Man Utd are better for being a Bruno Fernandes team, not a Cristiano Ronaldo one

The past week represents a significant step forward for Manchester United, which might seem peculiar if you solely compare the results with the equivalent games from last season.

After all, United also beat Tottenham Hotspur at home last season and drew 1-1 at Stamford Bridge. What’s the difference?

Well, almost everything. The 3-2 win over Tottenham last season was almost a parody of the arguments for and against including Cristiano Ronaldo in the side. United were largely outplayed, but Ronaldo smashed in a brilliant hat-trick. At Stamford Bridge, in the brief period when Michael Carrick was in charge, United played very defensively and only scored thanks to a silly Jorginho error allowing them to break from a Chelsea set piece. They created little else.

This time around, Erik ten Hag’s side were controlled and confident against Tottenham, peppering Hugo Lloris’ goal with shots throughout the first half before winning the game in the second half. On Saturday, they needed a superb late Casemiro header to claim a point at Stamford Bridge, but their opening to the game was again excellent, dominating midfield to such an extent that Graham Potter needed to radically change his formation before half-time to ensure Chelsea weren’t overrun.

Since the 6-3 destruction at the hands of Manchester City, United are defensively stronger, conceding just twice in four games (to a long-range Alex Iwobi goal and a Jorginho penalty, rather than through their defence being opened up). Their pressing is cohesive, which prevented Tottenham and Chelsea from playing from defence into midfield.

The midfield is fluent, with the trio breaking through the opposition swiftly. At times they’ve looked like a 4-2-3-1, at times more like a 4-3-3, appearing in both formats against Tottenham in different phases of the game. Fred sat alongside Casemiro to help press Tottenham’s midfield trio but then pushed forward to play alongside Bruno Fernandes — although the Portuguese midfielder always looked to break in behind the opposition defence.

In attack, there are runs in behind and dangerous shots from range. Perhaps most interestingly, United are a constant attacking threat despite the fact Jadon Sancho still isn’t at his best, Marcus Rashford remains wasteful in front of goal, and Antony, while excellent so far, is still in his formative days at the club. In other words, Manchester United are not excelling purely through individual magic from their attackers, which may come at a later date.

The man who is once again dominating the side, however, is Fernandes. He curled home an excellent goal in the 2-0 victory over Tottenham and created two fine chances in the first half at Stamford Bridge, for Rashford and Antony. After a year where Fernandes’ prominence was compromised because of the presence of Cristiano Ronaldo, this is now his side once again.

Fernandes remains underappreciated and his impact at the club is often forgotten. Upon Fernandes’ arrival in January 2020, Manchester United were a shambolic outfit and the league table from that point is worth a glance. United were fully 36 points behind eventual title winners Liverpool and merely four ahead of Burnley, Newcastle and other mid-table teams.

From that point, United were transformed. From Fernandes’ arrival until the end of the campaign, they collected the most points in the league.

The following season, they finished second behind Manchester City.

This wasn’t all down to Fernandes, of course, and his statistics were boosted by a decent number of penalties. But he recorded 15 goals and assists from 14 games in his first season, then 30 in 37 games in his second season.

In his first calendar year at the club, he won the Premier League player of the month award four times. To put that into context, only six players (Sergio Aguero, Harry Kane, Steven Gerrard, Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie) have won the award more than four times in their entire Premier League career.

Fernandes’ impact was extraordinary and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s decision to base the side around Fernandes as a No 10, rather than as a dual No 8 alongside Paul Pogba, was the best of his United tenure.

And then, of course, United signed Ronaldo, and the side went from being based around Fernandes to being based around Ronaldo. He largely fulfilled his individual responsibility, but the side suffered overall. United slumped to sixth and in points terms, they were as close to 19th-placed Watford as they were to champions Manchester City.

That’s a simplistic summary, but it tells a story. When The Athletic asked Fernandes whether he plays well enough with Ronaldo earlier this season, he gave a diplomatic answer.

“Most of my assists last season were for him, so I don’t think (it is a fair criticism),” Fernandes said. “I just had a poor season in terms of my own numbers. I don’t think it is about Cristiano or myself… to play with Cristiano as a No 10 is actually really good because players respect Cristiano so much that it creates more space, as the opponents are afraid of him taking the ball and scoring. They want to mark him and create an overload where he is to mark him.”

And there are examples of Fernandes and Ronaldo combining for goals, as you’d expect of a top-class attacking midfielder and a legendary striker. There’s no personal problem between them, although Fernandes can sometimes seem too deferential, feeling compelled to pass to his more famed team-mate at times.

