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2018-19 Performances


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5.3 Season Average Rating
Appearances
25
Goals
1
Assists
3
Yellow cards
3
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I've seen him and Keita put in near identical performances and the latter is praised beyond belief why the former has been overly criticised.
 
But your new 50m player not being good enough to start games is a worry itself. Worry about whether it was a good transfer or not.

It’s all part of ajustment to the league. Keita and Fabinho were on the Liverpool bench. Fabinho hasn’t even made an appearance yet.
 
It’s all part of ajustment to the league. Keita and Fabinho were on the Liverpool bench. Fabinho hasn’t even made an appearance yet.
Good point.

United have a tendency to throw players in at the deep end then wonder why they aren’t instant hits. It happened with Memphis as well.

It’s perfectly reasonable to expect players from a dissimilar league to need a while to settle.
 
Can't really see what he does better than Pereira to justify the 50mil. I don't think he's necessarily bad or anything but we would've been just as good as we are now by just using Herrera and Pereira, better than we are now by using that 50mil on a cb or rw.

maybe this summer was our last chance to sign a player we’ve liked for a long time? I know it goes against the narrative of Jose/the club having no long term plan (which I’m not fully convinced they do!) but maybe give the player a half a season to settle in at least.

Fred is a good age and he should be an attacking threat from the middle (which we needed against smaller teams)with Dalot/Valencia overlapping. It also means more games for Rashford and Martial in rotation instead of us signing a right winger. It’s basically sanchez that’s the square peg since he got here and his signing still baffles me to be honest! I’m convinced fred will come good for us about half way through the season. He’s got the ability to turn and quickly drive the play forward and to play killer balls (which we’ve not seen here yet) he also puts in a shift all over the pitch. On paper he should be a cracking signing for us.
 
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Genuine box-to-box, energetic combative type, pressing maniac.

Lacked the steel and ball retention skills though. Not a playmaker with that eye for deadly pass which I initially thought he is, nor does he good at building up play stringing passes together moving it upwards. Or it's just a bad game for him.

Impressive turning ability and ball control, glue to his feet, but no balance to hold it against pressure.

Good in tight spaces, but seriously losing the ball too much is annoying, need to pair up with someone who can keep possession, build up and spreading play creatively.
Our midfield combo last game is missing that.
 
He got better towards the end - just give him some time. People are too impatient nowadays.
 
I've seen him and Keita put in near identical performances and the latter is praised beyond belief why the former has been overly criticised.

Yup. Think the same. It's not a surprise though, our "fans" are the worst when it comes to giving the players time to settle in. I remember how poor Fernandinho looked when he first arrived from Ukraine but look how that signing turned out.
 
He'll come good I'm not worried. I like his intentions. Always demanding the ball and never hiding even if things aren't coming off. We have to be patient with him.
 
Why so? Matic and Fellaini (evidently) can play the DLP role, while Herrera's contract is expiring and I think we were looking for an upgrade with a view for next year. I think a good box-to-box was probably more important at this time.

Matic is declining and while we can be positive about Fellaini, it would be silly to ignore his history. At some point the issues hes had in the past are probably going to show up, the flying elbows when he jumps against people and the clumsy challenges in and around his own box. He's doing absolutely fine and we havent seen these things in the past few games and the longer he goes without doing him the more confident we should be in him. But lets be real, its been a couple of matches so far.

Currently I think its rich to call Fred box to box, because to me a box to box player is someone who will compete and make challenges not just get on the ball and make runs forward. He's an attacking player so far. Pogba does more defensively than he does.
 
I think both Fred and Kieta have been very underwhelming so far.

I tend to agree.
Yup. Think the same. It's not a surprise though, our "fans" are the worst when it comes to giving the players time to settle in. I remember how poor Fernandinho looked when he first arrived from Ukraine but look how that signing turned out.

Ablsoutely. If he was 29 and had come from Spurs I'd be concerned by a slow start... But at 25 and having never played in a top league it was almost inevitable.
 
I've seen him and Keita put in near identical performances and the latter is praised beyond belief why the former has been overly criticised.

I only saw him against West Ham and Palace, in those games he had a good and composed final ball. He also won the ball a lot.

So from what I've seen he's been the complete opposite of Fred who has given the ball away plenty with final passes that lacked care and hasnt won the ball at all.
 
He'll of fine. It's obvious there's a quality player in there, and we just need to give him time to settle. You can see the frustration on his face at times. He knows he has much more to give.
 
He is still improving each game which is good to see. He looks like he loses the ball a lot because he is on the ball a lot, his pass completion is actually the highest of our regular midfielders.
 
maybe this summer was our last chance to sign a player we’ve liked for a long time? I know it goes against the narrative of Jose/the club having no long term plan (which I’m not fully convinced they do!) but maybe give the player a half a season to settle in at least.

