Manchester United midfielder Bruno Fernandes is relishing playing with Christian Eriksen this coming season after the 30-year-old Danish midfielder signed for United as a free agent last week, following a six-month stint at Brentford, getting a three-year contract at United.
Fernandes is currently on United’s pre-season tour of Thailand and Australia where they have beaten Liverpool 4-0, Melbourne Victory 4-1 and Crystal Palace 3-1 and he believes that he and Eriksen can compliment each other with improvement to be gained from doing that. Fernandes said:
“Obviously I always learn from players who play similar positions as me. I think Christian has been an amazing player in the past and even last season, when he played for Brentford, he was amazing for them.
“He’s such a good quality player for us and I’m looking forward to playing alongside him. I think the best players make you play better, make you improve, so I’m looking forward to learning from him and to helping him in any way I can.”
United’s new style of play under Erik ten Hag is high pressing, a bit like before under Ole Gunnar Solskjær, but this one seems to be to a higher standard with the benefits shown on the pitch. Fernandes feels the high-pressing style will see United score more goal. He said:
“If you don’t perform at the level you should, the strikers won’t get that many balls to score. We didn’t press as high as we press now, so when we press high as we do now, you’re closer to the goal when you recover the ball, so it makes it easier, it makes them fresher when they have the ball.
“We want to show something different and we want our forwards to score. We’re really happy for them to score and I hope they can keep this up for the season.”
United have scored 11 goals in pre-season so far this summer with Anthony Martial scoring three times, both Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho scoring twice and Fred, Scott McTominay and Facundo Pellistri each scoring a goal each – plus an own goal from the Melbourne Victory match.
United’s attacking threat has been great to see this summer but it is still a work in progress. United will face Aston Villa at the Optus Stadium in Perth on Saturday before flying back home to Manchester ahead of the last two pre-season matches.
It is likely that Eriksen will feature against either Atletico Madrid at the Ullevaal Stadium in Oslo or Rayo Vallecano at Old Trafford – or even both of them. Fernandes will be seeking to impress, as will his new teammate. Lisandro Martinez could also make his debut in one of the fixtures.
Ten Hag will be expecting a good season from United in the Premier League as the club looks set to better the last season, which was the worst the club has had in the Premier League since its inception back in 1992. United will need to rival Liverpool and Manchester City, which will be tough.
Written by John Walker
