Bruno v Ronaldo: Who to invest in for Double Gameweek 25

The announcement of Double Gameweek 25 has caused managers to look Manchester United assets, even if they haven’t been in the best form of late. For managers paying premium prices for United players it is important to make the right choice. We take a look at whether we should invest in the midfield with Bruno, the forwards with Ronaldo or whether it is possible to own both.

We took a look through the Fantasy Football Scout members area to assess which of the Manchester United premiums is worth investment for Double Gameweek 25.

This article looks at data from Gameweek 4 onwards, as this is when Ronaldo rejoined United and was added to the game.

It should be noted however that Fernandes did return a 20 point haul in Gameweek 1 which is out of our comparison period.

Minutes

Ronaldo has played 1458 minutes since his return to the Premier League. In comparison Bruno has played 1504 minutes, 54 minutes more than Ronaldo has managed.

Those minutes come from 16 starts for Ronaldo, compared to 17 starts for Bruno. However, Ronaldo has also been subbed off less times than Ronaldo. Four for Ronaldo, in comparison to eight for Bruno.

Attacking returns

Between Gameweeks 4 and 23 Ronaldo has scored eight goals for his FPL managers, compared to four for Bruno. Bruno however has five assists in comparison to Ronaldo’s three.

This difference is highlighted in their expected goals (xG) and expected assist (xA) data.

Involvement

With a significantly higher xG stat it is perhaps unsurprising that Ronaldo has the better expected goal involvement (xGI) of the two players.

However, when you look at the touches of the two players it is apparent that Fernandes is far more involved in the play.

Heat Maps

The player heat maps highlight why Ronaldo has returned more goals so far this season as his map is more advanced than Bruno’s. This means that he is in the opposition’s penalty box more than his teammate.

Is either essential?

When looking at whether to invest in Bruno or Ronaldo for Double Gameweek 25 it is important to consider whether there is a need to own either.

Whilst Manchester United have won their last two Premier League matches there are multiple other options who could potentially be better options.

Twenty midfielders have scored more goals since Gameweek 4 than Bruno has. Of these 20 players all bar Salah and De Bruyne are cheaper than Bruno is. Ronaldo however is the top scoring forward in the game with his eight goals, one more than Dennis from Watford and Vardy from Leicester who have scored seven goals each.

When looking across all outfield players in the period, Ronaldo is second for goals scored with only Salah returning more goals than the Portuguese international.

Six outfield players have more assists than Bruno does since Gameweek 4, all of these other options are at least £3m cheaper than Bruno with the exception of Salah.

Bruno is currently owned by 21% of FPL managers, with Ronaldo owned by 28.4% of managers. Many of these managers own them as a result of Manchester United’s previous Double Gameweek.

However, the return of Salah from AFCON potentially in time for Gameweek 24 would have had many managers planning to sell the United assets to afford to bring Salah back. Now they face a tough choice, should they wait on bringing Salah back to hold Ronaldo or Bruno for Double Gameweek 25.