David Silva

Manchester United legend Paul Scholes has said that the Red Devils have found their own David Silva in the form of Bruno Fernandes. The Portugal international was heavily linked with a move to the Red Devils in the January transfer window and he eventually made the switch to Old Trafford before the deadline approached.

Fernandes has made a quick impression for the club with three goals and four assists from nine appearances and Scholes believes the Red Devils have finally found a player in the mould of Silva, he told: “Sometimes it just takes one player to turn a team around and knit a team together.I don’t like talking about City, but you think of David Silva – that player that links all the play together, and I think we’ve found him in Fernandes. He’s totally transformed the team. It’s gone from watching a little bit of a dull team, to one player coming in and all of a sudden they look like they’re going to create, they look like they’re going to score goals every time he’s in possession of the ball.”

United lacked the cutting edge to their gameplay during first half of the campaign and most of their goals came from counter-attacks rather than creating chances against organised defences. Those statistics have improved with Fernandes joining the club and he has looked to carry the ball into the box and make things happen which was barely visible from Andreas Pereira and Jesse Lingard during the opening half of the season.

The Red Devils are currently fifth on the table and they are three points behind fourth-placed Chelsea. The position could be sufficient to guarantee them Champions League football, suppose Manchester City are unable to overturn their two-year European competition ban at the Court of Arbitration for Sport this month.