When Bruno Fernandes curled a free-kick against the crossbar in Manchester United’s goalless draw against Aston Villa, he looked to the skies, cursing his misfortune.It has been that kind of season for him so far, the worst of his career in English football.

He had been similarly close to scoring against Crystal Palace, close even to winning the ball in the incident that saw him sent off away to Porto. Fine margins are going against Fernandes, the form lost and even his future role in this United team being questioned.

Now 30, Fernandes has seen more cards than wins this season. Nobody has had more Premier League shots without scoring. Bad times for a player so good. As he himself put it on social media, this is a tough moment. "Personally, for me, one of the hardest."

Roy Keane was United's captain when he first arrived at Old Trafford. McClaren has seen them all. As a result, he has more reason than most to push the line that Fernandes is not up to it. Instead, he remains a passionate advocate of the current skipper.

"I looked at the challenge," McClaren says of the dismissal in Porto. "Bruno's going for the ball. He doesn't go for anything else and he's wholly committed. That's what he is. You like him, you hate him… I love him." He even chooses to evoke that name of Keane."

He leads by passion and sometimes that's good and sometimes that's bad. I remember the old days of Roy Keane. He led with passion and sometimes it was good and sometimes it was bad. And the press, well, they had their own opinions on it."

McClaren's memories of Fernandes are fond ones. He recalls those long conversations about tactics, a player absorbed by the game. "I think he is a great player, a great personality and what a gentleman. He will talk football all day, very knowledgeable."

None of which are excuses for the sort of dip in performance that Fernandes is enduring, but one wonders whether it is an image in need of reframing. This is no entitled or indifferent superstar, but a player who will be feeling his own failings deeply.

Bruno's background

The context of his career is important to note. Fernandes did not come through one of the big academies in Portugal, beginning his journey as a centre-back before having to go to Novara in Italy to prove his worth. His has been an unusual route to the top.

There were the skills, of course, but he has always been a scrapper. That was how he got his move to Sporting, as the club's former director Andre Geraldes explains. "Jorge Jesus and I went to watch a Portugal U21 game on a cold winter day,"

"We both understood that we had found our man. We needed to find a midfielder who could score goals, play between the lines in the last attacking third. He was capable of playing and making others play, bringing a different kind of rhythm to the game.

"Bruno had not played for a big club with great demands, the need to be a champion, but he quickly adapted because of his mentality. He was mentally strong. When things were not going well, he did not shy away. And he improved technically and tactically."

His second season with Sporting brought 33 goals and he was off to Manchester United midway through the third. "Bruno left a legacy in Portugal," says Geraldes. "That was evident to everyone. There are not many midfielders in the world with his capabilities."

Perhaps that is worth restating at a time when Fernandes is struggling. While his explosive start in a United shirt - 40 goals in his first 80 appearances - was unsustainable, his creative number since his Old Trafford debut remain remarkable.

He has created 453 chances in the Premier League since then, 62 more than his nearest rival Kevin De Bruyne. Fernandes' individual importance to his team has been greater, creating a higher proportion of his team's chances than the next players on the list.

But something has changed. This season, Fernandes' creative numbers have fallen off a cliff. A player who had previously been creating around three chances per game is now struggling to muster one. It is a dramatic decline.