Bruno Fernandes has made a great start to his Utd career. 8 assists and 7 goals in his first 12 league games are amazing stats. This THREAD looks at his assists, 3 of which are set pieces, 5 are in open play. Concentrating on the open play ones, it shows his brilliant work.

His first assist came against Watford at O T. It’s a goal on the break, well worked between Bruno and Mason. Beautifully worked, but SIMPLE move, finishing up with a straightforward sideways pass to Greenwood, who sidesteps a man and smashes home a great finish.

4 open play assists have come since the re-start. The first one against Bournemouth is another lovely, flowing move, involving Matic and Rashford, before it comes to Bruno. He does well to SQUARE it to Greenwood, who again takes it brilliantly.

His second assist v Bournemouth is diagonal pass out to Martial on the wing. Martial scores a fantastic goal. Some might say it’s all Martial’s work and it’s not really an assist. I don’t agree. We need to keep taking the RIGHT options. Simple, accurate passing, leads to chances.

The 4th open play assist is another SIMPLE diagonal ball to Martial who scores another brilliant goal. The weight of Bruno’s pass is superb. Martial doesn’t have to slow down to wait for it, or chase after either. It’s beautifully into his stride. It’s the perfect pass for him.

A great move against Palace. McTom and Pogba are involved before Bruno plays a lovely 1-2 with Martial. Absolutely brilliant passing and moving. SIMPLE, flowing football at speed, a joy to watch. It leads to a straightforward pass into Rashford’s feet, who does the rest.

3 assists are from set pieces. It’s great to start scoring from set pieces. I’m concentrating on the open play ones because set pieces are different. They’ve been worked on in training and are already decided before you go on the pitch. There’s more “decision making” in open play

I’ve been criticised by some for pointing out that Bruno sometimes tries too many difficult, or risky passes. There’s much more to be said for simple passing than just not giving the ball away. Simple passing moves the opposition around and leads to opportunities to make chances.

All 5 of Bruno’s assists are from simple passes. The most difficult one is Greenwood’s goal v Bournemouth. It needs to go quickly between 2 defenders. On that occasion though, it was the only pass available. Martial was in the box with too many around him.

If we count the 2 assists for Martial on the wing as diagonal passes, and the 2 for Greenwood as sideways passes, his assist for Rashford at Palace the other night, was his first assist from a FORWARD pass, let alone a risky one.

Some will argue that it’s good to “mix it up”. There could be something in that. Keep defenders guessing. If you look again at the 5 assists so far though, please don’t say that any of the pass recipients were unmarked because defenders were expecting a more complicated ball.

Bruno’s short passing game is absolutely superb. He needs to concentrate on it. We are yet to get a goal from one of his “risky” passes. The more he keeps it simple, the more goals we will score. It’s a SIMPLE game, keep it SIMPLE.