McFred as a midfield duo heading into 2022/23 season

Kush

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With our primary target Frenkie de Jong set to stay at Barca/move to Chelsea. It is very likely that we are going to start another Premier League campaign with McTominay and Fred at center of our midfield.

Paul Hirst, in his latest Times article also added the following:[Full article - https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/...aldo-will-stay-at-manchester-united-dprvj6fh2]

Erik Ten Hag identified Frenkie de Jong as primary midfield target, and current has no alternatives in mind. He was keen on the club wrapping this deal up in late June but doesn't want to waste funds on buying players who don't fit.

With that information, how do we setup this season with Bruno, McTominay, Fred, Eriksen, van de Beek and possibly Garner, Mejbri, Iqbal and Savage as our midfield options? Earlier today, the manager re-emphasized that he is happy with current midfield options. So, if EtH is keen on having Eriksen and Bruno at heart of our midfield, who should be the sole DM to make that system work? Or will we leave ourselves too open?
 

Castia

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McFred, Elanga and Martial tearing it up!

Very possibe that those 4 players will be playing big parts of this season as it stands. Lower PL level quality at best and that's being generous.
 

honirelandboy

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I'm just been diagnosed with erectile dysfunction reading the title of this thread.
 

TheNewEra

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I don't think the source given is gospel.

If De Jong isn't attainable there'll be other targets I'm sure.
 

kps88

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We might scrape by with the two of them but my main concern is the complete lack of depth in there. One injury and we're in big trouble.
 

DWelbz19

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If we are working on the assumption that we will bring absolutely nobody else in central midfield, I would honestly prefer ten Hag to play Iqbal in that midfield. Especially over McTominay and van de Beek, who I view as very poor central midfielders.

Admittedly all we saw was about 180 minutes of preseason football from him, and at this moment in time we have zero idea if he can actually fully translate into the senior mens game, but at least he seems to possess the sort of traits Frenkie has.

Either that, or Eriksen beside Fred.
 

FatTails

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Fred and McTominay under ETH will be nothing like Fred and McTominay under Ole (or within the team meltdown under Ralf). They will practically feel like new signings for all intends and purposes.
 

NinjaZombie

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Starting to feel like ETH dropped the ball with the whole rumoured "De Jong or nothing" mentality.

I wonder how much of Garner, Savage, Mejbri and Iqbal we'll see next season.
 

RedSky

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It's the hope that kills you. You hope that a new Manager will come in and sort out the club and yet here we are, repeating the same mistakes we've made in the past 12 years. It's been a royal shit show of a summer window.

My expectations this season are pretty much rock bottom in all honesty. You look at our rivals and they've all strengthened in areas they needed too, while we're pissing about as usual. Depressing shite. Where's my vodka.
 

Bebestation

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And people will somehow blame Mctominay for not signing De Jong.
 

GlasgowCeltic

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Fred and McTominay under ETH will be nothing like Fred and McTominay under Ole (or within the team meltdown under Ralf). They will practically feel like new signings for all intends and purposes.
Lindelof and Jones too
 

Bubz27

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The scary part is the depth behind them.
 

JJ12

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Pisses me off Fred gets lumped in with McTominay.

Fred is far more useful.
 

bdspeedy

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If we go into the season with a midfield that's WORSE than last year's, we MUST focus even more on making sure our grifter owners are DRIVEN out of the club. Not one feck1ng cent more to these parasites, who are bleeding us fans dry. We will NEVER win ANYTHING while we are owned by these turds.
 

AndySmith1990

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We can't be taken as a serious club with aspirations to win trophies. No club fitting that description would allow their midfield to become so weak and repeatedly refuse/fail to strengthen it. I don't buy in to the FDJ or no one mentality. There are thousands of footballers out there; we can't possibly only believe there is only one player who could possibly provide significant improvement to that area. It's nothing less than incompetence
 

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It's hard to fathom the level of incompetence we have reached. I'm at the laughing rather than crying stage now.
 

laughtersassassin

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Club has no ambition. No one can reasonably argue otherwise.

Our Midfield is now worse than last year.

Our attack is now worse than last year.

Only our defence is marginally Improved.

We reward the worst players who have no where better to go.

Absolute incompetence.
 

Borys

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They are fine if we could play them game in game out 90mins. This would not stop us getting top 4.
Obviously we can't play them every game so this is invalid argument in serious discussion. Just shows how poor our squad is.
And obviously we're embarrassing ourselves if we can't find an upgrade on this midfield for another year.

BTW, Eriksen and Bruno are no midfielders. Eriksen maybe at a stretch, but I hope Bruno stays away from midfield.
 

Strootman's Finger

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Fred and McTominay under ETH will be nothing like Fred and McTominay under Ole (or within the team meltdown under Ralf). They will practically feel like new signings for all intends and purposes.
McTominay is a limited player, Ten Hag isn't a miracle worker. It's a joke a player like that starts for United, he wouldn't get into Brighton's team.
 

