King Azaz the Unabridged
Full Member
- Joined
- Jan 1, 2021
- Messages
- 877
Ah the games we played with McFred, James, Lingard, pereira? Yeah not really surprising that.
Check the lineups again. Fred, Lingard, Pereira and James got roughly as much gametime in the 5-game sequence before Wolves as they did in the next 5 (McTominay was injured throughout the "before" sequence).
Of the other players you're pointing to in that last post, Pogba didn't play a minute in either sequence, Rashford got injured halfway through and didn't play at all between the Fernandes signing and the lockdown, Martial played every game before and after, and Matic played 9 out of 10 games throughout. Greenwood, the one semi-valid shout, started 2 out of 5 games after Fernandes vs. 0 out of 5 before. And even then he didn't get on the pitch in the wins against City and Chelsea, the most impressive performances in the "after" sequence.
Fernandes was the only major change in the XI between the Burnley-Burnley sequence where we picked up 6 points, and the Wolves-City sequence immediately after where we picked up 11. He clearly had an immediate impact on performances and results. This continued after the lockdown, and we got even better (obviously) when he was joined by two of our best players in Pogba and Rashford, but the improvement had already started before that.
I don't really think this is very controversial, but you can keep posting dismissive one-liners if you want!