Bruno: We need to avoid the tennis matches
Bruno Fernandes was delighted to emerge victorious against Wolves on Thursday night, but his attention was already turning to how Manchester United can put the learnings from Molineux into practice against West Ham United.
It’s a quick turnaround for the Reds, who will be back in action at Old Trafford on Sunday afternoon for a 14:00 GMT kick-off against the sixth-placed Hammers.
Erik ten Hag’s side twice had a two-goal cushion against Wolves but, after Pedro Neto looked to have snatched an unlikely point for the hosts, it needed Kobbie Mainoo’s magical moment to secure the three points.
After dominating the first hour, it was a challenging end to the contest for United as a revitalised Wolves scored three times, and Bruno believes West Ham will pose a similar threat this weekend.
“[The late winner] has to help obviously, but it has to help first of all for everything good we’ve done and be careful on the details that we have to avoid, so we don’t get the same game as today in the second half,” the United captain told MUTV.
“The first half was amazing, we controlled the game getting in positions that was the best for the team, occupy the half-spaces, being in control on the ball and everything.
“I think it’s going to be really important on Sunday [against West Ham] to do it again, because as I said it’s a team that likes to play but at the same time, when they drop they like to counter because they have pace up front, players that can deal with the ball, so we have to be really focused on that.”
A substitute once again made an impact, as Scott McTominay made an instant contribution at Molineux by netting for the seventh time this season for United.
Bruno is acutely aware that the squad is full of players capable of scoring goals. “Obviously we know that we have players on the bench who can score goals,” he explained.
“Obviously in the past, we’ve been saying with the injuries we’ve had and everything, we still had players on the bench who could score goals.
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“It’s about getting the balls in the right places, the players doing the right moves and we will get goals.
“But obviously I think more than that is like controlling the game better for us, avoid the tennis matches as the manager says many times. Because I think it was better for them [Wolves] than it was for us, playing the tennis match, as it’s going to be on Sunday again [against West Ham], because it’s a team that play really good football but at the same time really strong on counters too.”
Keep an eye out on ManUtd.com and in the United App for all the build-up to United’s next outing against West Ham on Sunday.