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Bruno Fernandes could be Man Utd’s answer to Man City superstar Kevin De Bruyne after impressive debut
IT may just be one game but there were signs Bruno Fernandes could be Manchester United’s answer to Kevin De Bruyne.
Of course, the £46.6million buy has a long way to go to match the Manchester City superstar.
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But in his Old Trafford bow against Wolves, Fernandes packed some punch.
I’m not saying him and De Bruyne are the same players. But at times last season and earlier this season, City played more of a 4-2-3-1 with De Bruyne as a No 10.
And we have also seen De Bruyne in a more retracted position in a 4-3-3.
Fernandes also has the ability to play in both positions.
The one thing United struggle with is creativity and that is probably why they are better on the counter-attack.
In Fernandes they now have a player who can dictate either from deep or from higher up the pitch, depending on what the game demands.
On Saturday he started in the No 10 position but as the game went on he realised he could have more of an influence from deep positions because of how compact Wolves were.
As a No 10, he is looking to get between the opposition midfield and defence.
Then sometimes you try to be the playmaker in a deep position because you are trying to drag out the opposition.
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Opponents are not going to want to let a player like Fernandes have time on the ball, so they have to come out and try to stop him.
That means their midfield are probably going to play a little bit higher, which is a way of separating them from the defence.
What happens is you either have a big gap created in the opponents’ defence by him playing deeper, or that defence will push higher up because they don’t want that gap to be so big between themselves and the midfield.
What really impressed me about Fernandes was as soon as he passed the ball, he was immediately looking to pick it up again.
He doesn’t admire his pass, whether it is a ten-yard one or a 30-yarder. It was all about how he could get back on the ball.
He looks like a man who, if he has players making the right movement off him, he will find them.
Every time Fernandes picked the ball up there were players making runs because they trusted him.
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Against Wolves he had the most shots, the most shots on target, the most passes and the most passes in the opposition half.
Boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is looking for leaders and one of the things that stood out was that he wanted the ball all the time, he wanted to take responsibility, no matter where he was on the pitch.
As debuts go, it was impressive.
Bruno Fernandes' wife and daughter watch his MOTM Man Utd debut from Old Trafford box
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