Drz
Full Member
- Joined
- Sep 12, 2015
- Messages
- 1,387
Where is the 'like' button for this post? This is exactly what happened, the team was broken in two groups of five players where Fred was supposed to carry the ball through 5 players of Wolves (the 2 strikers and the 3 cms) while getting no support from the other two midfielders. The distance from Fred, who had to pick the ball 3-5 meters away from Smalldini and Lindelof to Pogba or Scott was criminal at times.
He was at fault for the goal, yes. But he had an overall good game considering all the work he had to do while defending(the ground he had to cover, press, recover balls and also cover for full backs) and also had to carry the ball forward all by himself because his teammates wouldn't help him.
Even the best player in the world needs to be protected, why shouldn't our lone defensive midfielder? Of course that he needs to be protected, the first defender of our team is the striker, not the DM, that's the problem with some of the players, they think that because they play for Manchester United they don't need to work their socks off. When actually they need to work harder than the other teams in order to be at the level we aspire to be.
I see Fred as more Box to Box. But rightfully you can't use such a player alone to do the grunt work, you need at least another box to box or DM type. So with Scott instructed to play and press high, that left Pogba and Fred. If you forgo the mistake by the latter, and look at the interceptions/Passing stats one did their job whilst the other didn't.