“Look in my eyes…” Rio Ferdinand launches staunch defence of Man United’s Bruno Fernandes

Manchester United legend Rio Ferdinand has told fans of the club that they were wrong to doubt Bruno Fernandes.

With ten Premier League goals and seven assists, Fernandes is leading the way for both sets of goal contributions at the club this season.

It’s become a theme of Fernandes’ Manchester United career, where he has led the side for either assists or goals in the league in all but one of his five seasons at the club.

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Providing 143 goal contributions in 230 games at the club, the Red Devils captain has cemented himself as a consistent performer in a United team that has frequently underwhelmed.

Despite this, several fans of the club had demanded that Fernandes be dropped from the starting XI before his recent injury woes, something that Rio Ferdinand has taken the time to hit back at.

“Can I just say one thing? Please look in my eyes, please. All of you people who are saying Bruno out, again, I want humble pie eaten,” Ferdinand stated on his Vibe with FIVE podcast.

“Because, in the last couple of games, creativity has been a big issue for us. And without that man in our team, we don’t create noise, let alone chances. Trust me.

“So all these people who keep saying, ‘yeah, but he’s not this, he’s not that’, the guy creates chances, scores goals, but more importantly, creates chances for others, and makes other players look better. When he hasn’t played, every other attacking player has looked worse off.

“The moment he plays, they all look better because he’s getting in positions to score goals and have chances at goal. And it really winds me up massively when I hear people saying he’s rubbish”

As Ferdinand pointed out, Fernandes has been forced to miss United’s last two matches due to his aforementioned injury.

In those two matches, United failed to score a single goal, losing to London sides Crystal Palace and Arsenal, 4-0 and 1-0, respectively.

The only other match Fernandes has missed in the league this season was due to suspension in December of last year. In that match, United again failed to score, with the final result being a 0-0 draw with Liverpool.