What Portuguese media said about Bruno Fernandes and Diogo Dalot after Portugal vs Poland

Manchester United duo Bruno Fernandes and Diogo Dalot both played in Portugal’s 3-1 win over Poland in the Nations League on Saturday evening.

Despite an underwhelming start to the season at Manchester United, several players have been able to go away and focus on their international duties this week.

For both Bruno Fernandes and Diogo Dalot, the Portugal national team is a comfortable place for them where performances are often impressive.

This could spark conversations about what’s going wrong under Erik ten Hag at Old Trafford, and the trend looked to continue this weekend.

Roberto Martínez’s men were 3-1 victors against their Polish opposition, ensuring they stayed top of their Nations League group with nine points.

How Portuguese media reacted to Bruno Fernandes and Diogo Dalot vs Poland

Both United players started for Portugal in this clash, with Dalot seemingly the preferred choice over Joao Cancelo at right-back under Martínez.

The defender played 90 minutes in his natural position–rather than the left side where he has been stationed at United this season–and delivered a “balanced” performance, according to Abola.

They rated the 25-year-old as a 7/10 for the game and wrote, “he started with a huge shot (9′) that was saved by Skoruspsi, a well-measured pass to Cristiano Ronaldo (54′) that almost ended in a goal, defensively very consistent.”

Meanwhile, the same Portuguese outlet provided Fernandes with a 7/10 as well and praised his assist for Bernardo Silva’s opener despite having a lack of “killer instinct” in front of goal himself.

They wrote: “Suspicious. He’s not in the best of times in Manchester , but he returned to his best form in this game. He ran, fought, searched, assisted Bernardo Silva for the goal but he lacked that ‘killer instinct’ that takes him to the top.”

Erik ten Hag has a clear Bruno Fernandes problem

Despite his recent struggles at United, club captain Fernandes almost never fails to perform for his country. He has scored or assisted in every Nations League fixture so far and has been Portugal’s main man in terms of output in the final third over the last year.

Fernandes is often doing too many jobs for Ten Hag in his system and we are no longer seeing him searching for balls in behind for the wingers–partly due to their strict defensive responsibilities.

With pressure on the Dutchman building, it is quite simple that he needs to get the most out of his current players. He is not doing that right now and it could cost him the job.

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