Seven weeks have passed since Bruno Fernandes stood in the Manchester Opera House and spoke of his pride at being named PFA Player of the Year for 2025-26. The Manchester United captain had already collected the Premier League and Football Writers’ awards, recognition for a season in which he scored nine goals and claimed 21 assists, breaking a Premier League record jointly held by Thierry Henry and Kevin De Bruyne that had stood for 23 years. United finished third.
His influence on that finish was heavy and measurable. Over the final 11 games of the season, of the 21 goals United scored, Fernandes either found the net himself or created 12 of them. In the seven-game run that swept United back into Europe’s elite club competition after a two-year absence, he was a central figure in nine of the 12 goals. Statistically it drew comparisons with Eric Cantona in the 1995-96 title-winning campaign, when the Frenchman scored in six successive games, five of them matches in which United scored only once.
“It was a special season for me,” Fernandes said on the night. “I am very proud. But we don’t play tennis. We don’t play just for ourselves. We play for a team, we play for a club, we play for the fans. There is nothing more special than that.”
Those words carry a different weight now. Fernandes has played every minute of United’s six Premier League games this season, registering three goals and one assist — all of them in the second game of the campaign against Ipswich, so far his side’s only win. The raw numbers are actually better than at the same point last term, when he had scored twice in the opening six games and failed to create any goal. But that version of Fernandes was operating in the deeper midfield role Ruben Amorim preferred.
Look further into the current season and the picture is less flattering. It is his second-highest campaign for actual shots at an average of 3.3 per game, behind only the 3.5 he averaged in 2020-21, yet it is his joint-second lowest for shots on target at 0.8 per game. His chance creation, at 2.5 per game on average, is the second lowest of his time at Old Trafford and down significantly from the 4.0 he returned last season. More strikingly still, he has created just one ‘big chance’ so far — the lofted pass that sent Bryan Mbeumo running clear of the Ipswich defence on 30 August. Last season his average was one per game.
United’s own form gives those numbers a sharp edge. They have taken six points from their opening six games, their worst start to a league campaign in 40 years, when Ron Atkinson was eventually sacked to make way for Sir Alex Ferguson. The question hanging over the club is whether Fernandes is the reason for that malaise or a symptom of it.
There is also uncertainty over the Portugal playmaker’s fitness. Fernandes rarely misses a game, but he was left out of the recent Nations League encounter with Norway, national team boss Jorge Jesus saying the former Sporting man was “playing through pain”. He was fit enough to return for the final two internationals of the extended break, having earlier completed the full 90 minutes in the 4-0 win against Azerbaijani champions Sabah FK in the Champions League. United manager Michael Carrick does not view it as a problem. “He was carrying something but that happens a lot,” Carrick said. “Players play with issues. It’s not ideal but it is manageable. Bruno is able to play. That is the commitment he has got. He is pretty much over it, was really bright in training this morning and is looking forward to the game.”
Part of the explanation lies in who is no longer around him. Towards the end of last season, Benjamin Sesko was a regular in the number nine role and veteran Brazilian Casemiro anchored the midfield. Of the nine league goals Sesko has scored in 2026, Fernandes created four, and Fernandes was responsible for four of the final five goals Casemiro scored as a Manchester United player from 1 February onwards. Even Casemiro’s biggest admirers would not claim United’s current low running statistics are down to the 34-year-old’s summer move to Inter Miami, but his positioning and game knowledge remained of a high standard — and Fernandes could take risks in the belief that United would not be overrun on the transition if he lost the ball. As for Sesko, a fresh shin injury merely extends an absence that is being keenly felt, and for which there is as yet no end date.
The club’s power brokers ignored a clamour to bring in more striking support in the summer and instead reinforced Carrick’s midfield. A plan to cover Sesko’s initial absence by using Mbeumo as a number nine had to be scrapped when Amad Diallo suffered an ankle injury just before the opening game at Hull. Matheus Cunha was given the job instead, but he repeatedly dropped deep, right into the space Fernandes was occupying, and the pair never really found an effective way of dealing with it. For Fernandes it feels restrictive, and while he is not a player who lacks confidence, his decision-making does appear to be affected. Against Tottenham at the weekend, it took him an incredible 23 minutes just to complete a pass.
Carrick said on Monday, looking ahead to a meeting with Atletico Madrid, that no-one was “guaranteed” a place in his team, but placed enough caveats around the remark to indicate that leaving out his captain is not in his thinking. United must start to improve, and that means Fernandes must do the same. Carrick is confident he will. “He’s a top player, Bruno,” he said. “Sometimes things don’t quite go for you. Sometimes you have a spell of that. But he’s done some incredible things for this football club and he will do the same in the future, there’s no doubt about that.”