Bruno Fernandes outlines dream United midfield

It’s a pretty tantalising prospect for Bruno himself, who pondered on how this hypothetical dream United engine room would fit together in the second part of our exclusive Q&A, published on Wednesday night.

The Portuguese midfielder has proved a revelation during his short time at Old Trafford, with fans impressed by the way he always seems to make the right decision with the ball.

But the 25-year-old was stumped when asked by Irish Red Connor Kingston whether he’d rather have Keane or Scholes in his team.

“This is a difficult one, eh? I think the most difficult until now,” Bruno mused. “So, I don't know.”

Fortunately, Fernandes soon came up with a happy compromise, suggesting a midfield trio based on the solid bedrock of Keane’s fabled grit and determination – with a not-insignificant dose of guile thrown into the mix, too.

“If I can have both, [it's] better!” the former Sporting Lisbon captain joked. “I need the guy behind me kicking everyone and recovering balls, like Roy Keane does, and have the quality to give the balls to the guys up front.

“If you look at Roy Keane, he's the kind of player all teams need. Teams play in different ways, but all the teams can have him.

“Doesn't matter if you play in possession [or] on the counter, you need a guy like this normally. I think Roy Keane is an excellent player and he can give me a lot of cover in the back.”

Fernandes took the no. 18 shirt when signing for United, a number previously occupied by Scholes.

The ginger maestro is a player the Portuguese has waxed lyrical about before, and Bruno thinks he and Scholes would fit together well in the middle of the park, with Keane’s position as the anchor allowing them to gorge on goals.

“To play side-to-side with Scholes would be fantastic.

“If I can play with both, I play with Roy Keane in the back behind me and Scholes. Because me and Scholes can both go in the area, scoring.

“We want to score, we want to be in the area, no? And maybe we will need Roy Keane at our backs.”

Now we’ve got Bruno’s dream midfield sorted, we can all ponder on who would join him, Keano and Scholesy in this galactico line-up.

Maybe the Portuguese gave us a clue in the first part of his exclusive Q&A, when giving us a quick run-through of the names he used to idolise at Old Trafford.

“You look in the past and when I’m younger, you look at the players who play for Manchester United and you see the biggest stars in the world,” he told us.

“You see the best players in the world. You have players from everywhere and also, we talked a lot and I told you about Cristiano [Ronaldo].

“I looked at Manchester with more interest when Cristiano was here because it’s normal when you have Portuguese players in some teams, you look at them more than other teams. But at that moment, I started to look at Manchester in a different way because you see Cristiano but then you see also the team and you have Scholes, you have [Wayne] Rooney, you have [Ryan] Giggs and you have Keane, [Eric] Cantona before.

“You have a lot of players… I don’t know… [Ruud] van Nistelrooy… I can stay here for hours saying all the names of players for Manchester United. Also Nani, who’s played with me. You have big stars playing here!”

Perhaps Bruno’s list is a touch light on defenders to make this a workable 11-a-side team, but maybe that wouldn’t matter too much with all that firepower!

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