[jamesjimmybyrondean]

I want to see this trio Bruno-Pog-Fred for another game.

Just once is not satisfying enough -- the single game showed they worked but it's just one game where we are already winning by far so less pressure and Bourne already gave up.

Wonder why Ole is reluctant.

Same here. But I don't think we would see the trio again this season. Mctominay would probably start against West ham and Ole will definitely start his go to trio - Matic Pogba and Bruno against Leceister

 

[simplyared]

How the feck can you replace or compare Matic with Fred? Matic for example is 6ft 4in and weighs 80kg. Fred is 5ft 6in and weighs 62kg. To say Fred is limited as a footballer due to his light frame is an understatement. With those stats he has to be exceptional in his skillset to compensate for that. Modric as an example has those attributes. Fred hasn't. A "good engine" as many posters will eagerly put forward, is just not enough. Matic has the attributes required in his roll as DM. Authority, composure, passing ability, creative coming out of defence, strong etc. If you need a stand in for Matic then it has to be MacT not Fred! Our midfield is Pogba, Bruno, Matic/MacTominay. We need to offload Fred and buy a replacement and that shouldn't be Grealish!

 

[ivaldo]

Get this man Infront of the back 4 against Leicester. I don't think I can stand another game of Twelve-touch dawdling on the ball.

 

[izec]

Get this man Infront of the back 4 against Leicester. I don't think I can stand another game of Twelve-touch dawdling on the ball.

But you will get misplaced passes and counters all afternoon. No thanks, we saw against Chelsea that he is useless currently.

 

[ivaldo]

But you will get misplaced passes and counters all afternoon. No thanks, we saw against Chelsea that he is useless currently.

How many more times do you want to watch your DM give the ball away in dangerous areas or put other players in the shit because he has to take a dozen touches before passing it?

 

[Foxbatt]

Football is a team game. Ole needs to play him with Matic and Bruno. Even today it would have been better if Fred had come on in the second half instead of Pogba.

 

[m1tch]

Gotta have Fred in alongside Matic against Leicester. Sure he'll not give us anything going forward but legs in the middle of the park is severely lacking without him.

 

[dannyrhinos89]

Gotta have Fred in alongside Matic against Leicester. Sure he'll not give us anything going forward but legs in the middle of the park is severely lacking without him.

Should just bench matic too. Honestly I'd rather see mctominay and Fred as our midfielders both with bags of energy we are severely lacking.

 

[M16Red]

Free the Fred.

 

[11101]

He has the skills to play that deep role but he is just too frantic in how he plays, which is not what that position requires. The midfield needs somebody to control the tempo and be calm when needed.

He's always horrible playing next to Matic, it has to be one or the other.

 

[Bwuk]

The more I think about it I’d be open to selling Fred assuming we get another midfielder.

Hes been here for 2 seasons, and doesn’t fit our strongest 11 playing with Pogba and Bruno. Him and McTominay can fulfil the same role; and we’d probably get a not bad fee for him.

 

[ROFLUTION]

It's strange to see him not being used more as part of rotation.

Before Bruno happened, him and Rashford were candidates for player of the year at United. Put in great displays and was all over the pitch.

Don't sell him, Pogba might still leave, and then he'd be great to have + occupy the same position when Fernandes sits on AMC.

 

[Rafaeldagold]

So does anyone else think Fred is at the same level/perhaps even worse than previously? Or is it just me. He’s always had the odd good game followed by sloppy ones which is what he’s producing now I thought

 

[AneRu]

The more I think about it I’d be open to selling Fred assuming we get another midfielder.

Hes been here for 2 seasons, and doesn’t fit our strongest 11 playing with Pogba and Bruno. Him and McTominay can fulfil the same role; and we’d probably get a not bad fee for him.

Same here, the way I see it is that he and McTominay perform pretty much the same role if everyone is fit and we need another midfielder in the Carrick mould that can properly replace and compete with Matic.

The bonus of such a midfielder is that you can pair him with McTominay and not lose much in terms of control and creativity from deep. Fred is too erratic to be trusted with DM duties in place of Matic who isn't consistent himself especially in a congested period.

