On his day he could be the difference maker in big games or drop an absolute disaster class. Won't miss the inconsistency, but I have some good memories of performances. Seemed like a great character off the pitch as well and gave his all when he played.
Fred | no longer Fred the Red but now a Turkish delight
- Thread starter Adnan
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This is totally right. The lack of understanding on here about how we need to keep some players for squad depth no matter how disappointing they might be as envisioned starters is maddening. It's like people want to sell all but the best 11 players we have for some bizarre reason. Fred is an excellent squad MF. period. I see absolutely no reason to sell him unless he is desperately pushing to get out...
He has to go. He isn’t a solution or even an option to a solution to anything. Besides, we’ll get Amrabat and Mainoo would be our other option going into the next season as ten hag already has shown his confidence in him. So we would have
Bruno
Mount
Casemiro
Amrabat
Eriksen
Mainoo
Thats 6 midfielders for 3 positions plus there’s Vdb if he isn’t sold. That’s more than good enough.
“Covering a significant part of €20m using add ons”.
So it would be 5m plus 10m add ons given how Italian clubs operate when they buy.
Come on Saudi, give us Fabinho money.
As others have said, he heavily relies on his fitness and stamina and as he gets older they will deteriorate. I think it's the right time to be getting rid.
When he was good he could be great but when he was bad he looked like he'd never played football before. Far too inconsistent for us to be able to rely on.
When he was good he could be great but when he was bad he looked like he'd never played football before. Far too inconsistent for us to be able to rely on.
Big fan of Ol'Fred. On his day he's a brilliant player, but the other 60% of the time.. can be difficult to watch.
Can't fault his effort and enthusiasm though. I think £20m would be fair for all parties.
Can't fault his effort and enthusiasm though. I think £20m would be fair for all parties.
Yeah I reckon so as well
This is precisely why I’m hesitant for us to sell him. Yes he’ll decline, and yes he is not a starting player for us anymore. But he is just the perfect squad player to bring in when we’re in the doldrums of mid season and tied with Sheffield 1-1 at home because we lack energy. That’s a valuable role IMHO if he’s willing to fill it…
This is the issue. He's not.
Eriksen walked into our midfield last season, he'd only be a squad player at the other top clubs in the league. Eriksen of last season is the quality we want from our rotational options, and Fred is a fair few levels below that even on his best day. Yes, you need a squad, but there still needs to be enough quality with your squad players.
Regardless of all of that, were seemingly bringing in another midfielder and promoting mainoo, both of which will be better squad options than Fred for different reasons.
This is sad. Always have had a soft spot for him, he's a maverick most times but my god does he put in a shift. Some cracking goals to boot too
But he's not the perfect squad player because we could bring him on in that scenario and he could be bad Fred and look like he'd never kicked a football before.
I think he's way too inconsistent to be described as a perfect squad player. You genuinely never know what sort of performance you're going to get from him.
This is true for a club like Everton.
If we need to bring on Fred to get a result at home against Sheffield then were nowhere near the level we should be, hence why we're aiming for better.
Even City had games like that last year…it’s more having a squad player like Fred to bring on then expecting to never have the scenario…
I totally disagree…if he was always “good Fred” and consistent he wouldn’t be a Squad player. He’d be an easy top PL starter. He has the skills.
It’s his inconsistency that necessitates the back up role. But i felt strongly last year it’s a role he played well I.e. when he’s a sub he always will bring a shot of energy at least, which can go a long way in lethargic games.
Yes, I think that's why I'm not too upset about him leaving. In general I think he can offer something to our squad with his energy, pressing, enthusiasm. I wouldn't say I feel more confident about Eriksen than Fred, as different as they are.
But if there's a bit of value to be realised in Fred it has to be now because a new contract is probably not a good play at his age and style. We have to be better at selling before players become exposed. Something Bayern always seem to do well. Now is just about the right point in his career to be saying goodbye.
You want better than Fred in that situation.
Manchester city in that situation are not bringing on Fred to change the game.
Bingo!
We will obviously bring in another CM.
I like Fred’s tenacity, work rate and mentality. However he’s incredibly inconsistent, erratic and at times costly whereas in the engine room you need reliability and composure. I don’t think he’s going to age well
Fred is comfortably the better midfielder. Faster and stronger are significantly down the list in terms of important attributes for being a midfielder. Good to have of course, but there's a whole lot of things that are more important. Fred's better at most of them.
In saying that it probably does make more sense squad-wise for Fred to be the one sold if it's only one of them. ETH sees Scott as his only backup for Casemiro whereas we have more options in Fred's position (plus his age and contract situation). Hopefully we do bring in somebody else though (or ETH thinks Mainoo is truly ready to be that backup option) so we can sell Scott as well. Preferably someone who can play both instead or next to Casemiro depending on what we need in different games.
For me it doesn't matter Fred is erratic and often is out of position.
One big thing to note for me is that I think the whole scouting department and also people that analyze the data at United will look at the profiles of players and decide Fred can't do X, Y, Z so what players can we bring in that will do that job.
We need engines that can press to create chances higher up the pitch, Onana was a missing piece, Hojlund presses from the front, so does Antony, Rashford, Bruno, Casemiro, Mount. We want that kind of players, Amrabat is also a workhorse that has end product too and when you look the bench he will be an able player that can add some more steel to the midfield.
