'Circus act': Roy Keane unimpressed with Bruno Fernandes assist record

James Cox

Manchester United legend Roy Keane takes no prisoners as a pundit and it's safe to say he was unimpressed with Bruno Fernandes matching the Premier League assist record.

The United captain notched up his 20th assist of the season in United's 3-2 victory over Nottingham Forest on Saturday. This puts him on a par with Thierry Henry and Kevin De Bruyne, who previously hit that mark for Arsenal and Manchester City.

However, Fernandes will have a chance to surpass that in United's last game of the season against Brighton on Sunday.

Speaking on the Stick to Football podcast, Keane said there has been too much focus on Fernandes breaking the record, rather than the success of the team.

"Look at the second half, he admitted himself. First half he had a few shots but then it all became about the assists."

"You're going to get assists in that position he plays. 20 would be better if you're winning trophies," Keane said on the podcast.

"When you're the captain of the club and you're supposed to be driving the club forward, do not be getting bogged down by your role in the team, just assists. I think what I heard at United at the weekend, I was raging with it.

"The whole chat about his assists and players talking about assists. He got interviewed after the match, and I was watching and everyone was talking about assists. The game was about his assists. After the game he got interviewed and he said in his interview, the captain of Man United, 'A few times I should have shot but I made them passes' [Fernandes really said he should have passed rather than shot]."

Keane added: "How can your mindset about football be going into a match and talking about an individual record? He's going to get all of them stats anyway but to become the main point of Manchester United's performance at the weekend, I was cringing with all of them.

"And all of the players going over to him when he got the assist. What about the guy who scored the goal?"

Gary Neville defended Fernandes. "There was nothing on the game, United had finished in the Champions League, Forest had already stayed up."

Keane was having none of it, he replied: "If your mindset is like that going into the game, what's to say it's not like that in other games? You say there's nothing in the game, there's always something on the game. There was 70,000 at the match yesterday.

"I'm just saying, all the players talking about Bruno's assists, when you're not winning anything. If you're winning stuff and players are getting individual awards, fantastic. Golden Boot, thumbs up to that, player of the year, no problem. But that's further down the line.

"The priority is the team. Man United's priority this weekend was Bruno getting an assist. Not winning a football match. Not strikers getting goals or defenders or being good at set pieces or keeping a clean sheet. There's other parts of football that are really important so for one player to get bogged down with assists and his team aren't winning anything, that's my issue.

"That will happen anyway. Bruno will get loads of assists the position he plays and he's got runners ahead of them."

"What's the point? What's the point? You're part of a team game. What's the priority of the team? To try to win. Of course, he's doing his job, he's a brilliant player, and he's player of the year, he's getting the rewards, and in the summer, he'll probably get another new deal because he's threatening to go to Saudi Arabia.

"We've been down this road before. He's got previous. So for a player to get assists and that becoming the priority, that will come when your team is focused on trying to win the big prizes and keeping clean sheets.

"If they win the league next year and he gets 20 assists, I'll say 'You know what, well done Man United on winning the league and Bruno, well done'. That's a little sideshow. That can't become the main show."

Continuing on the subject, Keane added: "Is he not contributing to the team trying to keep clean sheets? That's part of his job. If you're going into a game and it's affecting your decision-making, listen to his interview after the game.

"There were chances for him to shoot yesterday, particularly in the second half but everyone was getting bogged down with assists. When he got the assist, they all ran over, forget the goalscorer. The assists should be the backup to everything else. The assists became the story. How can the assists become the story at Manchester United?"