 

[Devil may care]

He's a better player than Mctominay but if one needs to be sold to make room for a holder, it'll be Fred.

 

[E-mal]

I'd personally sell him and bring a Thiago or Neves into the club

 

[Untd55]

But you will get misplaced passes and counters all afternoon. No thanks, we saw against Chelsea that he is useless currently.

Misplace passes? Where do these myths come from? He has the highest pass accuracy out of all our players; he gives it away less than any other player in the team.

Also, I saw another post saying he loses possession. Again, he gets dispossessed less than any of our midfielders.

I swear people just make stuff up. It is very much the opposite to what people are saying; he is actually very solid with the ball at his feet; he very rarely loses possession.

 

[jamesjimmybyrondean]

Genuinely puzzled why Ole never used Fred in Matic's position and overplayed Matic who clearly needed rest

 

[Still ill]

The break seems to have affected poor old Fred more than any other member of our squad. Good to see how quickly the Caf seems to have forgotten how consistently good he was for us before the Messiah arrived.

 

[He'sRaldo]

The problem with Fred is that, in our formation, the impact of his performances usually depends on others.

For instance, Pogba is usually creative no matter who partners him, and Matic is usually defensively good as well as controlling. But Fred usually needs one of Scott or Matic to be defensively good, and also needed Bruno for the midfield to be creative. So he's in a similar position to McTominay where his most valuable asset is effort and work rate.

We should be playing a 4-3-3, as it's much easier to incorporate that all-action type of midfielder in that formation than a 4-2-3-1 where the positions are a bit more specialized. Our backup midfielders really aren't helped by the current setup.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Misplace passes? Where do these myths come from? He has the highest pass accuracy out of all our players; he gives it away less than any other player in the team.

Also, I saw another post saying he loses possession. Again, he gets dispossessed less than any of our midfielders.

I swear people just make stuff up. It is very much the opposite to what people are saying; he is actually very solid with the ball at his feet; he very rarely loses possession.

So weird that people need stats to recognise this. It’s like nobody watched the first half of the season.

 

[Raven]

So weird that people need stats to recognise this. It’s like nobody watched the first half of the season.

It really annoys me. Even if you can't remember It, take 2 seconds a Google it before going off on some weird fake tangent about his so called weaknesses.

 

[UNITED ACADEMY]

Genuinely puzzled why Ole never used Fred in Matic's position and overplayed Matic who clearly needed rest

Could be because he doesn't want to take a risk right now since our remaining games are/were important games. Scott & Matic are much more safe option since both have enough minutes playing alongside Pogba this season.

 

[Untd55]

So weird that people need stats to recognise this. It’s like nobody watched the first half of the season.

Yes, you don't really need the stats to see that Fred is a very good passer of the ball. I honestly do not understand how people do not see that he is a very good passer of the ball. He has a great range to his passing: threading the ball between players, long balls, one-touch passes, and general short passes.

I think it is a massive shame that we have not seen more of Fred with Pogba and Fernandes. His on-the-ball skills are massively underrated on here.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Yes, you don't really need the stats to see that Fred is a very good passer of the ball. I honestly do not understand how people do not see that he is a very good passer of the ball. He has a great range to his passing: threading the ball between players, long balls, one-touch passes, and general short passes.

I think it is a massive shame that we have not seen more of Fred with Pogba and Fernandes. His on-the-ball skills are massively underrated on here.

To be fair, I understand where the bad passes stuff comes from. When he’s not confident/in form he has a habit of occasionally doing a really obvious horror pass (then apologising to everyone)

When he’s on his game, though, he’s one of our most consistent passers.

 

[lex talionis]

I’m pleasantly surprised by his dramatic improvement this season. A squad man for me, but a fantastic player to have in the squad.

I hope there’s no discussion of shipping him off or converting him to a fullback.

 

[Foxbatt]

He should play tomorrow instead of Pogba in my opinion.