Fred is a good age and he should be an attacking threat from the middle (which we needed against smaller teams)with Dalot/Valencia overlapping. It also means more games for Rashford and Martial in rotation instead of us signing a right winger. It’s basically sanchez that’s the square peg since he got here and his signing still baffles me to be honest! I’m convinced fred will come good for us about half way through the season. He’s got the ability to turn and quickly drive the play forward and to play killer balls (which we’ve not seen here yet) he also puts in a shift all over the pitch. On paper he should be a cracking signing for us.

Let me ask you this and it's a sincere question: at the time we were being rumoured to be after Sanchez, did you find it baffling? Were you convinced it was going to be a bad move?
 
I only saw him against West Ham and Palace, in those games he had a good and composed final ball. He also won the ball a lot.

So from what I've seen he's been the complete opposite of Fred who has given the ball away plenty with final passes that lacked care and hasnt won the ball at all.

Nah Keita has been distinctly average. He was dropped against PSG and hauled off against Spurs.

Basically like for like with Fred. Both need time to adapt.
 
He is still improving each game which is good to see. He looks like he loses the ball a lot because he is on the ball a lot, his pass completion is actually the highest of our regular midfielders.
He plays simple passes, that’s why he would have high pass completion. He’s not losing the ball from bad passes, he’s losing it from no awareness of opposition around him, poor dribbling and being weak as piss.
 
He plays simple passes, that’s why he would have high pass completion. He’s not losing the ball from bad passes, he’s losing it from no awareness of opposition around him, poor dribbling and being weak as piss.

He's second in the team after Pogba for number of long passes, and top for short passes. He's also top for key passes and one of the better dribblers.

The reason he looks like he loses the ball a lot is because he shows for it everywhere. Sometimes he is offering to receive the ball when he has 2 or 3 players right next to him. He needs to learn to move away or decline a pass.
 
He's second in the team after Pogba for number of long passes, and top for short passes. He's also top for key passes and one of the better dribblers.

The reason he looks like he loses the ball a lot is because he shows for it everywhere. Sometimes he is offering to receive the ball when he has 2 or 3 players right next to him. He needs to learn to move away or decline a pass.
Where do your stats come from?
 
His set pieces last night were poor unless he was aiming for the first post but we need to just wait. It can take players half a season + to find their feet and whether he plays all the games or some - he needs to adapt to the country, the climate, the language, the expectation, the different types of football he will face etc etc. We have bodies now who can play midfield and so it's not so pressing. We just need stability and people to make these positions their own.
 
Fred looked a lot more comfortable last night than he has in any of the games he's played in the fast paced PL. He wasn't amazing but was better than average. I think he still needs time but he's showing signs. I like that he creates an urgency in the middle for us but this can sometimes look like it's come about because of a poor first touch, leading to him being pressed and therefore rushed. A better first touch would allow him that split second more to get it out of his feet and do something meaningful. I like that he's positive more often than not and he pops up in places where the opposition hate.

For him to improve he needs to adjust to the pace of the PL and improve his first touch to allow him more time to think about what he's going to do next. He'll be more effective in Europe where you tend to get a bit more time on the ball without being harassed as much.
 
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Has been up and down but it's too early to judge. I think he'll be key against teams who park the bus, though.
 
Not massively impressive at the moment, and Fellaini easily ahead, but think he’ll improve with time. I’ve seen what he can do.
 
Where do your stats come from?

Whoscored.com

Of our midfielders he is clearly our second most effective with the ball. What he needs is a bit of discipline in his game. He is trying to be everywhere and do everything when sometimes he's not the best person for a situation.
 
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Whoscored.com

Of our midfielders he is clearly our second most effective with the ball.
There’s a huge question over whether being more creative with the ball than Matic or Fellaini really makes a player stand out. He loses the ball a lot.
 
I'm not writing him off, but I am worried about him. He just doesn't seem to be very good at the things he was supposed to be good at and instead of bringing a sense of calm or control to the midfield he runs around frantically making a bit of a mess.

I don't know if it's eagerness to impress or what, but he's definitely not the obvious and immediate improvement over our midfield options most hoped he would be.
 
I'd like to see him as a CDM - a player in a strict position whose main focus is to break down play.

Right now he seems all over the pitch & not settled in to anything.
Nooo. He's easily muscled off the ball and his tackling is weak. A recipe for disaster.
 
I'm not writing him off, but I am worried about him. He just doesn't seem to be very good at the things he was supposed to be good at and instead of bringing a sense of calm or control to the midfield he runs around frantically making a bit of a mess.

