MEN: Fred identifies Manchester United's biggest problem this season

Ikon

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Finally someone to tell it as it is, without all that everything is fine shit Ole serves week in week out.
I've never been a fan of Fred, but he has just gone up in my estimation, and I sure he is absolutely correct in his assessment.
Vanity & poor attitudes......Who'd have guessed...?!?! :rolleyes:
 

Craig Ward

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Doesn't sit right with me. A player who is pressing for others to be creative yet shows no sign of it himself and gets credit on here for speaking his mind. How crazy is that?
If Roy Keane bellowed at the strikers for not scoring goals or working hard, does that make Keane a bad player? I dont think so.

If Maguire had bemoaned the lack of creativity, does that make him a bad player? You see the point?

Fred's a DM - how creative do you want him to be. It's not his primary role.

Freds comments are right - some people just dont wanna hear the truth
 

Alabaster Codify7

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Interesting to hear this from Fred. The narrative of Ole instilling complete harmony in the squad is clearly not completely true, I'm still convinced that some of these players are smiling because this is the first manager they've had that has actively encouraged them to continue being average. They are, for the first time, playing without any kind of scrutiny or expectation, so they are happy.
 

Buster15

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I've never been a fan of Fred, but he has just gone up in my estimation, and I sure he is absolutely correct in his assessment.
Vanity & poor attitudes......Who'd have guessed...?!?! :rolleyes:
The people who already knew that are the fans. You only have to read a few posts here to realise that.
Ole and the players please take note.
 

GBBQ

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Doesn't sit right with me. A player who is pressing for others to be creative yet shows no sign of it himself and gets credit on here for speaking his mind. How crazy is that?
Look at it as a player who has come under immense scrutiny, has been written off as a laughing stock, was seen as symptomatic of our crap transfer dealings but has kept his head down and become an integral part of the team through hard work, demanding the same from his team mates.
 

Matriac

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Just watched the interview. It's been way overblown.

He says things that we already know, about talking much and not showing enough on the pitch. He says it's a normal thing having problems off the field, but United is having a lot. The vanity comment is something the Ale (the one doing the interview) says and he kinda agrees but without even thinking.
He's honest and nothing about throwing people under the bus.

Great interview actually, funny and light.

Even tried to make a joke about his agressive style of play but managed to screw it up. Something like " From the neck up, everything is shin", when it should've been from the neck down...

Did none of you recent posters today read this posted over night? I feel like people in this forum way too often take rumors and interpretations of statements as gospel, which is somewhat understandable if you can't understand the language of the interview as in this case, but also from say our own press conferences. You read the words in tweet-format and reach for your pitch-fork, but you don't check the footage yourself to see the obviously tongue-in-cheek fashion the responses were given.
 

tjb

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I think people are reading too much into it, especially regarding the harmony in the squad. There are clearly players in the club that have been dysfunctional over the time Fred has been in the squad. He arrived during a time where players were trying to get rid of the Managers who signed him. Some of those players are still at the club, while other have left over time. Matic came out two or three months ago and criticized Ole and the team for lacking and not using experience because he was on the bench. Pogba has his agent criticizing the club etc. Those type of noises did not come with Ole and even though he has tried to contain it, I am not sure any manager implementing the current plan that Ole seems to be operating with would face anything dissimilar. There is no way a club that was in complete player-manager-media crisis last season would be perfect now, people need to leave, others need to come in and people need to adapt to new roles and duties.

As far as the vanity comment goes, that is clear even in our play sometimes. He might also be suggesting that others aren't putting the work in training to perform on the pitch as they are focused on their image. The truth is we have to make the squad a unit again. You cannot have a player's agent publically criticizing the club or older players criticizing the manager for not getting games. I predict that this summer, the eggs that are causing the disruptions at the club will be gone, the key though is to bring in players that fit the culture of the club.
 

simplyared

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If Roy Keane bellowed at the strikers for not scoring goals or working hard, does that make Keane a bad player? I dont think so.

If Maguire had bemoaned the lack of creativity, does that make him a bad player? You see the point?

Fred's a DM - how creative do you want him to be. It's not his primary role.

