Manchester United’s match against Greek Cypriot Omonia should have been easy. The attackers, however, seemed unable to hit the ball past Francis Uzoho.
The lack of ruthlessness and ruthless goal-making against a team of similar UEFA standard to a League Two side raised the question: what were the strikers doing?
However, according to the statistics, an attacker seems to have enjoyed a great day, albeit on paper.
Bruno Fernandes played the full ninety minutes yesterday.
He had an impressive 87% pass completion rate; something unknown for the number ten’s risky style of play.
In addition, he created seven chances, two of which were considered big chances, ie passing someone shooting up close or from a favorable position.
He also played six accurate long balls out of a seven attempt, as well as intercepting the ball twice from the opposition.
On paper, this all looks very impressive for a well-rounded attacking midfield display, leading to SofaScore rating of Fernandes’ night at 8.6 overall. This is, in fact, the highest rating of Fernandes given by the website.
Fernandes’ stellar performance for Portugal against the Czech Republic last month did not even receive such adulation. He was given an 8.3 for scoring one goal and assisting another (scored by teammate Red Diogo Dalot).
Taking a closer look at the details suggests the need to be wary of hyperbolic ratings based on metrics.
Fernandes lost possession 24 times. As Red Billy wrote in the Peoples Person post-match ratings: a waste.
It was also noted that there was “nothing of the usual counterbalancing magic”. The evidence for this is that Fernandes had one shot on goal from five attempts, while only completing one successful dribble.
Hardly the master of puppetry that fans had become guilty of taking for granted.
Playing against a Portuguese-speaking teammate Bruno on Sunday, Fernandes will have to improve his technical game to match Guimarães’ excellent form in managing the midfield strings for Newcastle United. 
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