Rio Ferdinand has jumped in defence of Bruno Fernandes following his below-par display in Manchester United’s draw with Liverpool on Sunday.
Fernandes has been nothing short of an influential player for Manchester United since his arrival at the club in January 2019.
Just last week, the Portuguese picked up his fourth Premier League Player of the Month award in another show of just how consistent he has been so far. In just the space of a year, he has matched the Player of the Month award tally of some big names in the English top-flight.
Based on that, Fernandes was tipped to have a big impact against Liverpool. However, he was far from his best. His passing was particularly off and was at a disappointing 58% which is poor by his own or any standard at all.
The 26-year-old came close to scoring late in the game but saw his effort kept out by Reds goalkeeper Alisson.
Fernandes has been criticized for ‘ghosting’ in big games and his record against big-six sides is admittedly poor.
Regardless, Ferdinand says the Portuguese should be cut some slack based on his impact at the club so far.
“They (Manchester United) looked off but we’re top of the league so I always look at it like that” Ferdinand said on Stretford Paddock in response to questions about the performances of Fernandes and Marcus Rashford.
“Yeah, there might be players off form, but if you’re still nicking results and you’re still winning and you’re still in a healthy position, that’s not a bad thing.”
“If we played this game and had zero shots on target and we looked like we had no threat at all, then I’d be a little bit concerned.”
“But, listen, you can’t talk about [Bruno]. I wouldn’t say Bruno’s looked off recently. The geezer’s output has been phenomenal.”
Fernandes has scored 11 Premier League goals this term and is only behind Mohamed Salah in the goal-scoring charts.
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