BRUNO FERNANDES’ dazzling debut stats put Manchester United’s flops to shame – and suggest they urgently need Paul Pogba back. The £55million Portugal midfielder‘s buzzing display in the Sunday’s 0-0 home Premier League draw with Wolves eclipsed this season’s figures of United‘s other midfielders and strikers for shots, efforts on target and successful passes. The […]
BRUNO FERNANDES’ dazzling debut stats put Manchester United’s flops to shame – and suggest they urgently need Paul Pogba back.
The £55million Portugal midfielder‘s buzzing display in the Sunday’s 0-0 home Premier League draw with Wolves eclipsed this season’s figures of United‘s other midfielders and strikers for shots, efforts on target and successful passes.
The only blot was his failure to create a scoring chance – the category where injured Pogba reigns – despite seventh-placed United producing 16 shots at the weekend against the side immediately below them.
Perhaps most incredibly, Fernandes‘ total of five goal attempts puts him way ahead of even the average per game for United’s frontmen.
Crocked Marcus Rashford is on 3.54, bettering Mason Greenwood‘s 3.27 and 2.79 for Anthony Martial in Ole Gunnar Solskjaer‘s mega-paid but youthful and erratic squad.
And not only was Fernandes’ haul of three efforts on target way better than his club-mates’ average, his shooting accuracy also seems far superior.
Greenwood averages 1.64 shots on target each match, Rashford 1.63 and Frenchman Martial 1.4.
That means about half of their attempts are accurate, compared to Fernandes’ three out of five so far.
Of course, one game is much too soon to assess stats fairly, whilst so many other facts and figures are also relevant.
On top of that, players will rightly be judged on plenty of other aspects, aside from data.
But it is hard to imagine debut stats that reflect so well the concerns over United’s lack of creativity this season before Fernandes arrived from Sporting Lisbon last week.
And for a player known in his home country for his goal-making as much as his taking, his passing panache was also clear to see.
He delivered 69 successful passes against Wolves – pretty much double the average this term from his best-performing team-mates, aside from Pogba’s 66.51.
So if you are to give a Pog a home in a United side hoping to reignite the spark of old, the perfect place appears to be alongside Fernandes.
