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Mr Reliable
©IMAGO
Manchester United’s 2-1 victory over Brentford in the Premier League on Monday night pushed them to within two points of returning to the Champions League, following a two-year absence from Europe’s top competition. On the night, most of the celebrations were aimed at Casemiro, as the Brazilian midfielder scored in his third successive home game, and the Old Trafford support sang songs begging the senior midfielder not to depart the club this summer, when his contract expires. However, the real hero in red may have actually been his midfield partner, Bruno Fernandes.
While Casemiro may have scored Man Utd’s opening goal, it was the Portugal international who once again pulled the strings for Michael Carrick’s team and directly set up the second goal of the night, when Fernandes played the ball into the feet of towering striker Benjamin Sesko, who tucked the ball into the back of the net. The assist was Fernandes’ 20th of the season in all competitions. When we add goals to that tally, it means that Man Utd’s No.8 now has a remarkable 28 goal contributions in just 33 games this season. And there’s no denying that the 31-year-old playmaker has upped his game under Man Utd’s interim boss.
Indeed, as we can see in the table above, no other midfielder across Europe’s top five leagues has bagged more goals and assists in all competitions than Fernandes since Carrick took over at Man Utd on January 13. That puts Fernandes level with Real Madrid maestro Federico Valverde, who has played significantly more games in that period of time. Only Nottingham Forest star Morgan Gibbs-White has managed to keep pace with Fernandes in the Premier League, but has also played significantly more games than the Portuguese talent.
In fact, even when we consider players in all positions in this specific time frame, just one Premier League player can lay claim to more goals and assists than Fernandes since January 13. Chelsea forward João Pedro has picked up an impressive 17 goal contributions in that time period, while West Ham talisman Jarrod Bowen sits just below the Man Utd midfielder on 13 goals and assists in 22 games. In terms of goals and assists per game, the only player across Europe’s top five leagues who can beat Fernandes’ remarkable record of 1.08 goal contributions per match is none other than Bayern Munich striker Harry Kane, who is currently sitting on 1.26 per game.
As such, it’s little wonder that Man Utd have shot up the league table and have picked up more points than any other Premier League team since Carrick returned to the club as interim head coach. Many things have gone right for the Old Trafford club since they threw off the shackles of Ruben Amorim’s tactics, but in many ways Fernandes has outshone all others as Carrick’s top performer and is almost singlehandedly taking Man Utd back to the Champions League.
