Rojo or Fred as backup LB?

Schmeichel's Cartwheel

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Desperate times call for desperate measures. Rojo has played a fair amount of his career there, including a World Cup & FA Cup final. And most importantly he’s left footed & isn’t afraid to try to put a cross in. Of course the downsides are he’s reckless in the challenge & is even more injury prone than Shaw.

Fred has an engine, can tackle, can cross better than Williams & again, is left footed, so he doesn’t have to cut in if he wants to put a ball on. He also makes far less mistakes than Williams on the ball. The downside would be it’s a roll that he hasn’t played in ages & would only play it when needed so may not get enough time to adjust to it before being thrown.

The alternative is Williams, one of the most right foot heavy players in our team, playing out there with Rashford, who likes to cut inside himself. We’ve seen that it doesn’t work too well & I really don’t want to see him out there again next season.

Right now we’re 2 injuries away from a left side of Williams & James. Honestly that left side could probably be bettered by teams in League One. We can’t afford to let that happen.

One thing is clear, with Shaw’s fitness record, we desperately need a left back. I can’t see us getting one though.
 

Santos J

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Fred as back up left back ffs

The shite Williams gets after a couple of sub par games towards the end of last season is ridiculous.
 

RUCK4444

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I'd still take Williams there ahead of Rojo and Fred for sure.

Hopefully Shaw stays fit, he links very well with Rashford and I'm personally confident a fit Shaw is better than a defensively weaker Reguillon.
 

T00lsh3d

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Rojo can’t be left back, he’s busy filling in on the right wing
 

limerickcitykid

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Where did this Fred LB stuff come from? Is there any actual source for it? I’ve tried looking for it but I found an interview with the brazilian scout who brought Fred to Europe and he says he played as a LW coming through in Brazil. No mention of him ever playing LB.
 

Schmeichel's Cartwheel

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Fred as back up left back ffs

The shite Williams gets after a couple of sub par games towards the end of last season is ridiculous.
Fred has played at left back before. He’s also a better footballer than Williams. He also possesses better attributes for the role than Williams.

None of them are natural left backs, Rojo is the closest. If none are naturals, go with the better more suitable player.

Williams has played awful more times than he’s played well. He’s one of the most right footed players in our team. He can’t cross, isn’t a great tackler, is weak & regularly gets terrorised by his winger. He’s a horrible choice for left back. Random Falk made him look like an amateur.
 

dove

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I have seen it a few times now people suggesting Fred for LB. Absolutely ridiculous suggestion IMO :lol:
 

SalfordRed18

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Fred as back up left back ffs

The shite Williams gets after a couple of sub par games towards the end of last season is ridiculous.
Vice versa, the praise he got after a couple of decent games was ridiculous.
 

MUrphFC

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Tuanzebe is fit and can play LB as he did against Arsenal and did well.
 

CM10

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Christ, this must be a wind up.

If we wanted to use anyone as an experimental left back it would've been Chong. We've got to go out and sign someone or we can forget about getting top 4.
 

RashyForPM

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Have we forgotten how shit Rojo was at left back when he played there last time? Leopards don’t change their spots. With Fred, he is just an average to decent midfielder, so putting him so far out of position would be stupid. Zinchenko, Delph and Milner all haven’t fared too well when shunted out there, and all 3 are around Fred’s level. Let’s just stick with Williams as backup for now. He may not have ended the season on fire but people forget that he started brilliantly and is only 20. Give the lad a chance, instead of denting his confidence by playing guys who mostly don’t even play well in their own positions in his position.

All in all, this is a quite ridiculous suggestion.
 

RashyForPM

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Tuanzebe is fit and can play LB as he did against Arsenal and did well.
This is another ridiculous suggestion. Did well? He gave them a goal! No matter how well he did otherwise (he wasn’t great anyway), giving away a vital goal to the opposition which could have cost us top 4 in the end doesn’t constitute doing well.
 

flappyjay

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It's not as ridiculous as everyone makes it to be. He is quick enough, left footed, decent on the ball. Adapting to the role at his age would be similar to Young/Valencia, positioning is going to be poor. Also he is short and would poor at defending at the post. Zinchenko and Delpth were midfielders.
 

