I disagree, I think our midfield and attack are a bit better.
McFred as a midfield duo heading into 2022/23 season
- Thread starter Kush
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No one wants Ronaldo for close to those wages, and I don't think he will play a big part of this season.
Why don't we?
How is our attack better? We haven’t added a single player and have lost Greenwood and Cavani.
We lost Greenwood Cavani Lingard Pogba Matic Mata and gained Eriksen.
How in the world has it gotten any better in the last year?
Even if we don't rate any of the players that we lost, we are still unarguably worse off than last season in those areas.
Our system is a lot better and suits the players we have a lot more. We will get a lot more out of them.
Erikson is better than all of them. of them didn't play even close to regularly. Greenwood was part of our attack.
So it's not better. Your just saying we got a better manager....
No one was arguing against that. A better manager ain't going to magic this squad into doing anything crazy though so it's somewhat irrelevant.
Considering only last season, Greenwood is the only one I think we should have bought someone to replace him. But our management might be hoping his case would be shelved and he would be playing back.
Others were very inconsistent luxury players. I would rather give chances to Garnacho , Iqbal, Garner .
You said both our Midfield and our attack is both better now.
I gave you the list of what left and what was brought in in both areas.
6 out and 1 in. We ain't any better off with that. Not one bit.
Sadly yes. It’s difficult for some to admit they’ve been wrong.
I wouldn't say it guarantees that we'll see McFred as first choice. There are a few other options. EtH doesn't seem like the type to shy away from unconventional thinking. He might try Eriksen. He might try Iqbal. Who knows.
However, it is worrying from a fans viewpoint. The midfield is lacking that quality player we could work around. It feels as if we're cobbling together ideas having lost Matic and Pogba as two senior players and not truly replacing them with any established, deep midfield options.
However, it is worrying from a fans viewpoint. The midfield is lacking that quality player we could work around. It feels as if we're cobbling together ideas having lost Matic and Pogba as two senior players and not truly replacing them with any established, deep midfield options.
I don’t even know if McTominay is good enough to make it in any PL team, even bottom of the table. He may have good intentions but the Championship is more to his level.
Can we not play Martinez as a DM?
I’m sure the club will pull the trigger on a back-up midfielder now. He’ll be better than McFred but not world class.
But the actual players we have available are worse. So how is it better?
You make these statements with such confidence, it's chilling. I am of the firm opinion that McFred is a better midfield duo than all but Ndidi and Tielemans. And their battles against the midfield pairs you wrote in the last 2 seasons have proven that to be mostly true.
Also, I feel that quite a few of the managers leading these clubs would not mind one bit having one or both of them too. Fred was wanted by Pep for a reason. McTominay is somehow picked by Ten Hag too (at least in friendlies, so far), proving himself with every single manager we've had since his debut for Mourinho.
Neither McTominay nor Fred are Ballon D'or winners but why do you and the rest of our fanbase need to constantly belittle their achievements and ability.
Who of the midfielders in the bolded sentence have played in games even close to the ones McFred have?
When Savage and Iqbal lift title no21 in May this thread is going to look awful silly.
Well I think we will be a better team, I think we will perform better and get a higher position.
I can see in attack it can be argued we are worse off, even though I think our attack will be better with this style of play.
In midfield I think we are stronger just because of Erikson.
Top post.
Doesn't matter who we have in central midfield, certain people will always hark back to the days of Keane and Scholes.
Probably the same people who say we should move on from the SAF days.
Some people don't get irony.
Personally, I'm excited to see what a real manager can get out of Fred and McTominay. Might surprise a few people.
he's asked if he can stomach not getting FDJ by the end of the window and his response goes straight on to "developing the players we have".
He's got one target and he really doesn't want to think beyond that. Based off those comments, i'd be quite surprised if there are any "real' plan b's. There may be a list, but i'm not under the impression we are going to push very hard to sign them on deadline day. Possibly if they are really cheap? But none of the usual suspects that are thrown around in here will be cheap.
FDJ....or it will be McFred + squad players fighting for midfield spots.
Okay so now I'm reading praises of McFred. It's like last season didn't really happen 
We're stronger in just about every position compared to last year because we have an effective manager that can coach players.
