Bruno Fernandes was Manchester United’s metronome once again as they fell to a narrow 1-0 defeat at Nottingham Forest.
The Portuguese has been a shining light in a difficult period for the Red Devils but once again showed his class as Ruben Amorim’s side turned in a very respectable performance despite the result.
No player on the pitch had more touches than his 111 – nobody else even made three figures as Fernandes kept the ball moving.
As always he made a lot of passes, completing 61 of his attempted 77 to arrive at a passing accuracy of 79%.
Only three United players had a lower passing accuracy but he showed his high risk high reward approach with his six key passes, more than any of his team-mates and only one fewer than the entire opposition side.
And despite not being a wide man he found his man with four of his attempted nine crosses as the Red Devils accumulated 23 shots on goal.
Fernandes took two of those and tested Matz Sels in the home goal with both, something his team-mates struggled to do.
The 30-year-old also proved a thorn in the side of the Forest defence, winning seven of his 17 attempted duels, all of which were on the ground.
And in a characteristically busy performance the United captain made three tackles, bested only by Noussair Mazraoui’s six.
Fernandes could hardly have done more to drag his side over the line, but ultimately they were unable to find the back of the net despite their dominance.
They face Manchester City on Sunday, and despite injury to their talismanic striker Erling Haaland it promises to be a difficult encounter.
Even though he wasn’t on target today, Fernandes remains comfortably his side’s biggest goal threat with eight goals and ten assists in the Premier League this season.
Stats taken from sofascore.
Featured image Carl Recine 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.
