Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images
Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images
Bruno Fernandes and Florian Wirtz play in the same position and so it is natural to compare them.
Back in 2021, Manchester United nearly signed Florian Wirtz when he was making a name for himself at Bayer Leverkusen.
Instead, Liverpool paid £116m for Wirtz last summer, yet the 23-year-old has struggled to adapt to life in the Premier League.
United instead have put full faith in Bruno Fernandes as the club’s captain and an ever-present in the No.10 position. The contrast between the two players could not be more extreme.
Bruno Fernandes embodied Manchester United disaster by sprinting just once vs Fulham
Bruno Fernandes embodied Manchester United disaster by sprinting just once vs Fulham
Why Bruno Fernandes is criticised more than Florian Wirtz
Interestingly, pundit Jamie Carragher spoke about Wirtz this week and made an intriguing comparison to Bruno Fernandes when it comes to criticism.
Speaking on Sky Sports, Carragher somewhat defended Fernandes and argued that Wirtz is not being harshly treated in England. If anything, it is quite the opposite.
“I don’t think the football public are being harsh at all about Wirtz.
“When you think of the stick Paul Pogba got at Manchester United, who didn’t deliver but still got decent numbers at times. Bruno Fernandes was getting stick last week against City.
“He still created United’s two best chances, and he’s just won the Player of the Year, yet was still getting criticism. “
Manchester United are the most criticised team in world football
In order to be a footballer at Old Trafford, you have to be able to handle criticism.
That’s because it, quite frankly, is everywhere. Rightly or wrongly, United are criticised more than any other side, and that is the weight that comes with being the biggest club in the world.
United have often been overly criticised, and there has been some revisionism on Pogba’s criticism over the years after players with far bigger transfer fees have performed far worse.
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Wirtz fits into that category. The truth is that he has scored seven goals in 55 games, yet is still escaping criticism.
If United paid £116m for a player to produce a goal every six or seven games, they would be crucified.