Manchester United endured a chastening evening at Old Trafford as they were well beaten 3-2 by Nottingham Forest.
As has so often been the case it was a performance littered with individual errors, and Bruno Fernandes was far from perfect but still dug deep to give his team a fighting chance.
Operating as one of the number 10s, the Portuguese hit the woodwork once with a thumping free kick, and had two shots on target.
No player on the pitch had more and, while teammate Alejandro Garnacho managed the same amount, one of Fernandes’ efforts found the back of the net.
He was typically central to United’s play and touched the ball more than anyone in a red shirt other than the defenders, who record lots of touches due to Ruben Amorim’s style of build-up.
Fernandes had 71 touches, and with them attempted 49 passes. As usual, his accuracy was low – 78%, the lowest of any United player by some distance – but he successfully made two key passes.
He was also dogged in breaking up play, managing a clearance and an interception to rank just behind the defenders in his defensive contributions.
That said, he was also credited with making one error which led to a goal, although this feels harsh given the actions of his teammates around each of Forest’s goals.
The Portuguese was surprisingly substituted with 15 minutes to go, replaced by Mason Mount as United chased down an equaliser.
Mount failed to make much of an impact, and Amorim may have been better sticking with his sometimes frustrating but always enterprising skipper.
But the manager explained that Fernandes was tired, and hoped that the Englishman would help to open up the spaces on the left.
Regardless, Fernandes can be reasonably sure of keeping his place going forward as he is undoubtedly a key part of the United machine.
All stats taken from sofascore.
Featured image Clive Brunskill via Getty Images
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Joe Ponting
Joe has spent more than half his life writing about football and all of it following United. As a child he told a doctor his name was ‘Paul Scholes’, but could never pick a pass like him no matter how much he tried.
