Ruben Neves | Signed for Al Hilal (SA)

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What I don't understand is why Fred's passing is constantly put down. Fred's passing doesn't have to be poor to make the point that Neves is a good passer or has a good range of long passing. Reading some opinions, it's as if he's a League 1 passer of the ball and his only skill is legging it around. I am convinced some people get individual actions stuck within their head, or form an opinion and religiously stick to it despite the fact Fred has probably been our key midfielder for some time.

If Neves was miles better than Fred at passing it would be seen in the numbers, there is no getting around that. He might be better at certain aspects, especially long passing as that's not really in Fred's game, but Fred is quite clearly a consistent passer that can also play through the lines. He's also our midfielder that is most available to team mates yet despite his willingness and productivity the odd miscontrol or stumble is the focus rather than the consistent performances.

If we want to find areas where our passing stumbles I would look at McT (who is also underrated in this respect by fans) as he's less available and less incisive. Or Pogba who has ability but will overcomplicate things, or Matic who's legs do not keep up with his technical ability. Fred is a ridiculous one to focus on in my opinion, not least because he's also incredibly tenacious and athletic.

Maybe these two would even be the choice combination. Fred would cover a lot of Neves shortcomings, and perhaps vice versa.
 
MattofManchester said:
This obsession with stats.

Are some of you really trying to say that Fred is a better passer than Neves?
Really? Really really?
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I think they are you know. And it’s a bit scary.

Not sure if it’s ‘Paddy Crerand syndrome’ at work but I’m astonished at how some United fans rate Fred so highly.
 
Not even a rumour and we're on page 30. Still insist he is underwhelmeming.
 


Reckon some of this would've been good at Southampton today
 
I wasn’t convinced with us signing him, still not but going off today’s showing against Southampton he’d be a huge upgrade. We desperately need someone in there if we’re to properly challenge and if we can get him for £35-40m then get it done.
 
He'd clearly offer something different to what we saw today. Swapping him for Lingard in our squad would be a prudent and effective move.
 
We need to sell to buy. We'd need to shift Lingard and maybe one other to get him in. Doesn't look likely.
 
I’d bite the bullet on this fella and play him next to one of McTominay or Fred.

He might not be the answer but he’d keep hold of the ball and help us in the transition. Part of the answer, perhaps.
 
Wolves resorted to playing 3 at the back again?

Nuno is playing 4-3-3 with Spurs like I predicted.
 
Dante said:
We'll find out for certain on Sunday. If he's in the squad, there's zero chance we're in for him.
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Not a chance. Maguire scored and played in a friendly before signing for United. It means nothing.
 
We have been calling out for a seasoned deep CM for two years now. I would say Neves fits that bill perfectly and without any panic being involved.
 
AaronRedDevil said:
Is he a big improvement then what we have? Feck yes, sign him already.
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Pretty much any starting EPL midfielder would be an improvement on Matic and KDB at the moment. Quite a few would be an improvement on McTominay too.

But I think the problem in signing anyone atm is that we have to sell first. We have Matic, KDB and Lingard taking team spots. If two of those get moved on then we'll probably sign someone. If not, then I don't believe anyone is coming in.
 
Abraxas said:
What I don't understand is why Fred's passing is constantly put down. Fred's passing doesn't have to be poor to make the point that Neves is a good passer or has a good range of long passing. Reading some opinions, it's as if he's a League 1 passer of the ball and his only skill is legging it around. I am convinced some people get individual actions stuck within their head, or form an opinion and religiously stick to it despite the fact Fred has probably been our key midfielder for some time.
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https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSJ73RUuH/

He does this on a regular basis. Every other week he'd do something like this. And he's supposed to be a midfielder for Manchester United. People are saying he's our best cm and sadly enough, they might be right. Sheesh.
 
I'm warming to him a bit, because the one thing he can do is definitely pass a football. His defensive stats are decent too. With Varane in the back-line, maybe we can make up a little for his lack of mobility?
 
would he be able to play the role by himself? I think in an ideal world Ole would want Bruno and Pogba in front someone with a front three of rashford, cavani, sancho. With the addition of Varane, i am hoping we can move to this formation
 
these threads are running on hopium

sad state of affairs really I think most top clubs would’ve signed a midfielder as first priority this summer

not sure what we’re playing at
 
You have to wonder why nobody has snapped him up. If he was really available for under £40m surely if he's that good he'd have been taken ASAP.
 
Tarrou said:
these threads are running on hopium

sad state of affairs really I think most top clubs would’ve signed a midfielder as first priority this summer

not sure what we’re playing at
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Sancho was our #1 target.

Varane is someone you don't let slip away.

We now have to move players on if we want to bring anyone in. Could be a busy week.
 
Games like yesterday are crying out for a player like him.

Maybe not him exactly, but I would say he's better at passing and creating space than Fred and McT. He would definitely be an improvement in there.
 
We are crying out for what he would offer our midfield! Someone able to switch play at a quick pace would completley improve our ball retention gainst teams that sit deep instead of our hasty short ball switches, add to that he would set off counters quicker too and it should be a no brainer. Would be the perfect partner for one of McFred.
 
Don’t buy into the panic. I reckon we’ve been chilled waiting for Camavinga to make his mind up. We aren’t going into a season relying on Matic to play 20 games and for anything good to come of it. Once/if lingard goes the dominos will hopefully start to fall. If we’d got a better result yesterday nobody would be panicking about this
 
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