Bruno Fernandes is the talisman of the modern-day Manchester United.
The 31-year-old Portugal midfielder has been their best signing since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement in 2013. He is their club captain and a player who seems near-unstoppable in his best moments.
Since arriving in January 2020 from Sporting CP for an initial £47million ($63m at current exchange rates), Fernandes has played five full seasons for United and two half-seasons (2019-20 and this current campaign).
He has won the Sir Matt Busby Player of the Year award given to United’s player of the year on four occasions, enrapturing many with his ability to conjure something out of nothing. That ability has helped to keep a variety of inconsistent sides afloat.
Fernandes is United’s most important player, and this season has been one of his best in a United shirt. That provoked a quick thought experiment first teased on The Athletic’s Talk of the Devils podcast: which United season was the best version of Bruno Fernandes?
Here’s our attempt to rank his various campaigns, from worst to best…
Worst – 2021-22
Which manager(s) did he work under? Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Michael Carrick (caretaker), Ralf Rangnick (interim)
Appearances: 36 in the Premier League, 46 in all competitions
Goals: 10 in the Premier League, 10 in all competitions
Assists: Six in the Premier League, 14 in all competitions
Did United qualify for the Champions League? No, finishing sixth in the league
Did United win silverware? No
Standout moment: A hat-trick against Leeds United on the opening weekend of the season
We begin this thought experiment with a brief disclaimer: Fernandes has always found a way to produce respectable numbers in a United shirt, even during their more troubling seasons.
Take the 2021-22 campaign, his first Premier League season playing in front of full crowds, but one in which he stopped getting the benefit of the doubt from match officials. His uncanny ability to win — and convert — penalties dried up, and he spent nine months trudging through some dreary football matches.
Fernandes and manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer found the 2021-2 season to be a trudge (Ash Donelon/Manchester United via Getty Images)
Very few United players emerged from 2021-22 with any merit. An August deadline-day return for Cristiano Ronaldo was supposed to help take the club to the next level, but it destabilised the squad’s previously positive equilibrium.
Fernandes missed an important penalty in a 1-0 defeat to Aston Villa in September 2021, a game that many believed was the beginning of a disastrous spell for Solskjaer that led to the Norwegian being dismissed in November. Carrick’s brief caretaker spell in charge included Fernandes scoring on his 100th appearance for United (against Arsenal in a 3-2 win), but he was unable to stop the team’s sideways drift under Rangnick.
Despite all this mess, he somehow managed to finish 2021-22 as the top assist provider in the Champions League with seven.
2023-24
Which manager(s) did he work under? Erik ten Hag
Appearances: 35 in the Premier League, 48 in all competitions
Goals: 10 in the Premier League, 15 in all competitions
Assists: 8 in the Premier League, 13 in all competitions
Did United qualify for the Champions League? No, finishing eighth in the league
Did United win silverware? Yes, beating Manchester City 2-1 in the FA Cup final
Standout moment: A disguised assist for Kobbie Mainoo that was so good it tricked the Wembley cameraman
Fernandes was named club captain ahead of Ten Hag’s second season in charge, and while the midfielder tried his best to keep the team afloat, he was the lone constant in an otherwise underwhelming mess. A widespread injury crisis scuppered Ten Hag’s plans to turn United into “the best transition team in the world”, and so it fell to their captain to try to fix things.
Fernandes in 2023-24 was an imperfect player, dragging a flawed side kicking and screaming toward relevance. There’s no better example of this than his goal against Liverpool in a 2-2 draw at Old Trafford, where he snatched a loose pass from Jarell Quansah, looked up to see goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher off his goal line, and lobbed him while standing inside the centre-circle.
It was the sort of effort 1 per cent of Premier League players would attempt, and only 0.001 per cent of players would get right, let alone against your team’s biggest rivals in a game where you are already a goal down and have spent the best part of 50 minutes playing on the back foot.
This was also a season when we learned of Fernandes’ importance behind the scenes as he attended academy matches and offered to pay for club staff to travel to the FA Cup final.
2024-25
Which manager(s) did he work under? Ten Hag, Ruud van Nistelrooy (interim), Ruben Amorim
Appearances: 36 in the Premier League, 57 in all competitions
Goals: 8 in the Premier League, 19 in all competitions
Assists: 11 in the Premier League, 19 in all competitions
Did United qualify for the Champions League? No, finishing 15th in the Premier League
Did United win silverware? No
Standout moment: Scoring a crucial penalty in the 5-4 victory against Lyon in the Europa League quarter-final second leg
As the team around him imploded yet again — first under Ten Hag, and then under Amorim after Van Nistelrooy’s brief spell in interim charge — Fernandes rolled his sleeves up and just got on with it. Amorim’s shift to a 3-4-3 formation denied the Portuguese his most natural position, but he gradually grew into a new role as a box-to-box midfielder.
This was a horrible season for the club, finishing 15th in the league and being described as “the worst team maybe in the history of Manchester United” by Amorim. Yet it was one of personal development for Fernandes, who made notable adaptations to his game halfway through the season.
Here, he had a keener sense for when to attempt his audacious progressive passes and when he would be better off recycling possession. There were improvements in how he received, passed and carried the ball through pressure. Unfortunately, this season ended with a disappointing defeat in the Europa League final to Tottenham Hotspur.
Fernandes was stopped by Spurs in the Europa League final in Bilbao (Alex Pantling – UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images)
Last week, former Spurs head coach Ange Postecoglou detailed how his game plan for that game in Bilbao centred around stopping Fernandes.
