Bruno Fernandes wasn't at his best during the 0-0 draw at Liverpool this weekend.
So often the talisman of this Manchester United team, the Portuguese enforcer has lost just three Premier League games since his arrival, often popping up with crucial goals and assists.
In fact, only Liverpool's very own Mohamed Salah managed to notch more goals in England's top-flight throughout 2020 despite playing as a midfielder.
United's big game struggles
Nevertheless, if there has been one criticism lodged against Fernandes since he first pulled on the famous red jersey, it's his supposed struggles in the most important games.
Truth be told, you could probably fire that complaint against all United players when you consider their pitiful record during semi-finals under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
The Red Devils are still awaiting their first piece of silverware under the Norweigan after crashing out in the final four of the Europa League, FA Cup and Carabao Cup twice.
Fernandes disappointing vs Liverpool
But even the most ardent defenders of Fernandes would have a hard time reproaching claims that he was subpar at Anfield, producing a terrible set of individual 'highlights' in the process.
According to WhoScored.com, Fernandes managed just 33 passes with an accuracy of only 60%, which paled in comparison to Thiago Alcantara's total of 96 with a success rate of 86.5%.
However, the undoubted disappointment of Fernandes' display wasn't taken in isolation and was rather used as evidence that of the 26-year-old's aforementioned shortcomings on the big stage.
It's the sort of narrative thread that can become embedded in the social media zeitgeist without necessarily being true, so we wanted to do some digging into Fernandes' big-game statistics.
Fernandes' stats in big games
As a result, we've used WhoScored and transfermarkt to look at Fernandes' data against the 'big six' clubs in the Premier League to see whether or not his Anfield disaster was anomalous.
Well, truth be told, the answer doesn't look good for United fans, so check out the full statistics down below to be certain that Fernandes' big game struggles aren't just fluff and filler on Twitter.
Minutes played: 837
Appearances: 10
Wins: 2
Draws: 4
Defeats: 4
Goals from open play: 0
Goals from penalties: 3
Match-winning goals: 0
Assists: 2
Man of the Match awards: 0
Minutes per goal or assist: 167.4
An average of just one win from every five games with no goals from open play and none of his penalty strikes transpiring in wins for United is certainly not a good look.
Fernandes' biggest flaw
It's also worth recognising that the only two assists that Fernandes has registered against the 'big six' actually came almost a year ago against City and Chelsea before the first lockdown in March.
As a result, you can forgive fans for pointing the finger at Fernandes for another underwhelming display on the big stage because it's clearly becoming a theme of his time at United.
We'd even go as far as saying that it's Fernandes' biggest flaw at Old Trafford because his woeful stats against the big clubs are so incongruous with his fantastic data more broadly.
Lest we forget that we're talking about a player who's won back-to-back Premier League Player of the Month awards twice over but, we hastened to add, they most certainly weren't for big game displays.
That being said, I think we should broaden the net of criticism a little bit here because it's worth noting that United haven't won a single game against the 'big six' since 'Project Restart' in general.
In other words, Fernandes appears to warrant the more politely-worded barbs thrown his way, but so do the United squad in general as they still await their marquee victory of the current season.