Plant0x84

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Desperate times call for desperate measures.
Except we aren’t desperate?! We have Shaw, Williams, plus Dalot can play LB and we can promote from the youth ranks if necessary.

It’s great to have shiny new names on the team sheet and all but buying somebody for the sake of it would be a bad choice.

Similarly we have chastised countless mangers for years of converted MF at full back, (young/Valencia say hello) why would we go down this road again? We need to stop playing players out of position to maximise there output!

The only position we are ‘desperate’ for is a right forward or winger, and that quite rightly is where the focus seems to be!
 

EwanI Ted

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With Dalot seemingly on the way out, Williams is covering both LB and RB. Given Shaw's injury record, the fact that AWB can't possibly play every game in this monster season and that Williams is a youngster with just 17 league appearances to his name, we definitely need some back up there. I'd be very surprised if we didn't go for someone, though our transfer window so far has been lacklustre so who knows.

I could live with Fred playing there as an in-game emergency option, if others went off injured. But other than being comfortable on that side, I dont see much merit in it. He's not a great crosser, he's not particularly disciplined, he's an average tackler. He's never really shown much aptitude for the kind of 1-2s that full backs need to use to burst into space. His general passing and moving is good and that would help, but you can say that for pretty much anywhere on the pitch.

As for Rojo, god no.
 

Schmeichel's Cartwheel

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Have we forgotten how shit Rojo was at left back when he played there last time? Leopards don’t change their spots. With Fred, he is just an average to decent midfielder, so putting him so far out of position would be stupid. Zinchenko, Delph and Milner all haven’t fared too well when shunted out there, and all 3 are around Fred’s level. Let’s just stick with Williams as backup for now. He may not have ended the season on fire but people forget that he started brilliantly and is only 20. Give the lad a chance, instead of denting his confidence by playing guys who mostly don’t even play well in their own positions in his position.

All in all, this is a quite ridiculous suggestion.
City won a league title with 100 points with Delph as their main starting left back. They retained the title the following year with 98 points with Zinchenko as their main starting left back.. Not the best examples if you want to shun my idea mate.

Williams didn’t start brilliantly. That’s a myth perpetuated by fans because he’s a young lad from the academy & United fans are obsessed with the academy. Williams has been shit far more times than he’s been good.
 

Nytram Shakes

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Think Williams did great last season, of course, he is going to have some iffy games last season was his first in the premier league. Think ow we need to bench him is Mourinho's way of thinking.
Between Shaw and Williams we are fine at left-back
 

RashyForPM

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City won a league title with 100 points with Delph as their main starting left back. They retained the title the following year with 98 points with Zinchenko as their main starting left back.. Not the best examples if you want to shun my idea mate.

Williams didn’t start brilliantly. That’s a myth perpetuated by fans because he’s a young lad from the academy & United fans are obsessed with the academy. Williams has been shit far more times than he’s been good.
Think it’s been fairly well documented that Delph and Zinchenko were the weak links in that City team. Their deficiencies were just covered by Pep’s tactics and City’s array of star players. There’s a reason one is gone now while the other is third choice behind Mendy and Cancelo.

And yes, Williams did start brilliantly. He was MOTM against Brighton and scored against Sheffield. He was even then dropped from the u23 Astana squad (Greenwood wasn’t btw) to save him for the PL. That means Solskjær recognised his brilliant start too. As you’d expect from a then 19 year old, he then tailed off a bit but still had more brilliant games, like away to Burnley and Chelsea.
 

OnlyTwoDaSilvas

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If it's a choice between the two, then Rojo over Fred, since he's played there plenty and done relatively well. According to Transfermarkt, Fred never has, though their data isn't 100% comprehensive.

Despite his flaws Rojo is fairly quick, strong and a good crosser. I like Fred as CM, but he is slow and a little weak.


But really, I'd rather it was neither of them in that position.
 

Adam-Utd

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Remember the last time Rojo played LB?

Valencia away... I don't think we ever saw him again after that :nervous:
 

Annihilate Now!