I think teams will hate playing United next year if we can get all our targets. Moving on Fred, Maguire, Martial is critical at this point, if good money comes in for McT he can leave too but I've seen rumours of VDB to Sociedad too.
People do significantly exaggerate how often we see 'bad' Fred. I think it's because he does have a tendency to start games poorly and people get frustrated with him and let that colour their views on him for the rest of the match. The majority of times he'll kick on and be much better after 20 minutes or so, indeed quite often one of our better players. Him being a poor starter is obviously a big negative, but this idea that he's consistently having games where he's terrible from start to finish is definitely overblown.
That tendency to start poorly is why I always did question whether he'd be suitable as a squad player as it would make it pointless bringing him off the bench if he did the same there, but last season he was quite consistently good coming on as a sub.
It's telling that no PL club are in for him. He was often targeted as a weakness.
McTominay is bang average but does have a goal or two in him whereas Fred often performs at a higher level but is also capable of shockingly bad performances too.
To be honest, and somewhat harsh, it would not necessarily be the biggest problem to lose both of them as long as we bought reasonably capable replacements to ensure the squad wasn't light on numbers.
To be honest, and somewhat harsh, it would not necessarily be the biggest problem to lose both of them as long as we bought reasonably capable replacements to ensure the squad wasn't light on numbers.
It’s easy to forget Casemiro is Brazilian. He plays for United and he’s really good….we just don’t tend to land the good ones
Will be delighted if we get him out the door. Watch old United or the best teams today, all the players, including squad options, are on the same wavelength. They know where each other will be and what they are likely to do. The whole pattern of play is fluid and very easy to watch. Now throw a Fred into that and he will mess the whole system up, out of position, missed tackles or giving away soft frees, shocking missed passes, losing the ball easily in terrible positions. Whether you think he does this 40% of the time or 60% it’s just way too much and it limits our ability to improve. The ideal backup player will obviously have some limitations but they need to be a lot more predictable.
Also don’t get the love for his attitude. Sure he tries hard and runs a lot (often to get out of position) but the constant smiling after mistakes and when we are being embarrassed in a game is very frustrating. Couldn’t have looked happier in the 7:0 against Liverpool. But sure he had fun and a nice game and got paid. If he cared about the club he wouldn’t be enjoying losing so much.
Also don’t get the love for his attitude. Sure he tries hard and runs a lot (often to get out of position) but the constant smiling after mistakes and when we are being embarrassed in a game is very frustrating. Couldn’t have looked happier in the 7:0 against Liverpool. But sure he had fun and a nice game and got paid. If he cared about the club he wouldn’t be enjoying losing so much.
As few have said, on his day, he is superb. Certainly far more useful than some others in the squad. Just far too inconsistent and his bad days can be downright catastrophic. Hope we can get good money for him.
While that's true Fred is apart of the problem being that the level of the fully fit midfield first 11 compared to the bench is too significant of a drop off in quality. It's good he's being sold from a competitive standpoint, has all the right mental aptitudes but a poor technical player when in possession. It's a win-win with Amrabat a potential replacement and Mount can essentially fill the Fred void with more poise on the ball.
Time to move him on if we can get good money. Completely see the argument around squad depth but his performances over a sustained period are just too erratic. 8/10 one week, 4 / 10 the next. we need more players who are not worldies but are just consistent and do their role
Thats like rock bottom. Should be atleast €15m plus €5m add ons. He is a Brazil international. Surely another PL team could have taken him on.
We should use him in a swap - there are enough clubs interested that surely we can find an ST even if they’re just a squad player. I know he’s just moved there but what’s Castellanos like at Lazio any one who watches La Liga (seemed to have a half decent loan at Girona last year)?
Feel like we should never be buying these backups or squad players but just swapping older players for them or getting them on frees. They’re essential to the squad though.
He always brings positive energy and there were times when stamina, persistence, physical sharpness were lacking. In those situations, if you have no-one better you bring on Fred.
I’ve always said I like Fred. He’s a game lad. He’s just not good enough for us. Him and McT would have been near the top of my list of players to replace if I was EtH coming into the club. In season 1 he relegated them both to the bench and by the start of season 2 they will hopefully both be gone. Good!
I agree with pretty much all of this. For me, Fred symbolises the mediocrity that the club, and apparently a lot of its fans, has become far too content with.
He puts in a decent performance every now and then, usually in matches where we’re doing a lot of chasing, but he’s far too inconsistent, far too sloppy in possession, far too easily turned, and above all, far too delighted at his own very average ability.
As I said earlier, a lot of people are blinded when it comes to Fred. It's like a cult.
Now Fred for 20m eur is really low. 30 imo is his market value.
Great, a Italian team. 
If we are drawing 1-1 at home to Sheffield United, Fred is the last player you want to see coming on to try and win us the game.
File Fred under Wout, doesn't lack effort and gives his all but ultimately nowhere near good enough to be playing for a team challenging for top honours.
Please be sold...to any price to any team. Most fortunate player ever to play for united. Has his cult followers here but he would not be tolerated at city, Chelsea, Liverpool, arsenal, spurs, even Everton, Brighton, villa etc. Effort is just not enough
Out of all the things you criticse about Fred you choose effort?!?! What on earth!
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