Jaap Stam feels Solskjaer’s side have experienced an upturn in form and new arrival Fernandes has excelled in his early part of his Old Trafford career, MySportDab reports.
Bruno Fernandes has given Manchester United an extra dimension, said Jaap Stam.
However the Old Trafford legend says his former club nonetheless need more quality if they are to bridge the gap that exists between themselves and top two.
Portugal international Fernandes arrived from Sporting in January for £47M following a long running transfer saga.
He hit the ground running immediately, scoring three goals and supplying 4 assists in his first 9 games.
The 25 year old was named the Premier League’s Player of the Month for February and has yet to taste defeat since arriving in England.
Prior to football’s coronavirus enforced suspension, United had moved up to fifth in the league table.
That position could be enough to secure Champions League football subsequent season with Man City facing Uefa ban.
There has been momentum at Old Trafford underneath Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in 2020 that had been lacking in what was a disjointed 2019.
Jaap Stam who won three successive league titles as a player at United believes Fernandes’ arrival has been key to that.
“There was a lot of talk about Ole when he came,” the 47 year old said.
“He had that great run, then when he signed his contract and lost certain games people were a little bit sceptical about the choice.
“But I think everyone at the club knew that the players who had come in needed time to adjust to the club, the pressure of playing for the club and what Ole wanted to do.
“Now you see players are getting used to the way of playing and by bringing in Fernandes, a quality player, it’s given them that extra dimension of creativity.
Going forward makes it easier at times for other players to get on the ball and get into scoring positions.
“So I’m delighted for Ole that it’s getting better and better.
Unfortunately for him it’s stopped now because for the final duration of the season they were looking very good.”
Jaap Stam nonetheless believes United remain some way off challenging for the Premier League title again.
The Dutchman who is in talks to take over as head coach of MLS side FC Cincinnati.
He says more quality additions are needed if his former club are to start competing for the top trophies once more alongside with Liverpool and Manchester City.
“Against City they have had a good run of results,” stated Jaap Stam.
“But you can’t look at individual games and say we can go for winning the league because we’ve beaten them a number of times.
“I think you need to be very stable as a team at some stage in the whole league, which Liverpool is.
You need to play in a certain way now and build your squad in a certain way, then in the end you can build that challenge for winning the league again.
“If I look at it now, I think they nonetheless need some more great players in the squad to make that challenge.”
