Bruno Fernandes says his penalty technique for Manchester United comes from a discussion he had with an old coach back in his Sampdoria days.
Two of Fernandes' three goals for United thus far have come from the penalty spot, with the Portuguese ace netting from 12 yards in the Premier League against Watford and the Europa League against Club Brugge.
On both occasions, the January arrival from Sporting Lisbon jumped in the air shortly before taking his shot, in a similar manner to the technique favoured by Chelsea's Jorginho.
It is clearly an approach that works for him, and he says it comes from his days back in Serie A.
“My inspiration was a coach, like a third coach in Sampdoria, because I started to shoot penalties in Udinese and I already shoot in the national team, also Under-21s,” Fernandes told the former footballer Mario Gjurovski on Instagram.
“At that moment, I had a different way to shoot, and a technical coach - he was playing at Sampdoria and he had a big injury - so the club gave him a job to help him and to help others to do shots at end of training.
“We shoot pens after training, [I] was there with [Fabio] Quagliarella, he started to talk to me and said why don’t you change your idea? It’ll be difficult for the keeper.
"So I try, [but] Quagliarella was taking penalties and when I came to Portugal, it was Bas Dost [at Sporting Lisbon] and I was second.
“So I started taking them but it was him, nobody knows [him]. It was not inspiration but just advice and I started doing it.
“Sometimes I change, I never shoot in same way because if I go three or four penalties in a row I will change.
“Keepers have videos and can study you so I will need to change because they will know.”
