- Mohamed Salah is the front-runner for the PFA Player of the Year award this term
- Manchester United are currently 13th in the Premier League after 29 matches
- LISTEN NOW: It’s All Kicking Off! Is England’s squad good enough to win the World Cup?
Bacary Sagna has tipped a Manchester United star to potentially pip Mohamed Salah to the PFA Player of the Year award this season.
Liverpool’s out-of-contract talisman Salah is the runaway favourite, with his 27 goals and 17 assists in the Premier League crucial to Liverpool’s dominance of the English top-flight this term.
Yet while Liverpool have flourished under new manager Arne Slot in 2024-25, Manchester United have been having a season to forget.
Neither Erik ten Hag nor Ruben Amorim has been able to turn things around for the Red Devils, who are 13th with only 10 wins and 12 defeats from their 29 top-flight matches.
Yet despite their poor form, Sagna has at least seen enough quality in one first-team star to rival that of Liverpool’s Salah, and his tipped them to win English football’s most prestigious individual award.
‘Bruno Fernandes has a chance to win PFA player of the season – he’s been great,’ said the former Premier League star to Paddy Power.
‘He had a lot of stick when things weren’t really going well for him, but I must give him some credit now because he’s really stepped up.
‘Maybe he needed more time to adapt, but he’s found his place. He’s the captain for a reason, because he has a big personality and is uplifting the team.
‘We knew about his quality in Portugal, and people were expecting him to step up when he joined Manchester United – he’s finally answering those questions.
‘I’m happy for him personally, but it’s also great for the team – Manchester United is under pressure and it’s a time where they need players to step up.
‘People expect you to shine as soon as you wear the shirt, and it’s a heavy shirt to wear. He’s playing for United, not any other team, so the fans are very demanding. I’m pleased to see him delivering and showing his quality.’
United’s season may be one to forget, but Fernandes has, in his defence, been the man to bail his side out on numerous occasions this season.
His eight goals and nine assists in the league have been crucial to preventing an already disappointing campaign from becoming more alarming still, particularly in recent weeks.
In his last four games he has managed three goals and three assists for Amorim’s side, without which his side would have picked up only one point, instead of the eight they ended up with.
As well as the talismanic leader at Old Trafford, Fernandes is also the designated penalty-taker, and has now scored from 12 yards more than any other Man United player.
The Portuguese midfielder has etched his name into United’s history books by successfully converting 36 of his first 40 penalty kicks for the club.
No other player has yet scored as many as 30 penalties for United, with Ruud van Nistelrooy and Wayne Rooney second and third on the list with 28 and 27 respectively.
Fernandes has a remarkable coolness from the spot. Many assume that is due in part to the influence of Cristiano Ronaldo – scorer of 173 penalties from 204 efforts in his senior career and with whom Fernandes has been a team-mate at both club and international level during his career.
But, perhaps surprisingly, Fernandes recently credited former Sampdoria striker Fabio Quagliarella with helping refine the way he reads goalkeepers.
Speaking to Inside United, Fernandes explained: ‘Many of the penalty-takers, they have a side and they go there. They choose the side before, they go powerful and everything, and they still score. I don’t know, this was always something that I learned from Quagliarella, at the time I was in Sampdoria.’
