Bruno Fernandes is flying once more - but where does Man Utd captain fit into Ruben Amorim's system?

Amorim is the sixth coach Fernandes has worked with in just under five years with United since his move from Sporting CP. He worked longest with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Erik ten Hag but took on very different roles with each coach. When he joined United at the end of January 2020, Fernandes found a team that had lost three of its previous four Premier League games and after a disappointing goalless debut the team were languishing in seventh in the table.

Fernandes quickly raised their level and was named Premier League player of the month for February. He was in a hot streak just when football was halted by the Covid-19 pandemic but when it resumed in June he was even more prolific. He contributed 14 goals and eight assists in all competitions in half a season, inspiring them to finish third in the table and reach the semi-finals of the FA Cup and Europa League. From the day of his debut, United took more points than any Premier League team - even runaway champions Liverpool. Fernandes was named the Sir Matt Busby player of the year despite playing just half a season and he retained that award the following season, when he was even more prolific, notching 28 goals plus 17 assists.

Fernandes looked set for another incredible campaign when he bagged a hat-trick (all from open play) in the opening game of the 2021-22 season against Leeds, but the arrival of Ronaldo disrupted his flow and eventually the team's too. He scored just seven more times in all competitions that season, ending on 10 league goals, while United slumped to their worst points total in Premier League history after sacking Solskjaer in November, with Michael Carrick and then Ralf Rangnick taking the reins.

The team's fortunes improved in Ten Hag's first campaign but Fernandes posted just eight league goals, his lowest amount since the 2016-17 season with Sampdoria. Last season, he went four months without a Premier League goal and more than five without one from open play. He was still a vital player, but his role had changed and he was often blamed for the team's dismal results. Speaking last November, he said his stunning start had ended up working against him.

"I know since I arrived at the club my numbers made myself a target so not keeping the same numbers on goals and assists is sometimes a problem for me," he said. "In the beginning everything was perfect, because when you arrive in the first game if you do something different to what anyone else is doing, it is going to be all flowers. But after that I understood that the tough part is always coming."

Even as the goals and assists dried up, Fernandes was still greatly appreciated by Ten Hag, partly because he was always available to play, which meant a lot to the coach in a season of endless injuries. The Portuguese only missed games when he was suspended and when he was forced to sit out the game with Crystal Palace last May, it was the first time in his career he had missed a game through injury.

Fernandes had played through the pain barrier on many occasions and against Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup last season battled through what Ten Hag described as "a serious injury". The coach took offence to Fulham accusing him of playacting, branding their criticism "pathetic".

Fernandes' play-at-all-costs attitude was not always a good thing though and at several stages of the campaign he looked physically spent. Ten Hag also used him in multiple positions, in holding midfield, attacking midfield, on the wing and even at centre-back in the FA Cup quarter-final against Liverpool.

But although Fernandes seemed to relish his role as the team's do-it-all saviour, it ended up being to the detriment of him and the team. Indeed, when Ten Hag was sacked, Fernandes revealed he had personally apologised to him. He said: "We are not scoring goals and I feel responsible. I normally score a lot of goals but I always give 100% and he is aware of that."

Bruno may have been the team's willing emergency serviceman, but he deserved to play in a properly functional team with a clear style of play. He should get that with Amorim and although the pair's paths never crossed at Sporting, Fernandes had watched the coach closely from afar. A lifelong Sporting fan as well as a player, he watches the team at home with his family and spoke enthusiastically about his arrival.

"This is the right moment for him to come, bring his energy, his qualities and his knowledge of football because he did something very special at Sporting," Fernandes told MUTV.

"He brought the excitement back to the club. He brought a lot of good things to the club and hopefully, he can do the same here because sometimes a person can change the energy of a space if it's the right moment. He's done really good things tactically, from what I've seen."

It will be fascinating to see what Amorim does tactically with Fernandes. Even though the United captain admitted his drop in goals and assists is a stick with which he is regularly beaten, he has expressed a desire to continue his retreat in midfield from a traditional No.10 to a No.8, with his ultimate goal to be a No.6, having enjoyed playing there last season in the 2-0 win over Everton, which he has described as "one of the most complete games I've played, at all levels".

"The game with Everton was the one in which I created the most scoring opportunities, even though I was playing deeper and not playing as a No.10," he told A Bola in March.

"In terms of passing, game organisation, defence, tactics. I have a little thought in my head that I'm going to end my career further back, because everyone who started there and went to no.10 ended up retreating on the field at the end. It's a position I like, playing deeper, facing the game more.

"With the ball, it makes my game a lot easier because I have a broader view of the game and it is ideal for what we've talked about with the last pass, which can sometimes come from deeper on the pitch."

Based on Fernandes' declarations, he would slot into the centre of the midfield four, sitting next to principal ball-winner Manuel Ugarte. But many fans and pundits see him as occupying one of the two narrow wide forward roles. And that could be where Amorim also sees him operating, based on what he did at Sporting with Pedro Goncalves.

Goncalves, who joined Wolves as a youngster but made just one appearance for them, moved to Sporting as a central midfielder after a stellar campaign with minnows Familicao in which he was named the Primeira Liga's young player of the year, racking up a decent tally of five goals and five assists.

But he underwent a dramatic transformation under the guidance of Amorim as a wide player and in his first season in Lisbon scored 23 goals, making him the top scorer in the division and winning him the young player award once more. Injuries disrupted his next campaign but in the 2022-23 season he contributed to 26 league goals and 23 in the last, title-winning campaign. He has four goals and four assists in the league this season and set up Sporting's second goal in the recent 4-1 demolition of Manchester City, the flowing move from one end of the pitch to the other.

Amorim was guarded about how Fernandes and others will fit into his new system in his first press conference as United boss on Friday, but he emphasised that the players' main desire was simply to get on the pitch. "In this first moment, they just want to play, it is easy, in the future we will see," he said. "You can watch on TV but you have to train with them to see if they can play in different positions. Everyone wants to play now, if they have the opportunity to play as a goalkeeper, they will."

The new coach, however, did address the team's fragile mentality which he believes stems from the amount of games they have lost. It is something he is keen to help them with. "That is for sure but normal when players don’t win games, you start to be suspicious of the way of playing," he said. "You can understand when they walk to the game or the warm up, you can understand if they are confident or not. I think we have to help them but they are ready to cope with the demands of games in the Premier League. You see sometimes they have a bad first half and then in the second half they will change so they have to find that mindset."

Fernandes is never shy of showing his emotions and his gesticulating has been interpreted as a lack of leadership. He has often unfairly been made the scapegoat for the team's decline but it is inevitable given his central role in a largely dysfunctional team. But if Amorim can get the team doing the basics right, then he might not have to fight as many fires. Rather than retreating deeper, it is time for Fernandes to get back to being the swaggering goal-machine, the 'Portuguese Magnifico' that United fans fell in love with in the first place.