The numbers from this season, though, make for interesting reading. Here’s a chart looking at Fernandes’ combined expected goal (xG) and expected assist (xA) numbers for the season so far, alongside information about whether or not Ronaldo played the majority of the game. (For clarity, “yes” indicates he played 62 minutes or more. “No” means he played 32 minutes or less.)

The pattern is striking. Fernandes was lively even in defeat at Brighton when Ronaldo was left out, then anonymous against Brentford when Ronaldo started. Ronaldo being dropped against Liverpool prompted a significant improvement from Fernandes, who was also excellent against Southampton and Arsenal.

Granted, there were a couple of quieter Fernandes displays against Leicester and in the hammering at Manchester City, but the pattern returns afterwards. Fernandes offered little against Everton and Newcastle when largely playing behind Ronaldo. Then, as Ronaldo has been left out against Tottenham and Chelsea, Fernandes has starred again.

This is a relatively small sample size of 11 games. But the pattern feels significant, especially as the numbers back up the eye test.

And to demonstrate that Fernandes’ xG and xA figures haven’t been boosted in “non-Ronaldo” games after Ronaldo’s introduction from the bench, here’s the minutes the two have played together and the xG they have combined for — in other words, when one has created a chance for the other.

In the equivalent of 3.75 games together, Fernandes and Ronaldo have assisted one another for merely 0.19xG of chances.

To put that into context, Fernandes created chances for Rashford against Tottenham and against Chelsea that were both individually higher than the xG figure between Fernandes and Ronaldo from 3.75 games.

Ronaldo tends to make runs for himself, coming short to get a touch of the ball simply because he wants to be involved. He often occupies Fernandes’ space rather than helping to drag opponents apart to create space.

While Rashford’s shooting has been patchy, his and Fernandes’ movement has been structured and cohesive. United usually have an attacking option between the lines and another in behind.

The best example came midway through the first half against Tottenham. When Fred receives the ball in midfield, Fernandes is effectively part of a strike duo – him to the right, Rashford to the left.

The crucial part of this move is Fernandes’ look over his shoulder to check Rashford is ready to make a run. Fernandes then drops to the left and Rashford makes a run into the right channel.

That simple movement causes Spurs’ defence problems — Eric Dier is trying to pass Fernandes on — and now Fred has two excellent options for a forward pass. He goes for the run in behind and Rashford might have done better with this chance.

Here’s Rashford’s first goal in the 3-1 win over Arsenal. It’s a similar thing — Fernandes to the right, checking over his shoulder to see Rashford ready to make a run from the left.

This time the ball is played through Fernandes and his brilliant outside-of-the-foot ball finds Rashford, who makes another of those runs into the right channel, and scores.

Fernandes is good at finding Rashford’s runs. Here’s a similar situation against Chelsea, with Casemiro slipping the ball onto Fernandes, who then passes in behind for Rashford. His first touch here is heavy and Kepa shuts him down.

And, crucially, there is movement in the other direction. This goal was disallowed for offside and the Tottenham defence might have stopped playing, knowing Fernandes had gone too early. But it’s a good example of Rashford coming short and arrowing the ball in for Fernandes to go through on goal.

Fernandes’ volley against Southampton earlier this season is also worth mentioning — a completely different situation, as he converted a deep Diogo Dalot cross. But again, in the build-up, we can only see the back of Fernandes’ head as he sees Rashford’s run and knows to hang back and wait for the space to open up.

Fernandes has a reputation as an individualist based on his performances since joining Manchester United. And there are valid criticisms; he has sometimes been guilty of trying killer balls too early, for example. But he was often too ambitious because there was no real underlying structure under Solskjaer or Ralf Rangnick. Players were largely left to fend for themselves in the attacking phase and Fernandes did that better than anyone.

It’s a different story under Ten Hag. Fernandes has to think more about the structure of the side and his positional responsibilities. At times he’s a No 8, at times a No 10, and at times a runner in behind. But that suits his skill set and his obvious awareness of what is unfolding around him suggests he’s capable of functioning in this system. It is notable that he’s barely missed a minute this season, only being substituted in stoppage time on the opening day.

Ten Hag won’t entirely base his side around a single player — that goes against his philosophy and partly explains why Ronaldo has been on the fringes — so Fernandes isn’t in the free role he enjoyed under Solskjaer. But he’s the key player in Manchester United’s revival and the biggest winner from what everyone must surely now acknowledge:  United play better without Ronaldo.

(Top photo: Marc Atkins/Getty Images)