Bruno Fernandes will be increasingly ‘fed up’ with having to do all the heavy lifting at Manchester United, reckons former Red Devils midfielder Gordon Strachan.
The Portuguese could not stop his side slipping to a 2-0 defeat at Hull City on the opening weekend of the season, but bounced back in style with a hat-trick in a 5-2 win over Ipswich Town last time out.
It looks likely to be another season in which Fernandes is Manchester United’s talisman, despite Michael Carrick having plenty of creative players in his team.
Youri Tielemans has been brought into the midfield, while the front line boasts the likes of Matheus Cunha, Bryan Mbeumo, Marcus Rashford, Amad Diallo and Benjamin Sesko.
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Mbeumo is the only Manchester United player other than Fernandes to score in the opening two games and Strachan believes the time has come that the skipper is getting down on his teammates’ lack of contribution.
Asked about the Red Devils’ summer transfer business, the Scot told the Daily Star: ‘Fine. Yeah, just fine. Tielemans is a good player, I get that, but we’re still relying on Bruno Fernandes in terms of imagination, goals.
‘The problem is, if I were Bruno Fernandes playing these games, I’d probably be thinking to myself, “I hope somebody actually makes a goal today or scores a goal that I’m not involved in,” because at the back of his mind he’s getting fed up with always being him, him, him all the time, and the responsibility is phenomenal.’
Premier League champions Arsenal are an example of how the whole team contributes, according to Strachan.
With no one superstar player having to constantly lead the way in terms of scoring and creating goals.
‘I would like to see some responsibility get shared around the team,’ said the 69-year-old. ‘I think if you look at Arsenal, [Bukayo] Saka comes in, [Martin] Odegaard comes in, other players come in. It’s a more rounded team where there’s more going on.
‘There seems to be more responsibility taken. You know, even [Declan] Rice, you see him in the games and, “Alright, I’ll drive them on, push them in there.” At this moment, for Man United, I don’t see that for the rest of the team.
‘Bruno Fernandes, I’m sure he would like to get some more help, that’s for sure, and imagination and goals.’
Fernandes turns 32 next week and is into the final year of his current contract, although Manchester United has the option of extending the deal by a further year.
Speaking about his captain’s future last month, Carrick said: ‘Listen, we want top players.
‘Every good team has players that have made a major impact. That’s how it is.
‘Bruno has had that for a period of time here. We want to keep pushing and want to get the best out of Bruno and the team around him.’