McFred as a midfield duo heading into 2022/23 season

We learnt a few things today. Some which we knew before, others which we just learnt.

1. McFred can't start any games. We're at the point where it might be best try try youngsters instead of Mctominay.

2. Eriksen can play in the 8 role, both in a 433 and a 4231.

3. False 9 doesn't work for us.

4. Malacia should start ahead of Shaw.

5. We need another forward.
 
VidaRed said:
Central midfield has been a glaring problem since the past two fecking seasons, were onto the third with the same setup.
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Fred laughing coming off so I presume he was at 100% pass completion
 
I think Xhaka, El Neny and Lokonga are an extremely poor midfield unit. It's bottom four level and it's being held together by an injury prone Partey.

Partey is great. But he's played 63% of our games since joining us and should really have been f***ed right off after the scandal broke.

Having said all that I'd still rather that lot than Fred and McTominay.
 
Mourinho fecked us up with this one. And it all started with his Pogba hate so I'm going to blame Pogba anyway.
 
Just came from the stadium its fair to say we saw the same performance as last season same issues. And they are 90% down to the cm pairing. We cannot move through the middle it's horrendous. Mctom hides upfront for no reason and Fred is poor on the ball.
 
Again it just points to how piss-poor our scouting system is

How have we not identified more players that would improve our midfield? Why do I constantly see players like Caicedo and Palinha at clubs of lesser stature who are so much better than what we have?

It just boggles the mind to think these two are still starting.
 
fallengt said:
Mourinho fecked us up with this one. And it all started with his Pogba hate so I'm going to blame Pogba anyway.
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Starting to wonder if this guy was just brought in by Mourinho to prove his critics wrong about him not working with youth. fecked us royally, even years after his sacking!
 
Should of been addressed years ago! Started of with mourinho didn’t it. Then Solskjær continued it… and ralf stuck with it and now ten Hag!
 
Years of negligence. It's not like we didn't know that an ageing Matic would be playing less and less minutes with each passing season because he didn't have the legs for it. It's not like we didn't know that Pogba had his injury problems and would miss significant chunks of every season. It's not like we've only recently discovered that Fred and McTominay as a duo are incapable of controlling the midfield.

Yet we've kept kicking the can further down the road each season. And amazingly, it seems that if we don't get De Jong then the plan is to not sign another midfielder this summer, despite the fact that we clearly needed a minimum of two. It's utter madness.
 
Schnappo said:
Years of negligence. It's not like we didn't know that an ageing Matic would be playing less and less minutes with each passing season because he didn't have the legs for it. It's not like we didn't know that Pogba had his injury problems and would miss significant chunks of every season. It's not like we've only recently discovered that Fred and McTominay as a duo are incapable of controlling the midfield.

Yet we've kept kicking the can further down the road each season. And amazingly, it seems that if we don't get De Jong then the plan is to not sign another midfielder this summer, despite the fact that we clearly needed a minimum of two. It's utter madness.
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Incompetence, levels of which have never before seen.
 
DJ_21 said:
Should of been addressed years ago! Started of with mourinho didn’t it. Then Solskjær continued it… and ralf stuck with it and now ten Hag!
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In before he comes out with an interview where he says "every manager picks me so I must be good".
 
::sonny:: said:
He plays as a CB for Scotland because Billy Gilmour is better

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That's a good point from Scholes. McTominay wants to break with the ball and play in transition. He's not a pass first, tempo setting, linking up player. It's so depressing how far up and away from Fred he was the whole game.
 
It’s just awful. Both have back up written all over them.
 
The problem with these two is neither have the passing ability or concentration to help control the tempo from deep. The first half today was a prime example and the difference when Eriksen dropped in to Fred’s place was huge (and that’s not even his best position).

No idea why we went with them as a pair today given the team we were up against and the fact we were at home and going to see plenty of the ball.

Ultimately I feel the false 9 experiment cost us and is a black mark against Ten Hag early on. He should have stated Eriksen with Mctominay/Fred and tried something else further forward.
 
The way ETH wants to play simply has no chance with them being deployed the way they were today. One of them can perhaps be carried by a proper 2 way DM that can defend and be a playmaker (good luck finding one now) but we have no chance when they’re back there together.
 
ayushreddevil9 said:
In before he comes out with an interview where he says "every manager picks me so I must be good".
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Surely he knows that he’s only being picked because we have no one else and we haven’t addressed the CM position. Garner isn’t trusted for whatever reason… I don’t get what goes through the managers head. If a player is playing so bad then surely you trial someone els and see if they can do there duties better.
 
Last three seasons / Appearances:

McTominay:
2019/20: 37 in all comps (27 in the PL)
2020/21: 49 in all comps (32 in the PL)
2021/22: 37 in all comps (30 in the PL)

Fred:
2019/20: 48 in all comps (29 in the PL)
2020/21: 48 in all comps (30 in the PL)
2021/22: 36 in all comps (28 in the PL)

How the feck can we be 4 seasons deep and still looking at the pair playing another 35+ game season a piece? It’s insanity. Particularly in McTominay’s case. I don’t think I’ve seen such a thoroughly poor football player play for this club for so long without any real challenge to his position.
 
DJ_21 said:
Surely he knows that he’s only being picked because we have no one else and we haven’t addressed the CM position. Garner isn’t trusted for whatever reason… I don’t get what goes through the managers head. If a player is playing so bad then surely you trial someone els and see if they can do there duties better.
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The managers are fecking cowards as well.
 
JPRouve said:
I'm willing to go for Paredes or Tielemans, that's how bad they have been today. :(
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Not a fan of either also but the pass Paredes played for Messi yesterday is something we could never get from these two.

We need two midfielders urgently.
 
El Jefe said:
Not a fan of either also but the pass Paredes played for Messi yesterday is something we could never get from these two.

We need two midfielders urgently.
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Of course but even Paredes was surprised by that sequence of passes, there is a reason why Tuchel was losing it about his midfield options and why PSG want to sign plenty of midfielders and get rid of the likes of Paredes.
 
To the fred and/or mctominay fans. Never ever say they are good enough for Utd again. Total dross.
 
wolvored said:
To the fred and/or mctominay fans. Never ever say they are good enough for Utd again. Total dross.
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Always the same. ‘But he plays for Brazil!!’ People here used to argue Rojo was quality because he played for Argentina
 
Jezpeza said:
Always the same. ‘But he plays for Brazil!!’ People here used to argue Rojo was quality because he played for Argentina
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We have a lot of internationals and most of them aint the standard we need to get back amongst the top 4, never mind winning trophies
 
We always knew we needed more than two replacements here. If we'd given RR 20m in January it wouldn't have hamstrung ETH at all. Chances are without playing since January with McFred we'd have made top 4.

Just don't get this club any more. Been supporting them since 1977 but it just seems that they are in a state of perpetual decline now.

I don't have any belief that anyone at the club will actually improve it now. Just seeing today the state of our midfield when everyone in the media and on here have been lambasting them for 2+ years.

Can anyone name a EPL team with a worse midfield pairing?
 
Buy Pau Torres and make Lisandriksen our first choice midfield.

It'll be cheaper and more achievable that getting FdJ. I think it would be the easiest way to strengthen both central defence and central midfield.
 
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The crazy thing is that we as fans know that McFred is a losing combination. Yet manager after manager seems to disagree....then gets fired.
Even ETH who is reputed to be an intelligent man is making the same error. He knows that McFred will result in losing games, yet he played them anyway. If he plays them again against Brentford, I can only assume he wants to be fired.
 
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