in your favour, you argue the facts. When facts are not in your favour you argue the process." (U1282)
posted 6 minutes ago
Classic case of pundits and media workers having to come out with something every now and then, which is why they're all full of sheet.
I mean, you're a pundit, you're paid to say things and eventually you inevitably run out of interesting things which are also true and relevant to say, so you resort to abstract concepts and some even lie.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
They have a podcast show every week, so they have to say something!
posted on 19/1/24
Bruno is kinda part of the reason why we're so poor in possession. 90% of the time, all he wants to do is play that killer pass which results in losing possession most of the time, you play enough killer balls, you're bound to land one in a 100 attempts.
There needs to be a time in play when you think just keep it simple, but all we see him do is either a flick, a stylish pass looking the opposite direction which is so annoying or a Hollywood ball.
posted on 19/1/24
comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 6 minutes ago
It's quite hard for any of us to substantiate our views about playing without Bruno because it's pretty hypothetical, isn't it? He's never injured and almost always plays, so the sample size of United without Bruno is so tiny we can only really guess.
For the time being, we can speculate about who would take his place. We've seen potential candidates come and go while hardly making a mark. Donny looked like an attacking midfielder who could keep it simple, bring other players into the game, be a bit more ball secure than Bruno, and arrive late into the box to contribute goal threat. On paper that looked great. Sancho was another player who theoretically seemed like he could be very creative in the centre, while less likely to lose possession cheaply. Once again: didn't turn out that way.
Mount could have been a Bruno understudy, or a player who could work in a system with two 8s rather than having a 10. Hard to judge his impact or potential with all the time spent injured. Amad looks very gifted, and if he could have the same impact in the PL as he did in the Championship, he could be a credible alternative to Bruno (or Antony) but that's a big 'if' and again injury has prevented us from testing out that proposition.
Who else is there at this point of time?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Antony at no10.
I think he's too slow for a wide position in this team but I do think he has qualities that could work as a No10/AM.
He's a decent dribbler.
Has a decent shot.
Likes a nice slide through pass.
Keeps it simple (frustratingly!) a lot of times out wide.
Works hard.
Is disciplined positionally.
I do think it is down to the manager/coaches to get Bruno to be more disciplined though. To see the very best of Bruno though I do think we'd need a pair of wide players that are both fast and work hard. Otherwise we may find we'd be better with a midfield three. Is this where Mount comes in alongside Casemiro and Mainoo?
posted on 19/1/24
I think it's more of a positional issue than Bruno himself.. This has been a UTD headache since Juan Mata got helicoptered in.
For some reason 5 successive managers have tried to play a proper #10 type who can drift around the pitch. I have zero understanding as to why this keeps happening, but it does.
I'm not entirely sold on Neville's point either... I imagine a averaged heat map would show that Bruno stays fairly central through any given match and doesn't drift too much more than any other play in that AMF/#10 role.
These ex-players are good at times, but never forget they are paid talking heads in a society where the goal is to create interactions and heated debate.
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