Perhaps in some small manner at least 🤷.

But I've noticed that in the last two games, we've seen the skipper pick up a different position, or a familiar position rather.

Bruno Fernandes is an attacking midfielder who for some reason, manager Ruben Amorim has decided to use as a no 8 taking him further away from the goal and out of his preferred position.

This causes us to not get the best from arguably the league's top no 10 and Bruno seems frustrated because his strongest attributes are being wasted. What this all means is that it's actually working against the team and the manager.

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Positioning

Since he is a no 8 under Amorim, he's mainly played in central midfield. Here are some of his average positions from a few games across the season:

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However, if you take a look at his positioning in the last two games, you will see that MUFC's captain has been higher up the pitch with only the striker or in the game against West Ham, a couple of others ahead of him. Note how in these last two matches as well, he is ahead of the halfway line whereas in the image above, Bruno's average positioning is mainly around the halfway line or in the games against Spurs and Brentford, behind it.

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The only other match where he was very high up the pitch was against Chelsea. This had a lot to do with the Blues going down to 10 men in the 5th minute after goalkeeper Robert Sanchez was sent off. With manager Enzo Maresca then taking off most of his attackers, it gave Ruben Amorim even more reason to push his skipper further forward.

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Seeing Bruno play this more attacking role is better for himself and the team. It's no coincidence that his two better performances of the season have come in these last two matches. He was so good in fact, that he was won the Premier League player of the week for a second week in a row.

I don't actually understand why it's so hard for Amorim to just use him as an attacking midfielder. It helps the manager more than anyone else because he'll win some of the fans over as this is what we want to see and with Bruno playing in his more accustomed position, we will see a better magnifico which will help the entire team.

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Issues As Midfielder

Bruno is no midfielder. I don't want to repeat myself but he isn't. When looking at some of his recent comments, it would suggest he doesn't want to play as a no 8 either: “I’m a risk player. I take risks. I will lose a lot of balls. I will miss a lot of passes but I know when I find my strikers and wingers, they will score" - Bruno Fernandes back in July.

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As a midfielder, a lot of what you need is positional discipline and as per those heatmaps, you can see that his overall position is the same. However, when you watch the games, sometimes he's at right-wing, other times as a centre-back and the worst of the lot is when he is caught too far forward which is just a habit of his because he is an attacking midfielder by trade.

This leaves the midfield open and the opposition to have a clear run-in through the heart of the team and be at the defense, all with relative ease.

He also often leaves his partner isolated due to being everywhere and nowhere and when this partner is Casemiro, it's an even bigger issue because he is too slow and can't cover ground as quick as he used to.

The United skipper isn't the best at tracking back either. The goal conceded against Wolves was by midfielder Jean-Ricner Bellegarde, a player Bruno or Casemiro should be marking. He was left free in the box for that equalizer. This lack of tracking back or marking their man has happened before. Phil Foden had a free header in the derby. He was Bruno's man as well considering he was closest to the City player.

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Some have theorised that Amorim deploys his skipper in this deeper role because of his ability to create from the heart of midfield. Bruno can make things happen out of nothing with a killer through ball or one over the top. This means a quick transition from United which again, appears to be what the manager is looking for from his midfield.

That maybe true but what it also does is bypass the two no 10s.

Bruno hits a lot of long balls or tries for the 'Hollywood' pass every once in a while as well as try to play the killer ball as quick as possible. Cunha, Mbeumo or Mount then become bystanders as this type of pass or play from the captain renders them moot.

When you look at the strengths of a player like Cunha in particular, he loves the ball into feet from around the centre cirlce. Here he does his best work as he sucks a defender in, spins them and then runs into the space. The ball sticks to the Brazilian and due to his strength, is very difficult to dispossess. Having this powerful drive and dribbling skills means that more opposition players are attracted to him in order to try and get the ball which then creates more space for others to exploit.

Play the ball over the top or through the lines too quickly and all of these attributes are useless. I think this is part of the reason as to why Cunha is struggling in this United side because we aren't playing to his strengths.

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What also doesn't make sense is that if Amorim is using Bruno to play the quick transitional pass in behind defenses, he will need fast players. We don't have that.

Mbeumo is quick but he's no Rashford. Someone with that type of pace is needed for this type of football which is why Bruno and the United loanee worked so well together. Cunha is many things but rapid isn't one of them. Zirkzee or Sesko up front aren't the type of strikers that are looking to run in behind either.

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*I must emphasize that I don't know whether this is the reason for Amorim to play Bruno deeper. It is just speculation.*

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I sometimes think that even with a new DM who is able to cover ground quickly and makeup for Bruno's shortcomings, whether it would actually work with them alongside the magnifico.

