When Bruno is not playing, United are not winning
Reading Time: 2min | Mon. 22.12.25. | 17:56
Fernandes suffered his only fourth injury since moving to Manchester
Many bad things are happening to Manchester United in recent seasons. No, we are not talking just about bad executive decisions, bad transfer decisions and off the field problems. We are also talking about injuries. At the moment, coach Ruben Amorim is dealing with shortage of defensive players. Harry Maguire and Matthijs de Ligt are injured, while Noussair Mazraoui went to Marocco to play at AFCON. His African colleagues Amad Diallo and Bryan Mbeumo are also unavailable until their counties finish the competition, which won‘t be any time soon, considering that both Ivory Coast and Cameroon have strong squads and are among the favorites. But now comes the worst possible news – captain Bruno Fernandes is injured.
The Portuguese midfielder is essential for United‘s game and the best player they had for years, by far. The Red Devils have also being blessed with Fernandes, considering that he is rarely injured. He missed one game with the flu in March 2022 and two games because of a knee injury in May 2024. But now he will miss more games since he got injured in 2-1 loss to Aston Villa.
“It was a soft tissue injury so he will miss some games for sure. You can never control these things. He is a guy who is always fit so he can recover quite well“ said Amorim after the game.
So, United will miss a huge player. Breaking it down further reveals more cause for concern. In 292 matches in all competitions with Fernandes starting, United boast a 51.7 per cent win ratio, compared with 45.2 per cent without him. This discrepancy is even bigger when you focus solely on the Premier League. In the 208 games where the playmaker has featured in the top-flight, United have a 48.6 per cent win ratio - but without him it drops to just 29.4 per cent. His Portuguese pal Diogo Dalot is fully aware of his qualities.
“It's massive. We don't know how bad it is but for him to come off, we know how tough he is. This is the time that opportunities come for other players and the time you step up and show you deserve to be in the team and play more minutes. I think that's how the players who get opportunities should look at it. We are Manchester United and we have to find a way to win“ he said.