Trequarista10

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There's a more than 1000 page thread about FDJ, not sure this tweet merits it's own thread. We're obviously trying to sign a midfielder, whether it's FDJ, Neves or another. We obviously need an upgrade and we obviously need a natural holding mid as our current options are box to box.

The plan if we don't sign someone will obviously be Fred playing deeper, which will be painful but the best of some bad options. Garner may be able to step into that role on occasion but he has some improvements to make. A young kid may get some cup runouts. With Fred deeper, it means more appearances for McTominay (urgh). I imagine we'll see a midfield 3 of Fred, Bruno and either Eriksen or VDB against some weaker opposition on occasion.

It is what it is at the moment and we all know the situation. Let's assess at the end of the window. All speculation until then.
 

zaafi

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There are other similar options available, but in Ten Hag's head, apparently only de Jong is the "right" player. What about Ismael Bennacer and Maxence Caqueret? Bennacer is really, really good with much better defensive stats than de Jong. I mean, if we can't get de Jong, what do we do? Just continue with McFred and pray that de Jong wants to join us next year? Very disappointed in Ten Hag if he only considered one player for the midfield position. It's going to be an extremely tough watch with McFred from beginning to end of the season.
 

Robbie Boy

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It's the hope that kills you. You hope that a new Manager will come in and sort out the club and yet here we are, repeating the same mistakes we've made in the past 12 years. It's been a royal shit show of a summer window.

My expectations this season are pretty much rock bottom in all honesty. You look at our rivals and they've all strengthened in areas they needed too, while we're pissing about as usual. Depressing shite. Where's my vodka.
You're usually the positive sort :lol:
 

Stadjer

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Fred is fine. I dont mind him as a starter. He isnt the best player in the world but i see him as good usefull midfielder in a good team. McT... not so much. Every game he starts is one too many.
 

SoCross

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Midfield three of McT, Fred and Eriksen. Don’t know where that leaves Bruno though.
 

Irwin99

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For me it's the duo rather than the individual players that make it so depressing, though in truth probably neither are or ever will be elite level players (which is what a United player should be)

Maguire and Lindelof is the same. Just a different combination please.
 

Stadjer

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There are other similar options available, but in Ten Hag's head, apparently only de Jong is the "right" player. What about Ismael Bennacer and Maxence Caqueret? Bennacer is really, really good with much better defensive stats than de Jong. I mean, if we can't get de Jong, what do we do? Just continue with McFred and pray that de Jong wants to join us next year? Very disappointed in Ten Hag if he only considered one player for the midfield position. It's going to be an extremely tough watch with McFred from beginning to end of the season.
Ten Hag doenst want Frenkie for his defensive stats. He wants him to receive the ball and start an attack. The first player to start an attack, Frenkie is one of the best in that role. Better than those two players you mention. Ten Hag said it today, he wants the right player and not just a player. I think its the right way. For example, Liverpool didnt get Virgil van Dijk when they wanted him so they waited instead of buying someone else. If he cant get Frenkie now he will wait till he can or someone as good as Frenkie becomes an option to buy.
 

hobbers

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McTominay and Elanga wouldn't get a kick for Palace but they're still first choice at Low Expectations FC.
 

zaafi

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Ten Hag doenst want Frenkie for his defensive stats. He wants him to receive the ball and start an attack. The first player to start an attack, Frenkie is one of the best in that role. Better than those two players you mention. Ten Hag said it today, he wants the right player and not just a player. I think its the right way. For example, Liverpool didnt get Virgil van Dijk when they wanted him so they waited instead of buying someone else. If we cant get Frenkie now we will wait till we can or someone as good as Frenkie becomes an option to buy.
If Frenkie isn't coming now, he never will. You can't just wait for someone as good as Frenkie to suddenly appear, because the odds of that happening this year/next year are slim. I suggested Bennacer because he is similar, not as good, but he is excellent when it comes to resisting the press and evade the opposition players to start attacks. Caqueret is similar, although not as good. Another upside with Bennacer is that a duo of Bennacer and Fred is a lot more balanced defensively than De Jong and Fred, making 4-2-3-1 more viable.

Getting a replacement for McTominay as soon as possible is more important than waiting several seasons for a player as good as De Jong, because with McFred we won't be progressing much.
 

FerociousCorgis

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imagine if we dont sign anyone and fred is injured/unavailable. Even without that somehow we have even less midfield depth than last year. People want to shit on pogba and matic but at least they were players who had some skill and ability once in a while. Our youth better be ready for some serious ass responsibilities.
 

bosnian_red

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I have a feeling we'll see Donny or Eriksen rotate next to Bruno a lot with Fred the deepest. Maybe Garner will step up eventually. Or Zidane.
 

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