Captain Bruno Fernandes led the charge as Manchester United fought hard at Anfield to secure a 2-2 draw with bitter rivals Liverpool.
The Portuguese missed United’s woeful home defeat to Newcastle United through suspension, but roared back into Ruben Amorim’s starting lineup as the left-sided 10.
He then dropped back into a deeper role when Kobbie Mainoo was replaced by Alejandro Garnacho as United looked for a way back into the game with the score at 2-1.
Fernandes was impressive at both ends of the pitch, assisting Lisandro Martinez for his crashing opener and fighting shoulder-to-shoulder with the centre-back in defensive duties.
He dominated the ball for United, taking 88 touches – more than any of his team mates – and was typically enterprising with his passing.
The 30-year-old completed 41 of his 58 attempted passes, the highest amount amongst the United players, coming out at 71% pass completion.
The pay-off for his hit-and-miss accuracy, which saw him lose the ball 27 times, was the importance of those passes which found their man.
United’s captain contributed four key passes, twice as many as anyone else on the pitch.
Defensively Fernandes was also a crucial man for his team, making three tackles and two clearances.
He also won both of the aerial duels he contested, and was ferocious on the ground where he came out on top in nine of 11 ground duels, recording a success rate of 82%.
With the ball at his feet, Fernandes was a handful for Liverpool’s defenders and completed all three of his attempted dribbles.
His high-risk high-reward style of football won out again as the captain drove his team to their first Premier League point since the 2-1 win at Manchester City in mid-December.
All stats taken from sofascore.
Featured image Nathan Stirk 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.