Freds comments are right - some people just dont wanna hear the truth
Roy Keane put himself in a position to bellow at his strikers because there are few man utd players who have contributed to the club as he has done. Totally invalid comparison!
Fred's not a DM. Ruben Nevis is a DM. Night and day between them!
 
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Danillaco

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Did none of you recent posters today read this posted over night? I feel like people in this forum way too often take rumors and interpretations of statements as gospel, which is somewhat understandable if you can't understand the language of the interview as in this case, but also from say our own press conferences. You read the words in tweet-format and reach for your pitch-fork, but you don't check the footage yourself to see the obviously tongue-in-cheek fashion the responses were given.
I didn't. Before posting I actually took the time to watch the interview and see it first hand, since I'm Brazilian. Then I gave my impressions.
I think you quoted the wrong post.
 

Matriac

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I didn't. Before posting I actually took the time to watch the interview and see it first hand, since I'm Brazilian. Then I gave my impressions.
I think you quoted the wrong post.
I should have been clearer. I quoted your post to bring it to the end of the thread again to point out that you contributed some valuable insight that everyone else after your post seemed to have ignored. Why I said the "did none of you read THIS"
To make it absolutely clear I was +1'ing your post. Thanks for taking the time to watch the interview and provide us valuable context. :)
 

poleglass red

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If Roy Keane bellowed at the strikers for not scoring goals or working hard, does that make Keane a bad player? I dont think so.

If Maguire had bemoaned the lack of creativity, does that make him a bad player? You see the point?

Fred's a DM - how creative do you want him to be. It's not his primary role.

Freds comments are right - some people just dont wanna hear the truth
No he's not. He doesn't track runners, he isn't comfortable taking the ball deep, not strong enough in the tackle, plus he's not disciplined positionally enough to play that role, he's all over the pitch. He's high energy. His performances have improved, he's more box to box, not a pure DM and in this league and probably won't ever be. He's effective at what he does but for him to sit and provide protection for a back 4 isn't playing to his strengths. Utilise that energy he has
 

Rood

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Just watched the interview. It's been way overblown.

He says things that we already know, about talking much and not showing enough on the pitch. He says it's a normal thing having problems off the field, but United is having a lot. The vanity comment is something the Ale (the one doing the interview) says and he kinda agrees but without even thinking.
He's honest and nothing about throwing people under the bus.

Great interview actually, funny and light.

Even tried to make a joke about his agressive style of play but managed to screw it up. Something like " From the neck up, everything is shin", when it should've been from the neck down...
Nice to hear from someone who actually understands the interview

Crazy how people are so quick to jump on so called quotes without questioning the translation since the original is in Portuguese - I would not trust the media translations at all, they twist stuff even when it's in English
 

jackal&hyde

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I suspected as much. Especially from some of the older players that probably think they are much better then they really are: Matic, Jones, Lingard and the departed Smalling, Sanchez and Lukaku.
 

ICHM

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We need shouters on the pitch and to get rid of Lingard, Jones and Shaw.
 

sunama

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Off course there's something wrong with us, if there's nothing wrong with us being 5th with 35 pts after 25 games then they all needs to be sacked on the spot
We're in 7th, when games played are equal.
We're currently in 8th, because Everton have played an extra game.
If we lose to CFC, we'll be in 8th on merit.
 

sunama

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Pretty damning and unsurprising. It’s a really tough thing to sort out as well. Don’t think you can do it without changing a lot of personnel
Correct.
But if the owners of club change, this will send shockwaves throughout the club,. as they'll know that the new owners mean business - i.e. that if we continue getting poor results, the personnel will be replaced.
And when I say personnel, I mean - Woodward, Ole, coaches, players, scouts, physios, sports doctors - from top to be bottom, we are failing.
Simply changing manager won't be enough because there are too many people failing.
Woodward should be the one who sends the message, but he seems incompetent in his DoF duties.

I think that some players don't care much about winning, they are not necessarily bad apples but they simply have no experience of winning and don't have the taste for it.
This is an excellent point you make that I don't think anybody else has made. [most blame Woodward and Ole]
If we had winners in our team, they'll be hungry to experience that feeling again.
If a player has not won the big trophies, but is on huge wages - he'll be quite happy to spin his wheels (finish 4th-7th) and be satisfied.
When you are used to winning all the time, huge wages aren't enough.