When it was put to Bruno Fernandes that he may have to tweak his style of play because of the appointment of Erik ten Hag as Manchester United manager, the Portuguese appeared defensive.
“What do you mean ‘tweak’?” he asked. “He wants me to do assists anyway, so I have to try it. I don’t understand that type of question of keeping the ball or
whatever it is.
“I keep the ball when I think I have to keep it. I try a pass when I think I have to. Sometimes it goes good, sometimes it goes wrong.
“When it goes wrong, I know that shouldn’t be the one, but sometimes when you play in the 10 position you have only a few seconds to think and control the ball and make the pass.
“I understand that someone has his own opinion, but when I arrived in 2020 I was losing the same amount of balls in those six months.
”The year after I lost the same amount of balls, but I scored 28 goals, so people don’t complain.
“Last season, because I scored only 10, people start complaining. I am ok with that. I do my best. I always try to help my teammates. Obviously I will have to do what the coach demands from me.”
The question was understandable. Fernandes has developed a reputation for being loose in possession. As he points out, his appetite to make things happen for the team with ambitious use of the ball is celebrated when it works. To be fair to the Portuguese international, it has worked a lot.
Since Fernandes made his Premier League debut in February 2020, only Manchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne has created more chances in the competition. The Belgian midfielder has created 218 chances to Fernandes’ 214. Nobody else comes close.
But it is also true that Fernandes surrenders the ball more than most. In fact, since that Premier League debut, only Trent Alexander-Arnold has lost possession more times.
In the case of Alexander-Arnold and others towards the top of that list – his fellow Liverpool full-back Andy Robertson, Burnley’s Dwight McNeil and Southampton’s James Ward-Prowse – that makes sense given their responsibility to put crosses into the box.
Perhaps it is more conspicuous with Fernandes, whose decision-making in possession sees him attempt a lot of angles passes and cute through-balls from central areas. Sometimes it can appear as if he is trying to force a spectacular pass that is simply not on.
But the statistics also support the player’s argument that his approach to the game has not changed since day one.
His passing accuracy in that first half-season at Manchester United, when his impact helped close a 14-point gap on Leicester City and propel the club into the Champions League places was 75.7 per cent. It was actually higher than that at 78.3 per cent last season.
Indeed, the statistics show that Fernandes is losing possession of the ball less regularly with each passing season. The number dropped from 22.9 times per 90 minutes in his first season to 21.0 times in his second season and 19.1 times last time around.
Put simply, Fernandes is not losing it more than he used to.
What has changed is the output. However, even here there is a caveat. His chance creation has not markedly dipped. He was creating 2.26 chances per 90 minutes in his first season. That rose to 2.75 in the second season and was still up at 2.56 in the 2021/22 season.
One of the differences that accentuated the perceived dip in creativity was the ability of his teammates to finish the opportunities. For example, he provided seven assists in his first season, but his expected-assists figure was down at just 2.34.
Helpfully, his colleagues kept putting the ball in the net.
In the 2020/21 season, when United finished second, Fernandes had 12 assists. Again, his teammates were outdoing themselves given the quality of the openings. His expected-assists figure was 9.67.
Last season, his assists tally was down to six but the expected-assists figure for those opportunities was actually higher at 6.93. Still down on the previous season but nothing like the difference that the bald assist numbers suggested.
Perhaps that is why Fernandes sounds so defiant and so optimistic that he does not need to adapt his game. Speaking in an exclusive interview with Sky Sports, he noted the greater movement of the forwards so far in pre-season. That will be to his advantage.
The suspicion persists that Ten Hag might want him to take greater care of the ball. The example of Donny van de Beek feels pertinent. In his final season under Ten Hag at Ajax, his passing accuracy was 82.2 per cent playing in the Number 10 role in Amsterdam.
But the statistics also show that Van de Beek created fewer chances from that position than Fernandes continues to do for Manchester United. That is the risk and the reward. Fernandes, it seems, has been given no indication that he needs to tweak a thing.
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