The problem with a lot of posts I'm seeing is Fred being condemned for something he isn't, and never should be for us.
If Fred is being used deep in midfield, that's the fault of the manager; if he's not your first line of defence in central midfield i.e. your runner and harrasser who proactively seeks the ball high up the pitch with a midfielder behind him sweeping up, he's being used incorrectly and mistakes are assured.
Fred is, by far, the best haranguing midfielder we have at the club. By far. That's almost exclusively because we have nobody else who can even play the role... which is why Fred is constantly and repeatedly selected, no matter what. Ole wants a player who is immediately in the face of the opposition and, theoretically, being an absolute pain in the arse to shrug off and get past. Theoretically, a high energy supporting midfielder then has the relatively simple job of being the second line of defence who comes in behind Fred and sweeps up the loose balls.
This is supposed to be McFred, and it worked decently enough last season, certainly not a PL-winning combination, but certainly one that both made sense and was most effective as a pairing. Unfortunately, Fred is losing more 50/50 battles this season; making more unforced errors and not proactively reading the play well, which means he rarely has a contingency in his head, which in turn leads to him looking baffled and ill-prepared when he loses out in the tackle, particularly in his positioning, which you see frequently with him being on the wrong side of the man he's challenging and constantly leads to him being broken on with said man then clean through midfield until he reaches the next point of resistance... which leads me onto McTominay.
I personally feel like McTominay has been rushed back into the team and is not fit, but if he is fit, then he's taken a massive step back from his best and is making life worse for Fred, who, by way of being the antithesis to McTominay in always showing for the ball and always being there to be counted (whether disastrous or successful), is taking the majority of the flack whilst not being supported or backed up by his so-called partner. McTominay is not sweeping up behind Fred; he is not being intuitive with his reading of the play, and worst of all, he is not showing for the ball or being in proximity when his partner - and the midfield - need him.
Fred is 5'6" and a featherweight who is built for agility and repeated stabs at the ball: a generic harrasser with no real complexity or caveat other than literally being too weak. McTominay is 6'4" and a cruiserweight, which means he's not amongst the most beastly units in the league, but he's more than able to hold his own and be the muscle in the majority of partnerships. The issue, however, is that he is no longer doing that and he is no longer aiding Fred or working with him like a partner is supposed to. This leads to Fred over-extending himself and having to do too much by himself. McTominay seems to fly under the radar most of the time whilst not being there for his partner - I see posts talking about him hiding when we're in possession, but really not many when we're out of possession where he's supposed to be shoring up the loose ends and is nowhere to be seen.
I've been an advocate of McFred being what we should be rolling out amongst our midfield grouping as the best of a bad bunch of combinations, but they are not working in tandem anymore and it's leading to so much more disarray than there should be in the centre of the pitch that it's costing us points and has legitimately become a tactical component in game plans against us.
McTominay does not account for Fred's barrage of unforced passing errors for simple, easy, short passes, however, and this is the area I find the most egregious with Fred. He was doing well enough in the game until he played a simple, short pass right into the path of the opposition who almost scored, and from there, he shrunk in confidence and started the predictable path towards the shakiness that's associative this season. For me, once Fred makes a big mistake, it plays too much on his mind and he tries overly hard to rectify it, which leads to him losing his composure and ups his headlessness to the point he makes those positional errors that see him beaten all ends up from basic 50/50's - with his overcommittment, he takes himself out of plays so easily and naively, which in turn, unsettles the whole team - it's not a coincidence we get more flappy as a unit in tune with Fred. Good or bad, his energy and state in-game is infectious.
More than him being beaten by Gray (twice) in 50/50's that were in his favour, the biggest issue is that a player raised in South American football, with the masters of spoiling midfield exchanges that are not in their favour, did not have the wherewithal and speed of thought to take his man out with a professional foul. You lose your man, twice, like that, and you have to hold your hands up and take the hit for the team, it's as simple as that. It's a concern that someone whose specialist role is spoiling and breaking up play does not have that awareness in his game.
Fred's a funny one for me, because for all his faults, it should never be forgotten that he *never* hides; *never* shirks his duties, even if he fails at them. From the midfielders we have, it's not a coincidence he and Pogba are there to be shot at, as they both always there to be fired at. Matic hides, McTominay does, too, and Van de Beek, we haven't seen enough of in the PL to assess. I can understand the frustration and ire directed at Fred, so long as it's contextual - he is not playing in a vacuum, and is being failed by others out there, which is being swept under the rug. Even on the goal, others could have prevented it, but didn't. Sure, it's Fred's mess, but as a team, we flapped with none attentive enough to just deal with a situation that had gone awry.
Me personally, I think McFred have run their course, and also think we need to move away from the runner, as the role *always* requires backing up and we don’t provide that (our runner is by himself and not backed up, making a lot of his work a redundancy), so we might as well move away from it entirely. If there's no need for a runner, you then have to look at our midfielders in terms of completeness and basic levels of competence across a broad spectrum. If that's the case, then the slate should be clean. Our one organic partnership has petered out, and is actually detrimental now, so a new approach and experiments with personnel are a must.
Even at their very best, McFred are no great shakes, so waiting on the pair of them to reconnect is not worth it and could well see us out of the title race, if you believe we're in it in the first place.
Fred's been a mixed bag, but he has also been hung out to dry; he is one cog in a machine who needs others to fulfil their roles and he simply is not getting that this season.
