Bruno Fernandes is struggling to replicate last season’s form, and Manchester United have collected just six points from their opening six Premier League games, their worst league start in 40 years. Only seven weeks ago, the Manchester United captain was named PFA Player of the Year for 2025-26, but his output has fallen sharply since.
Fernandes had already won the Premier League and Football Writers’ awards for his contribution to United’s unexpected third-place finish. He scored nine goals and claimed 21 assists, a Premier League record shared by Thierry Henry and Kevin De Bruyne.
Over the final 11 games of last season, Fernandes either scored or created 12 of United’s 21 goals. In the seven-game run that returned United to Europe’s elite club competition after a two-year absence, the 31-year-old was involved in nine of their 12 goals. Statistically, it was a remarkable spell, recalling Eric Cantona’s 1995-96 title-winning campaign, when he scored in six successive games.
At the Manchester Opera House, Fernandes told an appreciative audience: “It was a special season for me. I am very proud. But we don’t play tennis. We don’t play just for ourselves. We play for a team, we play for a club, we play for the fans. There is nothing more special than that.”
Those words carry particular weight now, because this season’s figures are far less impressive.
A slow start to the campaign
Fernandes has played every minute of United’s six Premier League games. He has three goals and one assist, all coming in the second match, a win against Ipswich, which remains United’s only victory so far. That is still better than last season, when he scored twice in the opening six games without creating any, but he was then playing in the deeper midfield role that Ruben Amorim preferred.
This season, Fernandes is taking more shots than at any time in his United career apart from 2020-21, averaging 3.3 per game. However, his average of 0.8 shots on target is his joint-second lowest. His chance creation, at 2.5 per game, is his second lowest at Old Trafford and well down on the 4.0 he managed last season.
Even more striking, he has created just one “big chance” this season, a lofted pass that sent Bryan Mbeumo clear of the Ipswich defence on 30 August. Last season, he averaged one per game.
Symptom or cause?
Fernandes’ numbers, and the amount of the play he touches, go some way to explaining United’s poor start. The key question is whether he is a reason for the malaise or a symptom of it.
There is also uncertainty over the Portugal playmaker’s fitness. Fernandes rarely misses games, but he was left out of Portugal’s recent Nations League match against Norway, when national team boss Jorge Jesus said the former Sporting man was “playing through pain”. He returned for the final two internationals of the break, and he played the full 90 minutes in United’s 4-0 Champions League win over Sabah FK.
United manager Michael Carrick does not see it as a problem as he prepares his side for Tuesday’s meeting with Atletico Madrid. “He was carrying something but that happens a lot,” Carrick said. “Players play with issues. It’s not ideal but it is manageable. Bruno is able to play. That is the commitment he has got. He is pretty much over it, was really bright in training this morning and is looking forward to the game.”
The missing partners
Towards the end of last season, when Fernandes was at his most prolific, Benjamin Sesko was a regular in the number nine role, and veteran Brazilian Casemiro anchored United’s midfield. Of the nine league goals Sesko has scored in 2026, Fernandes created four. He also set up four of the final five goals Casemiro scored for United from 1 February onwards.
The absence of Sesko and Casemiro is clearly being felt. Casemiro left for Inter Miami in the summer, and even his biggest admirers could not argue that his departure alone explains United’s current low running numbers. His positioning and game knowledge remain of a high standard, and Fernandes could take risks in the knowledge that United would not be overrun on the counter-attack if he lost the ball.
Sesko’s fresh shin injury extends a spell without him, and there is no end date in sight. The club’s power brokers ignored calls for more striking support in the summer and instead strengthened Carrick’s midfield. A plan to cover Sesko’s initial absence by using Mbeumo as a number nine was scrapped when Amad Diallo suffered an ankle injury just before the opening game at Hull. Matheus Cunha took the role instead, but he repeatedly dropped deep, into the space Fernandes occupied, and the pair never found an effective way of working around each other.
For Fernandes, the setup feels restrictive. He is not a player who lacks confidence, but his decision-making appears to be suffering. Against Tottenham at the weekend, it took him an incredible 23 minutes just to complete a pass.
Pressure on the captain
On Monday, Carrick said no-one was “guaranteed” a place in his team, though he surrounded that remark with enough caveats to suggest that leaving out his captain is not on his mind. United must improve, and that means Fernandes must improve too.
“He’s a top player, Bruno,” Carrick said. “Sometimes things don’t quite go for you. Sometimes you have a spell of that. But he’s done some incredible things for this football club and he will do the same in the future, there’s no doubt about that.”
