The McFred midfield duo

Yes, it is easy to blame our midfielders, but only because that where the problem lies.

We’ve conceded a few goals, but who among us expect any side to hold a string of clean sheets? Our front line has missed chances, but no front line ever converts 100% of their good chances.

Ole is committed to McFred and all we can do is hope they raise their performances to meet the reasonable expectations of club supporters.
 
horsechoker said:
We can only change it with existing players or change the tactics otherwise we have to wait until January at the earliest to buy better players. I'm open to trying VDB there in some way to see if it will actually improve things.
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Yeah right now we have to bear with them. But we do need to focus on this issue. The VDB situation is really puzzling.


Litch said:
Weakest link based on what though? I think they can be improved on, but I can't honestly say, that's why we aren't playing well. If we are honest, Harry and Shaw have been poor, Pogs started well but has faded again, Sancho still finding his feet, Martial is struggling......it's not like the rest of the team is firing....
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Yes they are not the sole reason that we dont play well. I agree.
Coaching, tactics etc. are also not good enough.
McFred is just a visible limiter, even if all things going well.
 
the_answer said:
Yeah right now we have to bear with them. But we do need to focus on this issue. The VDB situation is really puzzling.



Yes they are not the sole reason that we dont play well. I agree.
Coaching, tactics etc. are also not good enough.
McFred is just a visible limiter, even if all things going well.
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Maybe but equally, teams are the sum of all the parts that all interlink. Can only fully understand that if the other parts are working too. I honestly believe they do play a part, just not entirely sure it's as much as people believe. Like said, they don't pick themselves.....
 
Why do City can play in a midfield of 3 with de bruyne and b.silva

and utd can’t with bruno e pogba

respond
 
::sonny:: said:
Why do City can play in a midfield of 3 with de bruyne and b.silva

and utd can’t with bruno e pogba

respond
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Positional play coaching, possession based system so they have the ball most of the time, inverted full backs who fill the void in midfield, tactical fouling to prevent counter attacks. And a second CM on occasion, usually Gundogan and sometimes Fernandinho and Rodri together, when they want to be more balanced.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
First half hour of tonight’s game making it painfully obvious that any combo featuring Fred is better than any combo without Fred.
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Indeed. I think the pair of them are fairly shite, in truth, but they’re a necessary evil until we can bring in players who can do what they do but better.

Tonight’s display is farcical.
 
McFred may lack creativity but it’s our most stable midfield by far. It’s not even close.
 
Question is how does he pick both vs Villa with his whole first choice defence available and then picks only Mct with 3 of the 4 in the back 4 missing vs Villarreal. Is there any logic to the madness at all
 
Trequarista10 said:
Positional play coaching, possession based system so they have the ball most of the time, inverted full backs who fill the void in midfield, tactical fouling to prevent counter attacks. And a second CM on occasion, usually Gundogan and sometimes Fernandinho and Rodri together, when they want to be more balanced.
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great reply this… so spot on…

or in other words… Pep has a plan for dealing with counter overloads.

ole… not so much

the only this id add is that their options as the holding 6 are all really adept at finding gaps to receive the balls out from the back on the half turn, ready to play line splitting passes…

Only Matic has anything like this ability…

can’t believe we didn’t buy a ball playing 6…

it was clearly completely necessary… either that or a time machine for Carrick to jump in.
 
Just because we have been awful in the first half v.s. Villareal, doesn't mean McFred is the way forwards. It's the way backwards. They're the poster boy's for defensive negative football, even if the stats say we're better off, that's down to management.
 
Amadaeus said:
Without Fred, even big Sam can run through our midfield. As mentioned before, he has been the scapegoat. But the bigger problem is the lack of coaching.
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The problem is even with Fred you wouldn't bet against them dominating. Villa didn't seem to have any issues with McFred. There are so many things wrong that it's hard to think just Fred will solve them.
 
#07 said:
The problem is even with Fred you wouldn't bet against them dominating. Villa didn't seem to have any issues with McFred. There are so many things wrong that it's hard to think just Fred will solve them.
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Yea, I am not saying Fred is the solution. But, he is far from the main problem. The main problem is having a proper coach. I have said this since Ole was interm manager
 
We need to play both Fred and McTominay at the same time.

Statistics prove this. When we play both of them, our win percentage is 62%, with 2.00 goals per game for and 0.93 against. When we don't play both of them, our win percentage is 52% with goals for 1.73 and against 1.15.

They complement each other. We have to play them together, at least till we buy a world class, experienced DM. Right now we don't have a better solution.
 
Sandikan said:
Pogba tends to really dwell on it, and constantly lose it in really dangerous places. Probably not all his fault, as there often aren't enough runs off him, but we've seen it for years now.

Having Varane's extra pace back there helps, but for a supreme talent, the majority of the talk is always about fitting him in, when you'd think he should lift everyone else's games.
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I'm beginning to think that this comes back to coaching like everything else wrong with the current United set up.
In a more structured style of playing, Pogba would not need to take much time on the ball, and can pass it quickly to a teammate. When Pogba lose the ball, most of the time, I understand what he's trying to do. And I see this too with Maguire and DeGea when they try to pass it out from the back. Their teammates doesn't know how to give Pogba, Maguire, and De Gea options, which led them to take bad ones. I think it's easier for Maguire and DeGea since they could always kicking it long up field, but that's not the case for Pogba
 
They are obviously improvable but they are not the main problem now. A few players in defense and attack out of form and a few partnerships needing to form are our biggest issue right now. A few more weeks and we'll be over this period. Just have to unlike other seasons, this time around get results even while not being very good yet.
 
Watched this as a neutral and my god they're not very good are they?

Said it last week I wouldn't swop Douglas Luiz or John McGinn for those two and I doubt any Everton fan would swop Doucoure or Allan (both were excellent). You're talking about teams that will probably finish 9th or 10th this season.

Problem is Villareal just ran through you first 60 minutes the other night with Pogba in the two so other limited options aren't bullet proof either.

Hard to see what can be created with the limited options and Van Dr Beek never used in crucial moments in games. Maybe if Pep was in charge he'd have Bruno as deep lying playmaker.

Baffles me what the actual plan was unless it's just to play the long game of waiting for Jude Bellingham to get bored of playing in Germany as with Sancho.
 
It's funny how they're supposed to be making us defensively better but we're still leaky as hell. So what's the point? Offer nothing in defence, nothing in attack. Just why?
 
Interesting that Ole has picked this as the hill he wants to die on.
 
Only idiots keep on repeating the same thing and expect a different result.
 
I still think they are our biggest problem. That Everton duo can be added to the list of another better pairing then ours. McTominay in particular is truly awful.
 
One of Everton counters they were both out on the right wing. Everton had the whole midfield to themselves.
 
Why the hell didn't we buy a competent CM? Like why? And then we go and give the likes of Matic extensions...
Shambles of a club
 
How Fred lost both of those challenges on Gray I have no idea, any other experienced player takes a yellow there. He does it time and time again.
 
At this stage i'm not even sure what their instructions are. They just fill a gap in midfield without offering anything going backwards or forwards. I'd like to say better players would change things significantly but i'm not convinced with that either.
 
The simple fact is they don’t do their primary job which is stopping and braking up play and helping us keep clean sheets. There is nowhere for them to hide now, we have an epic back 4 and McFred just let players run off them all fecking game. If they aren’t good defensively and are limited offensively, surely we try something else.
 
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