A disastrous day for Bruno Fernandes (£9.0m) owners – not to mention everyone associated with Manchester United – saw the Portuguese midfielder miss a penalty, blank, pick up a booking and finish one ‘CBIRT‘ short of banking consolation defensive contribution (DefCon) points.
Here’s our first Scout Notes article of Gameweek 6 from the Gtech.
BRUNO’S PENALTY RECORD
Fernandes’ tame effort from the spot was his second penalty miss of 2025/26. And, as the below post indicates, his sixth since his United debut:
A record of 23/29, or 79.3%, is about par, given that a penalty carries an xG of 0.7883.
But with the short-term form from the spot patchy, there’s discussion to be had given that United have other proven penalty takers – namely Matheus Cunha (£8.0m) and Bryan Mbeumo (£8.1m) – on the books.
Annoyingly, Ruben Amorim’s post-match interviews with the BBC, TNT and MUTV failed to elicit any questions about Bruno’s record from 12 yards. Nor did his press conference.
After his last miss from the spot, against Fulham in Gameweek 2, Fernandes was given a chance to take United’s next penalty. He scored that one, with Amorim saying afterwards that he “was not expecting Bruno to miss two penalties in a row”.
There is mitigation for his two misses this season. Referee Chris Kavanagh bumped into him, pre-kick, at Craven Cottage. This time, there was a lengthy delay due to VAR checks and Brentford making substitutions. Any future opposition will surely try and rattle him again in a similar manner, of course…
Mbeumo, incidentally, has missed his last two penalties: his very last spot-kick for Brentford and in the EFL Cup shootout versus Grimsby Town.
Let’s hope Amorim gives some clarity on the penalty-taking pecking order pre-Gameweek 7. A Bruno without pens might not be a Bruno worth owning: three of his four big chances, and 2.37 of his 3.54 xG, have come from the spot this season.
SESKO’S FIRST UNITED GOAL
There was some positivity pre-kick-off as Amorim was able to name his new-look, big-money front three in a starting XI together for the first time. The excitement quickly evaporated as United were 2-0 down after 20 minutes.
Benjamin Sesko (£7.3m) did get off the mark on Saturday, at least, reducing the arrears to 2-1.
While Mbeumo failed to have a shot, Cunha’s four efforts all came from distance, and Fernandes’ only attempt came from the spot, Sesko registered six shots.
Some context is needed with his figures, however. His three big chances all came in the same move, with Caoimhin Kelleher (£4.5m) saving the Slovenian striker’s first two attempts before Sesko lashed in the third.
Those three quick-fire efforts and Bruno’s penalty accounted for all of United’s big chances, and in truth, they created very little else.
A Sunderland side that has conceded just four goals in six games, keeping three clean sheets in the process, will no doubt try to frustrate their hosts in Gameweek 7.
STILL NO CLEAN SHEETS
It’s all gone Pete Tong at the other end, too. United are one of four sides yet to keep a clean sheet (CS, below) this season, while only Burnley have conceded more big chances.
The naivety of the United set-up on Saturday was alarming. Despite knowing that Brentford would try and quickly go long in transition, they allowed the Bees to do just that for their first two goals. They had no convincing answer to the west Londoners’ set plays, either, another strength of theirs.
Without European or EFL Cup involvement, Amorim had a whole week to ready his team for this fixture and still ended up conceding goals in a predictable manner.
Wedded to the 3-4-2-1, you can’t see much changing soon.
“It is always the same, when we win it’s not the system, when you lose it’s the system. I think it’s more that we play this game like Brentford wants to play this game. With long balls, we kick the balls, second balls, and we never settle down in our game. We never play our game. We never pushed the opponent, every time they recovered the ball. We suffered two goals like that. I think the penalty could change things, but my overall view of the game is that we never settled down, we didn’t have control of the game.
“The frustration is that the goals today, we worked on that during the week. That is frustrating.” – Ruben Amorim
THIAGOALS
For a player who has yet to fully convince his own supporters, Igor Thiago (£6.0m) isn’t half doing well.
His brace on Saturday took him to four goals for the season, a tally that only Erling Haaland (£14.4m) can better among FPL forwards:
He’s scored those four goals from very little, too. One of the bottom 10 forwards for minutes per shot (49.4), he’s also netted all four of his big chances.
Keith Andrews highlighted his all-round contribution (not something that FPL managers necessarily want to hear) after the game.
“Selfless, I think, would be the first thing that springs to mind. Always puts the team first, sometimes at the detriment of his own performance. I think he’s such a team player. He’s getting real rhythm in his game now and confidence in his game, and he’s shown exactly, I suppose, what he’s all about and why the football club brought him here.” – Keith Andrews on Igor Thiago
BACK TO A BACK FOUR AS £4.0M HICKEY STARTS
The Bees reverted to a 4-3-3 for this match, having dallied with a 3-5-2 in recent weeks. That allowed Dango Ouattara (£6.0m) to come back in on the wing.
It was a confident display from the Bees and a well-deserved win, with Dango spurning a very good chance and the two centre-halves, Sepp van den Berg (£4.5m) and Nathan Collins (£5.0m), going close with headers.
Collins, of course, was more than a tad lucky to survive a red card…
The £4.0m defender klaxon sounded as Aaron Hickey (£4.0m) got his first league start in nearly two years. He did very well against Mbeumo, too.
One for the watchlist but, given the competition at full-back and the upcoming fixtures (below), also very much the backburner.
VOTE FOR FANTASY FOOTBALL SCOUT AT THE 2025 FCAS!
VOTE FOR FANTASY FOOTBALL SCOUT IN ‘BEST IN FANTASY FOOTBALL – ORGANISATION’ HERE