“We’ve got a line of about seven players on the edge of our box at one stage,” the Australian said on the Stick to Football podcast. “But at the same time, I knew if we shut down Bruno, they weren’t going to score.”
A respectable season for Fernandes in otherwise dispiriting circumstances.
2019-20
Which manager(s) did he work under? Solskjaer
Appearances: 14 in the Premier League, 22 in all competitions
Goals: Eight in the Premier League, 12 in all competitions
Assists: Seven in the Premier League, eight in all competitions
Did United qualify for the Champions League? Yes, finishing third in the league
Did United win silverware? No
Standout moment: A craftily won penalty in a 3-0 victory against Aston Villa
Signed in January 2020, this 22-game period was pure, unfiltered Fernandes. He walked into a team in dire need of creativity and looked to get the ball forward, come hell or high water.
Solskjaer deployed Fernandes as the No 10 in a 4-2-3-1 formation and he made for a high-quality, all-action alternative to the previously used Andreas Pereira. Such was his unabashed approach to attacking football that he quickly earned headlines and individual awards: he won the Premier League’s Player of the Month accolade in May and June, and his first Player of the Season award at United as well.
#PL Player of the Month ✔️#PL Goal of the Month ✔️
Give us some adjectives to describe @B_Fernandes8 because we’re running out 😅👇 pic.twitter.com/hSHV0dxZOq
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) July 10, 2020
2025-26
Which manager(s) did he work under? Amorim, Darren Fletcher (caretaker), Carrick (interim)
Appearances to date: 23 in the Premier League, 25 in all competitions
Goals to date: Six in the Premier League, six in all competitions
Assists to date: 12 in the Premier League, 13 in all competitions
Will United qualify for the Champions League? Opta’s supercomputer gives United a 29.92 per cent chance of making the top five, believing them more likely to finish sixth. As of February 23, they are fifth in the table.
Will United win silverware? No
Standout moment: A ridiculous switch pass against Manchester City at Old Trafford. The sort of hook pass that would give many a player hip issues if they tried it
We will keep this section short as the season is ongoing, but Fernandes is once again proving himself the rising tide upon which all of United’s attacking boats float.
Click here for an in-depth read on how the 31-year-old has adjusted from his box-to-box role under Amorim to once again thriving as a No 10 under Carrick. United will need Fernandes to be at his best if they are to finish in the top five come the end of this season, and Fernandes has a reasonable chance to break the hallowed Premier League assist record this campaign.
2022-23
Which manager(s) did he work under? Ten Hag
Appearances: 37 in the Premier League, 59 in all competitions
Goals: 8 in the Premier League, 14 in all competitions
Assists: 8 in the Premier League, 15 all competitions
Did United qualify for the Champions League? Yes, finishing third in the league
Did United win silverware? Yes, beating Newcastle 2-0 in the League Cup final. Thus, achieving the hallowed Andy Mitten Standard of Quality at the end of the campaign
Standout moment: A goal in a 2-0 victory against Spurs, cementing the return of a feel-good atmosphere at Old Trafford
A rare season when Fernandes and United were good at the same time, and one where the team did not necessarily need his playmaking brilliance to win a game.
That is not to say Fernandes coasted through Ten Hag’s first season in charge. There was still plenty of the hard running and eye-of-the-needle through balls that had become his trademark.
Fernandes lifts the League Cup in 2023 – a year he maintained high levels (Glyn Kirk/AFP via Getty Images)
This was Fernandes’ first season wearing the No 8 shirt after Juan Mata’s summer departure. It was also a campaign in which he wore the captain’s armband on the majority of matchdays, due to Harry Maguire’s descent down the centre-back pecking order.
This is one of two United seasons when Fernandes did not win the Player of the Season award (Marcus Rashford won this one), but he still maintained his high levels.
Best – 2020-21
Which manager(s) did he work under? Solskjaer
Appearances: 37 in the Premier League, 58 in all competitions
Goals: 18 in the Premier League, 28 in all competitions
Assists: 11 in the Premier League, 17 in all competitions
Did United qualify for the Champions League? Yes, finishing second in the league
Did United win silverware? No
Standout moment: Scoring a winning penalty after the final whistle had been blown at the Amex Stadium against Brighton
In the unique setting of behind-closed-doors football, Fernandes proved himself a formidable beast as United “worked the space” and looked to exploit the slightest defensive weaknesses in teams before scything through.
Over the course of the season, he gradually took the mantle from Paul Pogba to become the team’s most important player, turning already speedy counter-attacks into ones that moved at warp speed.
That winter was a particularly fruitful period for the player and the club as a whole — Fernandes won the Premier League’s Player of the Month awards for November and December as Solskjaer’s side established themselves in the top four.
The only blemish on things? A muted display in the Europa League final against Villarreal. He found it difficult to play out of an aggressive man-to-man press orchestrated by then-Villarreal coach Unai Emery, and United eventually succumbed to a defeat on penalties.
Fernandes’ first full season at United is one that really should have seen him win silverware.
How would you rank Bruno Fernandes’ seasons at Manchester United?
Two disappointing performances in two drab defeats in Europa League finals mean Fernandes is unlikely to finish his United career with the trophy cabinet his output otherwise deserves.
Throughout his time at Old Trafford, he has earned plaudits and criticism for his unusual style. He wants to get the ball forward whenever possible, and this all-action approach can see his team lose the ball at inopportune times. There is no one quite like Fernandes, and no United player has been able to offer as much as he has across his six years and counting at the club.
As we head towards the end of another season with him as the team’s beating heart, vote below for what you think is his best campaign for the club.