 

[jamesjimmybyrondean]

I've praised and defended him but he's become quite useless as a sub hasn't he? Can't sub him on to be a creative spark when we need a goal and would rather sub in Mctominay when we need to be more defensive and physical. At this point his only place in the team is to start in place of when Pogba needs rest or is injured. A role that can also be played by Mctominay. I still think we should see how be does with Bruno and Pogba in midfield and if he doesn't do well then there's no need for him and I'd definitely sell him to finance a DM

 

[Based Adnan]

Saw a few posts in the match thread questioning why he didn't come on when we were 1-0 up to help see out the win. Definitely confused me a bit as Fred is absolutely terrible defensively and is definitely not the midfielder you want to bring on to see out a lead.

And that's not even going in to the fact he needs a run of games to get going which makes him a pretty useless rotation/off the bench option.

 

[Devil81]

Squad player, cups and weaker opposition at Old Trafford.

 

[jesperjaap]

He's a better player than Mctominay but if one needs to be sold to make room for a holder, it'll be Fred.

Compleetely agree, especially with what we paid and him still having a decent transfer value he is one of our most expendable players in fact this summer, sadly as he has improved well

 

[hungrywing]

If we get Sancho, Fred and McTominay are surely good enough to use them like Liverpool do their midfielders. Just continuously shuttle the ball up to the front four.

No, we don't press as nearly as organized as they do, but against the bottom half/weaker teams it should be more than enough to at the very least grind out the necessary wins.

 

[Bwuk]

If we get Sancho, Fred and McTominay are surely good enough to use them like Liverpool do their midfielders. Just continuously shuttle the ball up to the front four.

No, we don't press as nearly as organized as they do, but against the bottom half/weaker teams it should be more than enough to at the very least grind out the necessary wins.

Liverpool have far better full backs than us that let’s them pin the opposition back.

 

[Freeney]

Liverpool have far better full backs than us that let’s them pin the opposition back.

Exactly. People don’t realise how important full backs are in the modern game.
I don’t want to bash Wan bissaka too much but the amount of opportunities that’s getting Wasted because of his lack of know how going forward is quite harming to our play.

 

[hungrywing]

Liverpool have far better full backs than us that let’s them pin the opposition back.

Yes, I was just musing specifially regarding weaker opposition since we saw signs this season - even after Bruno - that as of now it's probably too risky.

Just wondering if the addition of Sancho alone could make the Fred-McT thing viable in cases such as where Pogba or Bruno are rested for a midweek game and we just want to win by a goal and get out of there.

Definitely not wondering whether the simple addition of Sancho can turn us into a possession-beast hammering opponents.

 

[Litch]

Was arguably the player of the season at some point. Even when Bruno arrived, still played well. People seem to forget the long unbeaten run, he played a massive part played every game when others were injured. Understand that Pogs comes in but if Fred had made the errors that Pogs had made that led to goals, he'd have been vilified. We know Fred needs games to build his confidence and coming of the bench does not suit him and actually brings out the worse in him. He looks nervous and makes mistakes and for this reason, I can see him being sold if we get a good offer for him.

 

[Carlsen19]

Was arguably the player of the season at some point. Even when Bruno arrived, still played well. People seem to forget the long unbeaten run, he played a massive part played every game when others were injured. Understand that Pogs comes in but if Fred had made the errors that Pogs had made that led to goals, he'd have been vilified. We know Fred needs games to build his confidence and coming of the bench does not suit him and actually brings out the worse in him. He looks nervous and makes mistakes and for this reason, I can see him being sold if we get a good offer for him.

Would be a big shame if this were to happen, you're completely right though. Needs a good run in the team but that's not going to happen with Bruno and Pogba.

 

[criticalanalysis]

Is this another case of the Herreras?

Am I overrated his ability? Is he being under used?

Will he have another (third?) wind and find his place back in the squad again?

For me, Fred's pitch coverage and his other all around ability is why I would like to see him in midfield in place of Matic. That won't resolve why we get overrun in midfield and find it difficult to play it out for any half decent press from a team i.e those are coaching/tactic issues from Ole but on a personnel level, I think Fred has been extremely unlucky with game time.

 

[jamesjimmybyrondean]

I hope Ole tries him out in a midfield with Pogba and Bruno in the Europa

 

[mu4c_20le]

Everyone forgot about this guy? Serious Fred looked good, he's getting his rhythm back.