Bruno Fernandes contributed to a remarkable 32 points with his goals and assists for Manchester United last season in the Premier League.If you were to subtract those from United’s total tally, then they’d have finished on 39 points — level with West Ham but above them on goal difference.Now, we know that is not how football really works, and if they didn’t have Fernandes, other players would have stepped up and scored or assisted at least some of the goals he did. So United would not have been fighting relegation without Fernandes, but we can be almost as sure they would not have finished third and qualified for the Champions League without him either.The amount of points Fernandes earned is a signifier of how reliant United were on their captain last term. It’s impressive and risky in equal measure, and the club’s plan for the future is for that not to be the case.In nine of the games Fernandes either scored or assisted in, those goal contributions were the deciding moments. His goal or assist either put United level to earn a draw or put them into a lead — for a total of 17 points.It is why the record-breaking 21 assists in the Premier League were certainly worthy of the individual accolades he collected last season, such as the FWA Footballer of the Year and Premier League Player of the Season.It is also why United insist he is not for sale this summer and instead are in talks about extending his contract.Fernandes is the second-highest paid player at the club now that Marcus Rashford has returned. You suspect Fernandes may get closer to Rashford’s salary once these contract negotiations are completed following Galatasaray’s reported interest.The Portuguese is, without doubt, the most important player in Michael Carrick’s team, but if they are going to challenge for major honours, then United need others to help out even more.Fernandes’ team-mates need to chip in more regularly in 2026-27 (Steve Bardens/Getty Images)Benjamin Sesko, Bryan Mbeumo and Matheus Cunha all scored more Premier League goals than Fernandes, but only just. Mbeumo and Sesko scored 11, with Cunha on 10.Those combined numbers are good, especially considering they are league goals only and from a brand-new attack constructed last summer, but the point remains: United need more from their front three. The club’s total of 69 goals in the league last season was a huge improvement on the 44 from the previous campaign. They were also only two shy of champions Arsenal.But Fernandes created 21 of them directly. The next in the list of assists was Patrick Dorgu on four. His chance creation is even more startling. Since 2023-24, he has created 458 chances. The next highest is Diogo Dalot on 144, as the graph below displays.Across the Premier League in the same time frame, Fernandes has created more than 30 per cent of United’s goals and scored just shy of 20 per cent. Last season, Fernandes created four chances per game, more than any other player across Europe’s top five leagues.This summer’s midfield rejig is something head coach Michael Carrick believes can help improve the attacking numbers of others. But any changes made will not be to stifle Fernandes in any way. Instead, the idea is to give him even more freedom.