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2021-22 Performances


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5.3 Season Average Rating
Appearances
36
Goals
4
Assists
5
Yellow cards
8
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Thats a fair post and I would agree with some of the points. That said, I dont consider it to be microanalysis or mental gymnastics to just see what is presented in front of you. Tonight was a good example, with several instances in the first half of sloppiness gifting the opposition chances (and a goal), before a definite improvement in the second half.

I had long said that Fred contributes nothing in the final third, so I have to admit tonight he did well up there - driving into the box on several occasions and getting an assist/winning a penalty in the process, fair play. That is the role Fred thrives in - the headless chicken (in an affectionate way) who can charge about for 90 minutes without having to worry too much about strict tactical instruction. I dont think its hugely surprising that Fred has looked better in the last couple of games, with Carrick using him in that more advanced/roaming role.
I think it's pretty difficult to contribute in the final third when you're the one man that can build play from deep and you're not convinced there's any meaningful defensive cover. Who's going to do that when he's paired with McTominay for example? Fred has to be showing for the ball and he's probably also needed to get back and defend any counter which is a lot for one man no matter what his energy.

Even with Pogba it's tricky for him because Pogba's short passing and play from deep is erratic.

He's been better this season at it but we've also been incredibly open this season and there have been times where opposition have ran straight through us with Fred high up the pitch.
 
So your definition of shit is 1 assist, getting fouled for the penalty and saving a big chance with a huge sliding tackle ? Says more about you than Fred
Yes if you watch FlashScore it looks like that, in reality, he was horrendous for the first 40 minutes. Shambolic touches, passes and defensive play, people running besides him like he is a ghost, but yeah he did a good block, a 2m of pass and got fouled. MoTM by all accounts :lol:
 
Such an odd player that he can emerge with a strong claim for man of the match and yet be so careless at times that even the crowd were getting on at him. Can never fault his effort and workrate and played key role in two goals.

Also, think he'll improve under a better coaching set up

Yes, your final point is the key one. Playing just the two midfielders leaves Fred with an impossible workload, and sometimes he manages this better than other other times (ahem). As was pointed out a few posts back, I just can't help but like the guy. I do admit though that he can have some awful moments; I just wish that some obervers on the CAF could acknowledge that he also has sublime moments. I think all our players will look a whole lot better if the new, less 'interim' manager can sort things out at the club. I raise a glass to him, to them, to all of us...
 
It sounds like you only watched the first 20 minutes.

Or more likely, your bias against him got you so worked up about his first 20 minutes (during which he was absolute shit) that you couldn't acknowledge everything he did after that.
Not really, I acknowledge what he did, but to me it wasn’t enough to compensate. And it wasn’t only the 20 minutes come on. Didn’t he have a part of the second goal conceded? Or the Martinelli maradona esque run?
 
Good player in the right set up. I think he will be a big player for us this season
 
He was absolutely shocking at points but got 2 assists. Odd game.

He cannot dictate the midfield. Hopefully Ragnick gets him away from deeper positions.
 
When the game was tied at 2-2, I was having a banter with my mates and we were trying to decide who will score the winner and a friend said it depends on who Fred wants. :lol:
 
Listen, what you see is what you get from Fred. He's a high pressing ball winner - as is McTominay. Get a player like Jorginho next to them and they'll be able to push and destroy, whilst having someone behind them to dictate games. As it stands, neither of them can do that, so we have no real flow to our game but if we stick to what he's good at and allow him to press high up, he will make so many tackles/interceptions.

Interesting that Carrick switched the roles of Fred and McTominay, though. Under Ole, Fred was the one to start play, with McTominay pushing on a bit more. Now its the reverse. As I said, though, neither will really flourish without a midfield controller. Hopefully, we can find a player like that. Frenkie De jong would be perfect.
 
I think it's pretty difficult to contribute in the final third when you're the one man that can build play from deep and you're not convinced there's any meaningful defensive cover. Who's going to do that when he's paired with McTominay for example? Fred has to be showing for the ball and he's probably also needed to get back and defend any counter which is a lot for one man no matter what his energy.

Even with Pogba it's tricky for him because Pogba's short passing and play from deep is erratic.

He's been better this season at it but we've also been incredibly open this season and there have been times where opposition have ran straight through us with Fred high up the pitch.

I think you are being overly generous with this one. Playing from the back and creativity from deep positions has indeed been a major problem of ours. I thought a true DM/DLP should have been our #1 priority last summer. That said, I don’t think Fred is anything like “the one man who can build play from deep” - he is part of the problem there, not a solution. Similarly McTominay isn’t capable of being that playmaker, and Pogba as you said is very sloppy and prone to defensive errors. It’s a hole in the squad and for me, the single biggest reason we have struggled this season to have any tangible “system” or to control games.

Clearly the recent tactical instruction has been for McTominay to sit deep, and for Fred to have license to roam. For Fred this suits his strengths, for McTominay it exaggerates his weaknesses (but I’m not interested in making this into another comparison debate). Both would benefit from having a true, natural DM in the side.
 
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I think you are being overly generous with this one. Playing from the back and creativity from deep positions has indeed been a major problem of ours. I thought a true DM/DLP should have been our #1 priority last summer. That said, I don’t think Fred is anything like “the one man who can build play from deep” - he is part of the problem there, not a solution. Similarly McTominay isn’t capable of being that playmaker, and Pogba as you said is very sloppy and prone to defensive errors. It’s a hole in the squad and for me, the single biggest reason we have struggled this season to have any tangible “system” or to control games.

