Fernandes’ 20th assist ‘shows the unity’ at Man Utd as superstar mobbed by team-mates | OneFootball

James McFadden feels Manchester United players showing their desire for captain Bruno Fernandes to break the Premier League assists record shows “unity” at the club.

United confirmed third place in the Premier League with their 3-2 victory over Nottingham Forest. It capped off a remarkable turnaround from Ruben Amorim’s time in charge, and saw Fernandes equal the single-season Premier League assist record, with 20.

Last season, United finished 15th in the Premier League and Amorim wasn’t inspiring confidence when he was sacked in January. Michael Carrick very much has done that, winning the vast majority of games and giving Fernandes complete freedom.

When Amorim was in charge, the Portuguese was playing in a deeper midfield role, and while he was still chipping in, he’s exploded under Carrick, with 14 of his 20 Premier League assists this season coming post-Amorim.

Fernandes equalled the Premier League assist record held jointly by Thierry Henry and Kevin De Bruyne with a cross to Bryan Mbeumo against Forest.

United’s players mobbed their captain, with even goalkeeper Senne Lammens running the length of the pitch to show his appreciation.

James McFadden feels the record is proof of the improving culture at United this season.

He said on BBC Radio 5 Live: “It shows the unity in the team that they all want Fernandes to break the record. It’s nice to see someone trying to set up a team-mate rather than someone trying to get the goals and hog a headline.”

Fernandes himself was chuffed with the record, saying on Sky Sports: “I spoke about that, everybody knew it was important. They’ve been trying everything they can to score from my passes. I’m very happy for the assist and for the win and to finish the season on a high.”

“I got to 20 today, let’s see, we have one more game. It’s the highest I’ve done in the Premier League so I am very happy with it.”

Indeed, there’s one game left of the season for Fernandes potentially to take the record outright, as they make the trip to Brighton on the final day of the season.

For a man who created eight chances against Forest, two big chances and had an expected assists ranking of 0.66, there’s likely to be more where that came from against Brighton.

If Fernandes can do it, it’ll finish off a wonderful season for both him and United, and perfectly tee up next season, when the club will be looking to go even further than this season’s third place, as well as giving the Champions League a crack after a couple of seasons away.