Manchester United’s Bruno Fernandes and the art of the assist as record beckons

LONDON – The key word for Bruno Fernandes ahead of Manchester United’s English Premier League clash with Liverpool at Old Trafford on May 3 is simple – “space”.

The United captain has never fitted neatly into the idea of a system player. He bends systems to his will and imposes himself on games, as long as he has space to work his magic.

One assist away from the single-season record (20) shared by Thierry Henry and Kevin de Bruyne, with four games left, he could reach that milestone against Liverpool with a familiar mix of urgency, edge and invention.

After failing to register even one assist in his first seven league appearances this campaign, Fernandes has now 19 in his last 24 games. He has 70 assists in total in seven seasons in the English top flight. No player has more assists than him since his debut in 2020.

What sets the Portugal international apart is not simply the volume of chances he creates but the way he creates them. His passing is ambitious, often risky, sometimes infuriating for critics who focus on lost balls rather than decisive ones.

Yet that willingness to gamble is central to his value.

He scans early and releases the ball forward before defences are set, turning half-spaces into opportunities with disguised passes, clipped crosses and threaded through balls that reward movement and courage from teammates.

To stop him? Do not give him space.

Fernandes has explained how United’s interim manager Michael Carrick has urged him to move wider in search of more chances to deliver crosses.

“It’s about space,” he said, as quoted by Opta Analyst.

“Over the years, teams know you better, so they don’t want to allow you as much space as they probably would have allowed me when I first came to the club. I float a lot in that zone there now... He (Carrick) doesn’t want me to just be stuck in the middle; he often asks me to find that pocket (of space).”

It probably comes as second nature to him. Fernandes is not a classic No. 10 who is always in the central position. He works furiously without the ball, presses aggressively and repeatedly drops deep to collect possession when United struggle to progress play.

That blend of high-wire creativity and relentless workload has made him indispensable through managerial changes and fluctuating form. Even when United were disjointed, the 31-year-old continued to produce.

Leadership is another underappreciated part of his game.

He plays with emotion close to the surface, arguing with referees one moment, sprinting back to cover full-backs the next. It is messy but authentic and teammates appear to feed off his intensity.

This season, those qualities have been sharpened rather than blunted. Freed to operate higher and given licence to roam under Carrick, he has turned United’s attack into something more fluid and unpredictable.

His assists have come from everywhere: set pieces swung with precision, cutbacks from wide areas, early balls slid between centre-backs. The variety underlines a football brain constantly searching for solutions.

For the record, out of his 19 assists, he has 10 from dead-ball situations – just one short of the single-season record of 11 set by Liverpool’s Steven Gerrard.

“When we talk about set pieces and needing to hit the ball in the right space, it’s sometimes harder than a standard pass,” Fernandes explained.

“The way corners and free kicks have been, my teammates ask me and demand where they want the ball.

“I will tell you that five years ago, I would go to take a corner and just put the ball into the middle of the box and let’s see if someone gets it. And nowadays I have to hit a spot, so sometimes it’s even harder to get an assist from a set piece than it actually is in open play.”

Comparisons with Henry, who had 20 assists for Arsenal in 2002-03, and de Bruyne, who achieved the feat with Manchester City in 2019-20, underline the significance of his achievement. Those records were set in dominant sides stocked with attacking riches.

Fernandes’ pursuit has come in a team still rebuilding and rebounding from former manager Ruben Amorim’s roller-coaster tenure. That context matters when judging the impact of the man who has nine more assists than his nearest rivals – City’s Rayan Cherki and West Ham United’s Jarrod Bowen.

While he is still a long way short of the league’s all-time assists record – 162 set by former United great Ryan Giggs — Fernandes continues to dictate play.

He will be looking for his 71st – the crucial 20th this season – on May 3, a match against United’s biggest rivals which Carrick said is a “standout” fixture.

United are third in the table, three points clear of Liverpool. The Red Devils need just two more points to secure a top-five Champions League spot.

“There’s big rivalries that we have with other teams, but this one is right up there,” said Carrick.

“The history, the ups and downs the past has produced in these types of games and the excitement and entertainment and the emotion... It makes it a really special game.” REUTERS