{"id":932671,"date":"2026-05-02T10:09:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T10:09:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/932671\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T10:09:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T10:09:21","slug":"vitinha-names-man-utd-star-as-one-of-the-best-in-the-world-but-omits-arsenal-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/932671\/","title":{"rendered":"Vitinha names Man Utd star as &#8216;one of the best in the world&#8217; but omits Arsenal man"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Paris Saint-Germain star Vitinha has named Man Utd captain Bruno Fernandes as one of the top four midfielders in the world but snubbed Arsenal\u2019s Declan Rice.<\/p>\n<p>Fernandes has had another brilliant campaign for the Red Devils and has been key to their march up the Premier League table under interim head coach Michael Carrick.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.football365.com\/manchester-united\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Man Utd<\/strong><\/a> captain has contributed eight goals and 19 assists in 31 Premier League matches this season with the third-placed Red Devils almost certain to qualify for the Champions League.<\/p>\n<p>And his Portugal team-mate has chosen the 31-year-old as one of the best midfielders in the world and also chose compatriot Joao Neves as part of a four-man list.<\/p>\n<p>When asked by Canal 11 who he rates as the best midfielders in the world, Vitinha replied: \u201cI would put Pedri at the top of the list. He is magical, it is spectacular to see him play. When you play against him, you understand him even better.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA top-three? I would go with Joao Neves and Bruno Fernandes. They are both on either side of me and Pedri. So, I don\u2019t have a top three but a top four.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.football365.com\/news\/lionel-messi-effect-uncomfortable-truth\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Lionel Messi and \u2018the uncomfortable truth\u2019 surrounding his superstardom<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Vitinha didn\u2019t mention Arsenal midfielder Rice but former England and Tottenham striker Gary Lineker reckons the Gunners star has been the best player in the Premier League this season.<\/p>\n<p>Lineker said on The Rest is Football podcast: \u201cI think he\u2019s the player of the season for me. I know they\u2019ll probably give it to someone that\u2019s going to win something.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor me, it\u2019s probably him or maybe Declan Rice if Arsenal go on and manage to clinch the title.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut at the moment, for me, to do what he\u2019s done this season\u2026 and he was still the standout player even when they were going through a rotten spell when they were really struggling under Ruben Amorim.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.football365.com\/news\/premier-league-preview-man-united-liverpool-tottenham-gyokeres-iraola-glasner\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Big Weekend: Man United v Liverpool, Tottenham, Viktor Gyokeres, Andoni Iraola, Oliver Glasner<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think he\u2019s got such a great footballing brain and technique. What a player, what a player!\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Fernandes for Player of the Year? Don\u2019t make me laugh\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>TalkSPORT presenter Adrian Durham thinks it\u2019s laughable that anyone would consider Fernandes for the Premier League\u2019s Player of the Year award.<\/p>\n<p>Durham said on talkSPORT: \u201cMy tolerance level has peaked with people banging on, droning on, whining on about Bruno Fernandes and his assist stats.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd he\u2019s going to break some record or other apparently. First of all, assist stats. I mean, do they really mean that much? They\u2019re a little guide.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes, you can use them, fine. But what was this assist? Was it a pass to somebody who smacked in a<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnyway, besides that, let\u2019s just say Bruno Fernandes\u2019 assist stats should carry an asterisk. Someone said to me the other day that Bruno Fernandes should be Player of the Year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI haven\u2019t laughed so much since I caught on video Alex Crook, the chief football correspondent, doing the YMCA in a bar near Wembley. And he\u2019s still paying me for keeping that video.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ NEXT: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.football365.com\/news\/iraola-sneering-carrick-manchester-united-manager-amorim\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Why Carrick is \u2018difficult to let go of\u2019 despite being \u2018similar to or worse than Amorim\u2019 at Man Utd<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paris Saint-Germain star Vitinha has named Man Utd captain Bruno Fernandes as one of the top four midfielders&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":932672,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4100],"tags":[161,873,2920,94,225,98,12,101,79,16,15,66849],"class_list":["post-932671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-arsenal","tag-bruno-fernandes","tag-declan-rice","tag-football","tag-home-page","tag-manchester-united","tag-news","tag-premier-league","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-vitinha"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=932671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932671\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/932672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=932671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=932671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=932671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}