🦁 Premier League Player of the Week: Answering the critic | OneFootball

With the EFL Cup final taking place at Wembley, it was a fairly subdued Premier League weekend.

But our Player of the Week is ...

Bruno Fernandes (Manchester United)

📸 Carl Recine - 2025 Getty Images

“Save us? They’re 15th in the league and he’s saving them? Praise the lord.

“You have to have a starting point. I go back to it all – talent is not enough. Bruno’s a talented player, but talent’s not enough.”

That was Roy Keane's verdict on Bruno Fernandes last month as Manchester United came from behind to beat Ipswich and salvaged a draw away at Everton.

United were in the doldrums at that point, struggling against the division's basement clubs and failing in almost every aspect of their game.

But for Keane to point the finger at the current United leader seemed like overkill - a point that fellow pundit Ian Wright tried to make later in the conversation.

Whilst the former United captain has become a parody of himself at times in recent years with his acid tongue, it seems that his verbal broadside against the Portuguese playmaker may have worked its desired effect.

Since Keane's attack on the Overlap podcast, Bruno Fernandes has been nothing but sensational and that continued this past weekend as Ruben Amorim's climbed to 13th in the table with a comfortable victory at Leicester.

Bruno was at the heart of everything United did well, scoring one and assisting the other two in a brilliant 3-0 win.

His opening assist saw Rasmus Højlund played in behind to end the Dane's goal drought.

Alejandro Garnacho was next up in the second half as Bruno Fernandes laid in the youngster for a close-range strike.

And the three points were secured in the dying minutes as Bruno swept home a glorious first time strike to net his eighth of the Premier League campaign.

It was the perfect answer to Keane's criticism with Bruno speaking to Sky Sports after the game about whether those comments hurt or motivated him.

"I think both," he said.

"Obviously, it's not nice to hear those things about you, I think no one likes that. But at the same time, it motivates and makes you think people think there's a lot of things you have to improve.

Whatever Keane thinks, it's clear that United will need their captain at his very best with key games against Nottingham Forest, Manchester City and Lyon coming up after the international break.

📸 ADRIAN DENNIS - AFP or licensors