Bruno Fernandes replies to his critics who call him 'Penandes'

Manchester United midfielder Bruno Fernandes has responded to jibes that he only scores penalties, resulting in the harsh social media nickname of ‘Bruno Penandes’, with ex-Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho being the most high-profile public critic.

Eight of the 12 goals Fernandes has scored for the Red Devils have come from the spot, while there was a significant number that he won himself. Social media has spent no time making their final call on the midfielder and have been constantly trying to take all the credit away from him. However, there also exists a certain group of people that have not been ignorant of how the ex-Sporting CP man has affected the team.

One of the incidences took place during the season when Jose Mourinho was acknowledging how Fernandes has reformed United, labeling him a ‘great penalty taker’, one of the best in the world but also emphasizing on the fact that he had ‘20 to score,’ which was a dig directed towards him amid some VAR controversies involving Mourinho’s Spurs.

While chatting with A Bola, Fernandes chose to refute all the comments that were fired at him but it was also clear that he did not seem stung by any of it and said, “I feel that I am a good penalty taker and nothing more, I understand, but what I take from words (Mourinho’s) because I’m a very positive person, is that he said I hit penalties well.”

Fernandes also laid a very valid and yet very unknown fact to address the scale of his impact, which was that since Bruno’s arrival, his goals and assist contribution were more than any other midfielder in England barring Kevin De Bruyne, who equaled the single assist record with 20 assists. 

“I hear people saying ‘Ah, he only scores from penalty kicks’. But a little while ago, I saw the statistics and except for penalties, only Kevin De Bruyne has a higher involvement in goals than me in England when it comes to midfielders.”

With Donny Van de Beek’s arrival to be announced soon, it is expected that Bruno’s numbers will surely continue their upward graph.

featured image credits- theguardian.com