Bruno Fernandes (£8.0m) has the potential to shake up the Fantasy Premier League template at Manchester United.
The Portuguese attacking midfielder arrived at Old Trafford in the January transfer window amid much fanfare – and could solve a lot of the problems Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has had this season.
Fernandes’ time with Sporting Lisbon saw him prove to be a reliable creator of goals but with a healthy number of his own strikes.
The question is whether or not he can sustain that reputation in the Premier League – which is the focus of this Scout Report.
As we have used data from the Fantasy Football Scout Members Area in this article, only those who have signed up to valid packages will be able to access it in full.
The History and Statistics
Fernandes arrives at Manchester United as one of the most highly sought-after names of the January transfer window, and it’s easy to understand why.
In his two-and-a-half-year spell in Portugal, the attacking midfielder scored 64 goals in 137 appearances in all competitions.
Meanwhile, across his country’s domestic league and the Europa League, Fernandes provided 35 assists for his Sporting team-mates.
The number 10’s impressive numbers came as a result of his energetic and risk-taking style, characterised by incisive passing and a propensity to fire off a shot from range.
During his time at Sporting, Fernandes displayed excellent dribbling, passing and finishing skills and also played a heavy part in corners, free-kicks, both direct and indirect.
Naturally, someone with his skill and creativity also tended to get fouled a lot too.
Despite a recent reputation for goals and assists, Fernandes began his career with more modest involvement in his teams’ attacking exploits.
His senior career started in 2012/13 at third-tier Italian side Novara Calcio before joining Udinese the following summer.
He spent three seasons with the Serie A outfit, recording just 10 goals in 86 appearances. After playing out the 2016/17 season at Sampdoria, in which he netted five times in 33 outings, he earned a move back home to Portugal.
It was at the 2017/18 campaign that Fernandes really sprung into life, scoring 11 times and assisting a further eight league goals in his debut season in Lisbon.
In the Europa League that year, Fernandes was involved in six goals in as many matches (three his own and three assists).
2018/19 was the player’s breakout campaign as he scored 20 league goals and provided the key pass for 13 of his colleagues. That made for 33 goal involvements in 33 Primeira Liga matches – an incredible return. Not surprisingly, he also claimed Sporting’s player of the year accolade.
The 25-year-old started this season where he left off with eight goals and seven assists in the first 17 league matches of 2019/20.
Before completing a move to Manchester United last week, Fernandes had also scored five times and recorded three assists in just five Europa League outings.
In the context of Portuguese football, very few players in the country’s domestic league could match Fernandes for all-round contributions.
Since the start of the 2017/18 season, when he really found form, Fernandes ranked third for Primeira Liga goals but was also second for assists.
On top of that, the player finished top in his own right for shots (271), chances created (239), through-balls (17) and goals from outside the box (nine).
In short, Manchester United fans have every right to be excited by Fernandes’ signing considering that for the last 18 months he has arguably been the best player in Portuguese domestic football.
In that time, he has been capped 19 times by his country, representing them at the 2018 World Cup and winning the 2018/19 Nations League too.
4 years, 2 months ago70 points behind in my cash league, very similar teams - Is now a good time to push the WC button? I don't want to leave it too late.
Current team is:
Guiata - Button
TAA - Robbo - Soy - Kelly - Lund
KDB - Salah - Richarlison - Grealish - Maddison
DCL - Vardy - Ings