Fred has been improving, Scotty will benefit from actual professional coaching. Is Pogo better than Eriksen? Maybe but he was rarely fit and underperformed.
Add in DvB and Garner as bench options that can play the system and I don't think there's much to worry about
Fred has been improving, Scotty will benefit from actual professional coaching. Is Pogo better than Eriksen? Maybe but he was rarely fit and underperformed.
Add in DvB and Garner as bench options that can play the system and I don't think there's much to worry about
Dalot
Fred
McTominay
Elanga
Martial
Regular starters who are absolutely shite. It's at the point now where its almost half the squad are nowhere near the standard of a trophy challenging team.
Fred
McTominay
Elanga
Martial
Regular starters who are absolutely shite. It's at the point now where its almost half the squad are nowhere near the standard of a trophy challenging team.
Clearly the only midfielder in the world we think is better than them is De Jong so surely they will do just fine for us this season.
Okay so now I'm reading praises of McFred. It's like last season didn't really happen
I don't think anyone can argue that we had/have a poor midfield in terms of quality vs teams competitive enough to aspire for trophies.
But whilst it wasn't good enough to compete for the league, it should have been fine enough to make top 4.
Personally, I blame the entire squad + Ole + RR in equal measure for last year's mess and any lingering ill feelings within the squad going into this season.
Fredriksen over McFred
How can we know we have an effective manager at this point of the season that can transform McFred into at least decent midfielders? From the 5 pre-season friendlies?
Only competitive matches can indicate if they can actually be better. Same goes for Dalot, Martial, DVB.
We have very limited options in midfield and attack and we are 2-3 injuries away from using unproven, youth players.
We still have Eriksen and Zidane.
Mctominay isn't even better than either of anderson or cleverley let alone pre illness fletcher, even in fletcher's early years playing as a right midfielder he produce balls into the box that you would never see Mctominay have the technical ability to pull off.
He is probably the worst midfielder I have seen play on a regular since possibly djemba djemba and even he wasn't a real regular starter, I would even take phil neville playing as a defensive midfielder over him as at least he accomplished protecting the defence when put in the role unlike Mctominay who allows the opposition midfielders to just breeze past him.
This is what I am hoping for if we don't buy a proper alternative to de Jong.
I think negativity towards fred is a little harsh and has seemingly gotten better and better every season and think he will be suited to and excell under ten hag's coach and philosophy, couple in the hope that ten hag can get either fernandes or vdb to their best in midfield with martinez playing as the dm and that could be top 4 worthy midfield compared with spurs, Chelsea (unless they get de Jong ) and arsenal who might end a man short with the partey situation.
Eriksen will start over McT Sunday, ETH would have seen enough in pre-season and training to know this change is required.
McT can’t retain possession nor create from the midfield, Eriksen is the perfect player for this.
McT can’t retain possession nor create from the midfield, Eriksen is the perfect player for this.
Why is it forgotten that we have signed Eriksen? As of now, Fred will still start because he's a very good player. Eriksen will start too, as will Bruno Fernandes. So no McFred, just Fred.
Doubt it. Think it will be McFred with Eriksen and Bruno up front. Fred as the only defensive minded midfielder would be too risky.
How? We have one fit striker who doesn’t want to be here, no RW and a central midfield of relegation team quality. How exactly have we improved that position?
We've lost players from both positions and not bought anyone. Obviously we are weaker than last season
Pretty sure that ten Hag wants to play with one 6 and two 8's. Fred is going to be used in the De Jong role until either De Jong signs, or we sign an alternative. It's possible for this game that Bruno starts up front, but that won't be happening long term and McTominay starting won't be a long term solution either. Anyway, I think it's just as likely that Rashford will start up front against Brighton and we will see a McTominay-free midfield.
A scandal. Its as if people forget last season. Jesus imagine this 2 consistently starting at bayern Munich, or real Madrid or City or juventus. Its absolutely staggering that the club is managed the way it is and people still make excuses
How about it isn't a scandal? How about McTominay isn't a starter? Is that a bit better? That's the reality. No idea why people think that McTominay is a starter this season.