Deep-Lying Bruno
In the absence of Casemiro — who had to serve a suspension due to the red card he received against Southampton, ten Hag tried to experiment with Bruno and Sabitzer. ten Hag played Bruno as a double pivot with McTominay, while Sabitzer played in the №10 —a position that Bruno usually occupies. Bruno played in a deeper role (deep-lying playmaker) to focus more on Manchester United’s build-up and maintaining the defensive structure, whereas McTominay was more advanced and would enter the penalty box at many moments.
What is interesting about ten Hag’s decision, is that Sabitzer has previously played as a double pivot with McTominay/Fred, usually supported by Bruno in the №10 position. This means ten Hag saw Bruno’s potential to play in a deeper position or he was not satisfied with Sabitzer’s performance (or both). After the game, ten Hag praised Bruno’s performance, saying “He was the best player on the pitch.”
Because of that, I try to analyze Bruno’s performance in a deeper role by focusing on his match against Everton.
Build-Up
In the build up-phase, Bruno started from the central position — a position that would normally be filled by a holding midfielder. We can also see that McTominay’s position was more advanced compared to Bruno’s.
He can drop as an RCB, but Bruno primarily operates in the left halfspace and the left flank, dropping to the LCB or LB position depending on the situation.
Both were done so that Malacia can be more advanced. If Bruno drops to LCB, Lisandro will move to LB and Malacia will advance.
Another scenario: If he drops to the LB position, then Malacia will (again) move forward.
(Look how he pointed out Malacia to push forward)
If Malacia decides to drop, Bruno can rotate with him and move to a more advanced position. This rare rotation made the opponent unaccustomed so Bruno was able to escape from his maker and get closer to the penalty box.
Even though he was played in a deeper position, Bruno can still play progressively. Because Everton tried to defend with a mid-block, there was space behind the Everton backline that could be exposed. Bruno — who has a good vision, was assigned to provide a long pass to expose that space. He was not pressed by Everton players so there is a space that he can take advantage of. He successfully recorded the most progressive passes in this match.
With his long-ball abilities, he was also assigned to switch play. So that Manchester United can circulate from one side to the other as quickly as possible.
Attacking Phase
When Manchester United formed 3–2–5, Bruno is positioned in the left halfspace — a position that would normally be filled by LCB/LB/LCM in that structure.
Playing from a deeper position does not mean he will not move forward. It’s just that he has to judge when is the right time to move forward and when is the right time to stay back.
The video below explained the position where Bruno operates. In the build-up phase, he operates on the left side (left flank and halfspace), he then will move to the right side (right flank and halfspace) when Manchester United attacks.
With Bruno especially operating in the right halfspace/right flank to fill in the rest defense, he can provide a halfspace cross like this which he does many times to help Manchester United create chances.
If there is a space that was not occupied in the last line of Manchester United’s attack, Bruno can fill that space.
In the 2nd half, Bruno Fernandes was in an advanced position more often than in the 1st round. This made him get more dangerous chances, after previously only getting chances through long shots.
ten Hag also brought in a player like Eriksen — who played in a deeper position at times, so Bruno moves forward to №10/winger position.
Out Of Possession
With Bruno positioned on the rest defence at many moments, he was tasked to stop Everton’s counterattacks. Even though he is not a player with an impressive defensive aspect, Bruno still carried out his more defensive role with a good performance.
When transitioning into a defensive block, he formed a double pivot with McTominay in Manchester United’s 4–4–2 / 4–4–1–1 shape. Meanwhile, Sabitzer is positioned more advanced and can step up to be level with Rashford.
Bruno was also assigned to drop to the backline to help Manchester United’s defence. We can see the position comparison between him and McTominay.
One of the concerns about Bruno in this position is his ability on winning duels. This can be seen in his duel statistics against Newcastle (1/7 duels won) and Everton (1/3 duels won). He recorded 6/7 duels won against Brentford, but that was only one game.
Because of that, he was helped by other players to win duels so he could focus more on the passing aspect. As explained above, the use of Bruno as a deep-lying playmaker allowed Manchester United to take advantage of his long pass to expose the space behind Everton’s backline. So after Man United won a duel, Bruno can immediately give a long pass to expose that space.
Ten Hag’s decision to play Bruno as a deep-lying playmaker and McTominay as a box-to-box against Everton was proved to be a success. Both of them carried out their duties well, Bruno got the Man of the Match award after playing well in his new role, while McTominay succeeded to score a goal when the game reached a deadlock.
This performance by Bruno gave Ten Hag tactical flexibility and a solution just in case Casemiro was out of the squad (injured or suspended). With that, it’s really interesting to see what will ten Hag do when Casemiro and Eriksen are back to the starting eleven after Bruno produced this type of performance.
That’s all for today. Thank you for reading this article.
