Bruno Fernandes may lose his place in Manchester United and Portugal’s midfield due to the signing of Christian Eriksen.
The Dane was confirmed as Erik ten Hag’s second signing at Old Trafford, joining as a free agent after leaving Brentford.
Eriksen stood out upon his return to the Premier League, having recovered from a cardiac arrest while playing for his country in last summer’s Euro 2020 tournament.
Despite spending a year at Inter Milan, Eriksen still boasts some of the best goal and assist stats for Premier League midfielders from his time at Tottenham, and talkSPORT host Tony Cascarino believes that could spell trouble for Fernandes.
The 27-year-old had been one of the league’s standout players since signing from Sporting CP in January 2020, but last season his impressive output dropped off, as did United.
The team recorded their worst ever Premier League season and, with Fernandes also struggling, United’s latest signing could take minutes off of him.
The former Chelsea and Ireland striker explained: “Eriksen’s one of them that always wants the ball, great at set pieces, great vision, weight of pass superb, he will be the best midfielder that United have got.
“My fear with Fernandes is he had a really difficult time last year and I’m not sure if he will be moved into a slightly different position.
“He won’t get that luxury of being a number ten in that you can float, number 10s are a luxury now because if he’s not pulling the strings and not being the most important player on the pitch for United, he becomes a bit redundant.
“Last year he spent a lot of the time in no man’s land, in the position between the forward line and midfield and he got frustrated by it, you could see in the way he acted.
“I feel Eriksen’s more likely to play than Fernandes at the moment, I’m just not sure about his season last year, he’s got a lot of ability as a footballer but he’s got to fit into the way that Ten Hag wants to play.”
Cascarino then said he invisigns Eriksen playing with Scott McTominay and potential new signing Frenkie de Jong, before adding on Fernandes: “He’s not a guaranteed starter for Portugal either.”