Clearly the recent tactical instruction has been for McTominay to sit deep, and for Fred to have license to roam. For Fred this suits his strengths, for McTominay it exaggerates his weaknesses (but I’m not interested in making this into another comparison debate). Both would benefit from having a true, natural DM in the side.
I agree he's not the solution for that role but as you would say, if you simply look at what is in front of you then he's really the only one that does it consistently to any sort of standard. Especially when he's with McTominay who doesn't build play effectively. I think it does reign in what you can do if you have so many competing priorities.

Telling McT to simply sit might be how it works in theory but every man and his dog knows Fred needs to be back there helping pretty routinely as McT isn't solid enough. He also knows he needs to be picking the ball up. Then we're saying he should use his natural strengths and press, and also he should be a threat. In modern football it's hard to do all these things which is why we probably have more specialists. I think within the role he has played at Man Utd criticising his attacking output feels unduly harsh for these reasons.

I think you're right in that Fred would be better if he had more protection and played aggressively higher up the pitch but the fact remains he's probably still our best option deep and we're very open at the moment so not everything is going swimmingly with this role change. It's a lot to do with our lack of options of course.
 
Our best and most important central midfielder by a country mile. Not his fault there’s literally nobody here who can dictate in beside him besides bringing Matic out of retirement every second week.

He’d be a beast in the Liverpool or City team getting up and down. if he was playing for Arsenal tonight and we’d Pogba they’d have destroyed us. Up to now we’ve wasted him and ran him into the ground on a fools errand trying to do everything by himself.

Miles better than the geniuses on here can admit and very much a modern pressing all round midfielder which seems to be the direction the club is finally going in. The best way to enable the attack against a low block or 5 at the back is to give them the ball after winning it high up. I don’t know how many more examples we need. That’s just the way the game has gone.
 
1st half Fred, not very good. 2nd half Fred, looking like he could be MOTM. Such a weird fellow.

He is far better suited on the front foot pressing people I think since Carrick has been in charge that has been apparent and that first half looked more like them sitting back. I still think going forward he will be a useful player but I’d much rather have Bruno and Donny or Pogba on actually playing well and controlling things but I just don’t see a way for that to happen.
 
Very good again though we saw the risks of playing him deeper next to mctominay.
 
Playing him with a DLP in 2 man midfield would be a disaster. Fred has zero sense of defending position, and he's not strong enough as the main destroyer. Just play him out of the midfield two, and he has some use.
 
1st half Fred, not very good. 2nd half Fred, looking like he could be MOTM. Such a weird fellow.

He is far better suited on the front foot pressing people I think since Carrick has been in charge that has been apparent and that first half looked more like them sitting back. I still think going forward he will be a useful player but I’d much rather have Bruno and Donny or Pogba on actually playing well and controlling things but I just don’t see a way for that to happen.

This game of two halfs thing is a real problem. I don’t what he needs to do to fix it. Sports psychologist? It’s happening far too often. Hopefully Ralf has some ideas.
 
Probably the worst I've ever seen him play in the first half, nothing came off for him.

He made up for it though right at the end for the goal for bruno, and that seemed to settle him down nicely.

He and Sancho seem to be making a great understanding down the left side there. Fred's 3rd man runs into the box at the right time earned us 2 goals. Something I hope Rangnick can continue with.
 
Think people are awfully unfair on him - he's had games where he's been bad in the past but I feel he offers more bad than good.

He's not an orchestrator but doesn't have to be in the right setup.

Our best player against Villarreal and Chelsea and good again tonight.
 
We saw the very best and worst of Fred today. On one hand, he took out his own keeper for their goal, repeatedly lost the ball, and lost Odegaard for their second goal. On the other, he set up a goal really well, pressed pretty well, won a penalty for the second goal, and generally got forward effectively.

If he could be a bit tidier on the ball, he'd be a top top player. Perhaps it's concentration, because he's capable.
 
He gets better as the game goes on, because he is able to maintain his pace for the full 90 whilst others slow down. Reminds me in that sense to his compatriot Ramires
 
Comical for the De Gea accident. Good run and pass for the first goal. Gave away some dangerous freekicks too. But earned a penalty

The further he was from our goal the better he played
 
You put the best player in the world next to Mc|Tominay and that player will look average. So I dont judge Fred until he plays next to McTominay

I dont know why the coaching staff cant see MCTominay is our main problem, Hoe many back pasased today
 
This game of two halfs thing is a real problem. I don’t what he needs to do to fix it. Sports psychologist? It’s happening far too often. Hopefully Ralf has some ideas.
He created our 3 best openings in the first half, one of which resulted in a goal...

Yes, he had a terrible start to the game but he was not terrible for the entire first half. He's our best player at pressing easily and he's not a defensive/deep midfielder which is what he has been deployed here as too often. Hopefully Rangnick plays him further up the pitch where his pressing game and quick passing/runs into box can really excel. McTominay is not a good partner in midfield for him at all.
 
If ever a game summed him up it was this one :lol:

Good and bad
 
I think getting rid of pogba, puttting Fred at LCM, and getting a ball playing DM will be the best thing this team can do with 1 simple transfer.

Fred is so underrrated on here.
 
I think getting rid of pogba, puttting Fred at LCM, and getting a ball playing DM will be the best thing this team can do with 1 simple transfer.

Fred is so underrrated on here.

Trading Pogba for De Jong, selling Rashford and getting a Son
 
I’m also of the opinion that if a coach can sort out our spacing issues as a side when we have the ball Fred will cut down a lot of his mistakes in passing and will be able to keep it simple yet productive. Right now it’s still kind of a free for all in our progression because we don’t really have a structure to our build up play to stretch the opposition.
 
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