Unless they are prime N'golo Kante, I struggle to see how players like Elliot Anderson, Adam Wharton or Carlos Baleba will make this midfield function if their partner is Bruno.

This is assuming Amorim wants to keep the skipper (and play him in midfield) and if he wants a new DM because he seems to like Casemiro a lot. There is also nothing concrete when it comes to the Brazilian's contract as sometimes reports suggest a triggering of the one-year extension or him running his contract down and leaving on a free.

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The work rate and giving it everything is there from the captain but that's about as good as it gets with him in the midfield.

Why he is needed further forward is because he is a creator. He is the creator in the Premier League as since he's joined, Bruno tops pretty much every chart in terms of midfielder or indeed, players overall, for many lists:

• Only player to have 10+ goals and assists in each of last seven Premier League campaigns
• Created more chances than any other midfielder in the Premier League this season with 40
• Highest-rated Premier League player to play minimum of 150 games with a rating of 7.33
• Most assists this season (6)

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This gives us even more of a reason to play him as a no 10 because if he is doing some of these things as a deep-lying playmaker (another name you can give to him in this current role) then imagine what he can do higher up the field.

Well actually, we don't need to imagine it because that's what he's been doing for us ever since he joined in 2020. This is the first season where he's played much deeper in his nigh on six years at United.

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Plus Mbeumo is no true creator and he's heading to the AFCON soon, Mount is not that creative either and we know he is unreliable with injuries and while Cunha does have the capability to make things happen, is struggling at the moment for one reason or the other.

The positive is that United are still scoring despite this lack of creativity in attack and we aren't solely reliant on Bruno to put the ball in the back of the net which has been a problem of the past. Mbeumo has stepped up.

On the other hand, set-pieces have become a real strength of ours which is where a decent amount of the goals have come from (38.5% of our 26 league goals have come from set-pieces).

Open-play goals have been hard to come by as most teams don't allow us to play a style that we prefer which is to exploit the space left by teams who are more possession-based and attack us.

When facing the more defensive sides, that's when we struggle and rely on a free-kick, corner, long throw-in or penalty to get us a goal.

Pretty much all of those set-piece goals have come against the likes of Fulham, Burnley, Sunderland, Forest, Spurs and Palace, all teams who are very much defend-and-counter themselves.

A player like Bruno who can play the creative and risky pass so as to break through these tight defenses could be the difference in making more open-play chances. It's no coincidence that against a crap Wolves side and Brighton who are quite open were games in which we created a lot of chances, scored 8 goals with only 1 of them coming from a set-piece which was a penalty.

The captain has just looked a lot better and happier playing as a no 10. He's looked more like himself.

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What's Amorim's Play Here?

By this I mean, what is his plan with Bruno?

All of the positives I spoke about in regards to the magnifico is him playing as an attacking midfielder. There's hardly anything positive about him as a no 8.

This once more, asks the question of why use him in this position? Is it because as per this post and I guess just general football knowledge, we all know he's better further forward, so the manager is afraid that if he were to use him as a no 10, it would work and he would be proved wrong? He is a stubborn guy after all 👀🤷‍♂️.

You look at how well Bruno has performed as a CAM over the years and in the last couple of games, it makes you wonder why buy two new no 10s when you have the best one in the league at your disposal.

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Considering that he is playing in midfield causing us to not get the best out of him and him not being as influential in matches as we need him to be, I think we should've sold him for that £90m in the summer.

We bought Cunha and Mbeumo anyway to cover in those two attacking midfield positions and we still need a proper no 8 and no 6. The midfield is still a problem with Bruno and Casemiro and with Amorim not using Mainoo and Ugarte, it means we only have two midfielders so for that reason alone of needing strength in numbers, business needed to be done and needs to be done in January. If one of Bruno or Casemiro gets injured, we're screwed.

That £90m could've been used to bolster this midfield or any other area that needed strengthening.

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I know that Bruno is a divisive player. Some love him, some hate him, and it seems that there's no in-between with our captain, but he does have his strengths but also apparent weaknesses. The problem is that in this position of central midfield, those weaknesses are getting exposed big time and it's working against the team and particularly the manager.

If he's played as a no 10, there would be no issues.

As a no 8 though, we might as well have gotten rid of him.

What do you think? Has Amorim been listening to us and moving Bruno higher up the field? Where do you reckon is his best position? And would you have sold him knowing that he was going to be played as a no 8?

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Bruno Fernandes | Image via Manchester United official X (@ManUtd)