I don't know if it's eagerness to impress or what, but he's definitely not the obvious and immediate improvement over our midfield options most hoped he would be.

How did you get the impression we signed him to bring "a sense of calm or control"?

Here's what Mourinho said when he signed him:

"Nemanja Matic, Marouane Fellaini, Paul Pogba and even Ander Herrera are physical and strong players, he told reporters."We think having a player like Fred in the squad – who is more technical, more quality of passing in short spaces – he can maybe connect [with] the attacking players."

We certainly saw glimpses of this last night, with his contributions to the first and third goal. He seems to make us a bit quicker on the transition than our existing CMs (bar Pogba) and is more progressive with his passing. All of which are qualities we lacked for a lot of last season. I thought he had a good second half, although - like most of the team - his first half performance was pretty dismal.
 
I'm not writing him off, but I am worried about him. He just doesn't seem to be very good at the things he was supposed to be good at and instead of bringing a sense of calm or control to the midfield he runs around frantically making a bit of a mess.
What made you believe he would add a sense of calmness and control to our midfield? All I have read about Fred suggest he is a dynamic, aggressive box-to-box player who's great in transitions and have decent passing/through balls with both feet. Not once have I heard him described as a "calm" player that controls the tempo of the game, i.e. Carrick type or any other deep-lying playmaker.
 
Jesus I can't believe I forgot to mention that. How crap is he at corners?! Who the fcuk suggested he take them?:lol:

It was particularly annoying when every single one of their corners was an absolutely fantastic delivery. Been an issue with us for years. Kind of beggars belief that a club with so many stars as we have, doesn't seem to have a single player capable of striking a dead ball as well as BSC Young Boys' number 7.

To be fair to Fred, he does seem capable of hitting a decent dead ball. Just needs to do it consistently.



EDIT: Also. It's probably harder striking a ball cleanly on astroturf, when you're not used to it.
 
How did you get the impression we signed him to bring "a sense of calm or control"?

Here's what Mourinho said when he signed him:



We certainly saw glimpses of this last night, with his contributions to the first and third goal. He seems to make us a bit quicker on the transition than our existing CMs (bar Pogba) and is more progressive with his passing. All of which are qualities we lacked for a lot of last season. I thought he had a good second half, although - like most of the team - his first half performance was pretty dismal.

Perhaps I could have worded it better , what I mean is that he doesn't seem to be very good at the things he was supposed to be good at (he looks weak in the tackle, a pretty average dribbler and not a hugely impressive passer – although there have been signs that he might have more to show on the last front) which is compounded by the fact that he seems to be unable to recognise when he needs to take a second to calm things down or sit in. 'Control' might be the wrong word, but maybe discipline is better? It's interesting you point to the Mourinho quotes because it seems no surprise that we've seen Fred dropped after his start for players who Mourinho trusts to make the correct decisions and I suspect Fred will currently be getting an intensive crash course in what Mourinho asks of his midfielders.

Obviously he's never going to be a calming influence, and it's a balancing act, but I do think it's not unreasonable to expect someone who is supposedly the best midfielder we could find in Europe to read the flow of the game a bit better and work out when it's not sensible to try a risky pass or dribble when we've been under the cosh a bit.
 
Perhaps I could have worded it better , what I mean is that he doesn't seem to be very good at the things he was supposed to be good at (he looks weak in the tackle, a pretty average dribbler and not a hugely impressive passer – although there have been signs that he might have more to show on the last front) which is compounded by the fact that he seems to be unable to recognise when he needs to take a second to calm things down or sit in. 'Control' might be the wrong word, but maybe discipline is better?

Obviously he's never going to be a calming influence, and it's a balancing act, but I do think it's not unreasonable to expect someone who is supposedly the best midfielder we could find in Europe to read the flow of the game a bit better and work out when it's not sensible to try a risky pass or dribble when we've been under the cosh a bit.

To me he just seems a bit flustered and anxious to impress. It's a big move for him and I'm sure he'll get more calm and composed once he settles into the shirt. All the stats seem to confirm that he uses the ball very well and he'll get better at knowing when to stick or twist over time. Hopefully.
 
To me he just seems a bit flustered and anxious to impress. It's a big move for him and I'm sure he'll get more calm and composed once he settles into the shirt. All the stats seem to confirm that he uses the ball very well and he'll get better at knowing when to stick or twist over time. Hopefully.

Oh absolutely, I recognised that as a possibility in the first post. I'd have liked to have seen a few more glimpses of his ability than we have seen so far, but it's early days and we've seen players who have had worse starts go on to be big players and players who have had better starts go on to be awful.
 
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