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Rojo is absolutely tragic at left-back. Don't ya'll remember a few years back when he played their pretty often for us?
 

Yagami

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I, for one, am looking forward to the prospect of seeing Rojo take shot after shot from ridiculous positions again.
 

jackal&hyde

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Some of the suggestions of the forum over the last few months: Fred at LB, AWB at CD, Jones and TFM in Center mid and Dalot at RW. Some team that would be :lol:
 

12OunceEpilogue

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Rojo as Left Centre back in Back 3 is as far as I would venture.
Agreed, we've seen how bad Rojo is at LB a few times.

As for Fred there's no reason I could think of why he couldn't do a job there, like a Delph or a Young/Valencia, but it's not something that appeals to me over giving Williams more chances to develop or asking Dalot, an actual fullback, to fill in if needed. This article from the MEN floats the idea due to Fred and McTominay seeming to have fallen down the midfield pecking order and Chong filling in for a bit at LB against LASK. It's down to what Ole wants I suppose, I don't think Fred at LB is laughably insane but it's being thought up on a pretty flimsy premise in my opinion.
 

Panther

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Thank god we missed out on Reguilon, who needs him when we have Fred and Rojo?
 

bosnian_red

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Fred as back up left back ffs

The shite Williams gets after a couple of sub par games towards the end of last season is ridiculous.
His point is fair though. He looks so awkward on the left as he's very right footed and Rashford in front of him is very right footed and always cuts in, even ignoring the quality which is questionable from the left (especially to be able to rotate with Shaw in Champions League and Premier league games). We need a natural balance through a left footed left back, and need quality to actually play there.
 

zizou81

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Can someone please remind me and point to games where rojo had a worse performance than any of our existing CBs? Hes not great but no worse than lets say, smalling, jones, etc.
 

Jev

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I hate having fullbacks playing on the wrong foot. It doesn't just hamper them in the attack, it also makes it much easier for opposing wingers to wrong-foot them because they are turning on the wrong foot. So I'd be open to trying Fred, he seems to have the skillset. Anything to avoid a right-footed left-back. I've got nothing against Williams, by the way.
 

Levenstein

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We should end playing players out of position. We are Manchester United!
 

MadDogg

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Except we aren’t desperate?! We have Shaw, Williams, plus Dalot can play LB and we can promote from the youth ranks if necessary.

It’s great to have shiny new names on the team sheet and all but buying somebody for the sake of it would be a bad choice.

Similarly we have chastised countless mangers for years of converted MF at full back, (young/Valencia say hello) why would we go down this road again? We need to stop playing players out of position to maximise there output!

The only position we are ‘desperate’ for is a right forward or winger, and that quite rightly is where the focus seems to be!
Both Young and Valencia were fine for the first few years after transitioning to fullback. Not world-class, but they were amongst the best in the league and the complaints about them in those years definitely went over-the-top. As they aged they obviously both fell away though, especially Valencia.

I don't want to see either Rojo or Fred there though.
 

Ish

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I swear, this must be the third or fourth time at the very least I have seen the Caf propose Fred as some sort of LB.

Have I missed anything? Has he played there for Shakthar or for any other club before?
 

Panther

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I swear, this must be the third or fourth time at the very least I have seen the Caf propose Fred as some sort of LB.

Have I missed anything? Has he played there for Shakthar or for any other club before?
He's left footed and that's all you need to play left back.
 

Web of Bissaka

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We should end playing players out of position. We are Manchester United!
This is somewhat ironic.. since our best manager (SAF) tend to do just that.
Not only when we had injury crisis, but often for tactical and arguably developmental reasons.

I get your point, playing players out of position should be avoided as much as we can... but then the question remains, just what is "out of position". Who defines it? And who decides it?

And other than GK and outfield players, are players really that limited where they just can't play in different uncommon positions..? usually managers are criticised at first when doing this but then afterwards once the players (1)made the position their own redefining their "best/out of position" or (2)improved a lot developing new abilities to be used once they revert back to their original position or (3)the whole team play better, the managers are then being praised for having visions and knows the players better, etc.

So really..
 
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