Bruno Fernandes turned 30 in September. He marks five years as a Manchester United player next month. After another calamitous night for him and United at Molineux it might just be his last.
Fernandes has emerged as one of the problems Ruben Amorim must fix if he is ever to right this listing vessel.
Whatever he imagined the scale of the difficulty might be when he skipped through the doors of Old Trafford in November, he probably did not legislate for the centrality of Fernandes to the predicament he faced. The red card at Wolves might be a blessing, since it forces Amorim’s hand.
Fernandes has been the one constant in United’s unwitting decline, always present, never injured, hands up for extra duties, expending every ounce of energy to keep hopes alive of a better tomorrow. That sense of having to be everyone as well as himself has gradually broken him.
A frustrated lunge prompted by a heavy first touch just two minutes into the second half brought his involvement to an end against Wolves. It was his third early exit of the season. Though one of those was subsequently rescinded it does not alter the trajectory of a United career diminishing before our eyes.
United improved when Fernandes departed, which tells you something of his negative impact on the shape of the team.
At this stage of his career, Fernandes is all wrong for Amorim’s United, having neither the legs to get about the final third nor the discipline or instinct to operate centrally in a midfield two. He falls somewhere in between, but in Amorim’s world, there is no in between.
That the first of his yellow cards came for a foul on Matheus Cunha was somehow symbolic, pointing to the all-action player he used to be and the type United need now, a world class dynamo in the final third.
Amorim is committed to three at the back, two wing backs, a midfield two and a trident up top. The model is compromised by injuries to Luke Shaw and the fallibility of Tyrell Malacia on the left. This has forced Diogo Dalot to switch from the right, which kills United’s forward momentum on that side.
The poor optimisation of the left hand side has consequences for a United attack already unsuited to the deployment of Fernandes. Rasmus Hojlund is consequently feeding on scraps, which in turn leaves Amad Diallo as the only viable threat. The lad is good but not good enough to carry the team every single game.
The only viable spot for Fernandes is in a central attacking role in the false nine position falling increasingly out of fashion. What United really need in that space is a lethal predator, someone with the primal desire to score goals, the absence of which proved the ruin of Erik ten Hag and is seriously undermining his successor.
Amorim has made United more coherent defensively, with Manuel Ugarte finally coming into his own. His loss for a fifth yellow card will hurt United far more against Newcastle.
Going forward they are no more persuasive than Ten Hag’s ensemble. The per-game stats are alarming; 1.3 goals compared to Ten Hag’s 1.5, 12.6 shots to 15, goals conceded 1.7 to 1.3, points gained 1 to 1.7. The only metric that has improved is shots faced, falling to 10.1 under Amorim from 14.7.
Amorim is being assailed from all sides - ill-equipped personnel, old legs, fading stars, bad buys, bad luck, a questionable keeper and brittle confidence as well as a counterproductive captain.
Having lost three on the spin in all competitions, and four of his last five Premier League games, United face a restored Newcastle on Monday followed by an unstoppable Liverpool and then a trip to Arsenal in the FA Cup. You can see why the colour might be draining from that affable face.
In the pre-PSR age the transfer window would have offered a reprieve to a club of United’s size. To begin the renewal process in a meaningful way he must sell.
Marcus Rashford, who at his formidable peak would have solved the problem on the left-hand side of the attack, is an obvious candidate having declared his desire to leave, but might be priced out of a January fix by his £300k-plus weekly stipend.
Discarding Fernandes, which would have been unthinkable when he signed a new contract in August to keep him at the club until 2027, is becoming more thinkable by the match.
Though unlikely in January, who’s to say how the club might act in extremis should three on the spin become six at the Emirates in a fortnight?
United are in turmoil. What bounce they gained from Amorim's appointment has been crushed. Form and fate are pointing to a Fernandes-free future, which is both sad, given his undeniable devotion to club and cause, and necessary, given the demands of the new regime.
If sacrifice is the ultimate expression of love, it might start with the renunciation of the captain.
