Fred - £47m well spent

[Champagne Football]

I honestly think Jose refused to play him as a way of attacking the board for not giving him an extra 80 million to sign Maguire. A little Jose petulant trick 'If you don't give me what I want, then I'm gonna cause a bit of trouble.'

People can say he took a year to settle in, but I think he just needed a run of 10 dodgy games in the team to bed in which Ole gave him, before finding his rhythm.

People saying we overpaid for him are wrong... There's been a ton of flops bought for around 35 to 40m in recent years.

Danny Drinkwater - 35m
Granit Xhaka - 35m.
Oxlade-Chamberlain - 35m
Bakayoko - 40m

 

[Holters]

Seriously? Some people just can't be satisfied...
What midfielder could we ever buy for less than 50 million pounds, who is better than Fred? Nobody.

Caicedo f.ex? There are probably many players with a higher ceiling than Fred - especially taking into account that he took about two years to adapt to the league. Fred has his uses, but his touch, passing, decision making and positioning aren't good enough. He has his uses though, and his engine and tenacity is great. However, he isn't a world class midfielder like prime Modric, Busquets, Carrick or similar.

 

[RedRonaldo]

At around 50m, wouldn't say he is a bargain, but he surely does justify his fee. Not a bad signing at all.

 

[Ekeke]

I honestly think Jose refused to play him as a way of attacking the board for not giving him an extra 80 million to sign Maguire. A little Jose petulant trick 'If you don't give me what I want, then I'm gonna cause a bit of trouble.'

People can say he took a year to settle in, but I think he just needed a run of 10 dodgy games in the team to bed in which Ole gave him, before finding his rhythm.

People saying we overpaid for him are wrong... There's been a ton of flops bought for around 35 to 40m in recent years.

Danny Drinkwater - 35m
Granit Xhaka - 35m.
Oxlade-Chamberlain - 35m
Bakayoko - 40m

These are also flops like Fred. You compare him to the players that were good value, not the failures else everyone is a success because they cost less money than the biggest failure

 

[rollingstoned1]

if nothing else this thread shows how underrated he is when there are people saying apart from running around he doesn't have any stand out qualities. One of the most reliable names on our team sheet for me and along with DvB probably the most press resistant. You don't become that by being a poor footballer.

 

[Matt851]

Agree with those who think he is good but jot worth £50m.

It seems like we will be playing with a double pivot going forward but in my eyes he doesnt fit either of the roles that well. I think of a double pivot of consisting of a proper dm who is good positionally and an energetic partner with good passing ability. For me fred isnt good enough positionally to play the first of those roles and not good enough on the ball for the second.

If i had the choice i wpuld happily swap mcfred for the villa pivot of luiz and mcginn, maonly for mcginn

 

[Baneofthegame]

I honestly think Jose refused to play him as a way of attacking the board for not giving him an extra 80 million to sign Maguire. A little Jose petulant trick 'If you don't give me what I want, then I'm gonna cause a bit of trouble.'

People can say he took a year to settle in, but I think he just needed a run of 10 dodgy games in the team to bed in which Ole gave him, before finding his rhythm.

People saying we overpaid for him are wrong... There's been a ton of flops bought for around 35 to 40m in recent years.

Danny Drinkwater - 35m
Granit Xhaka - 35m.
Oxlade-Chamberlain - 35m
Bakayoko - 40m

Bit harsh to call the Ox a flop, but agree with the rest, had we paid 30 million for Fred, we’d be happy.

Its unfortunate the attacking side of his game isn’t as prevalent as it was in Shaktar.

 

[IrishRedDevil]

Good player growing into a better one. Needs to give the ball away fewer times.

 

[Sunny Jim]

Seriously? Some people just can't be satisfied...
What midfielder could we ever buy for less than 50 million pounds, who is better than Fred? Nobody.

We paid 16 mio for Carrick.



White text

 

[red thru&thru]

I read Ole was after him when he first took over. Mind you he was after longstaff as well.

Hahaha true.

 

[arthurka]

At around 50m, wouldn't say he is a bargain, but he surely does justify his fee. Not a bad signing at all.

How is 50m a bargain? He isn't great at anything really, he has got a great engine but nothing else is a stand out. He isn't a good passer he is a safe passer. Not a great shot on him, under pressure he often just falls apart so a very average on many things but has grit and a great workrate. 50m isn't a bargain at all, Ole has done great work with what he's got in midfield.

 

[spiriticon]

Fred has more than shown his 50m worth for me. There is no one as dynamic as he is on the team.

Sure, he could do more offensively, but what he contributes defensively more than makes up for it.

 

[KennyBurner]

In terms of importance to the team he is easily worth it. He is the only one capable of keeping a high tempo with his hassling off the ball and quick passing on it, especially on turnovers. Then there is the running he does to free up Matic, Pogba and the others. We would not be able to play the way we do without him.

You summed it up nicely. He is so important for us in transition. His importance is similar to a player like henderson who breaks up plays and releases it quickly to salah or mane who are fast enough to capitalize on defenders out of position. he always hassles anywhere on the pitch high or low. Against wolves his presence was missed with the huge gap in the middle. Ole also didn't help with his instruction to matic to play deep on the left.

He just needs to sort out his sloppy control on the ball and inconsistent passing.

 

[Inter Yer Nan]

Very important player and consistently one of our better performers for a while now. I’d say he’s been very good value and remains one of the harder players in the team to replace/drop.

 

[UnrelatedPsuedo]

Fred is ok but the biggest issue is he’s not a DM.

We have to pair him with McTominay or Matic. I don’t think Fred is creative enough for a #8 either. This would get exposed further I feel if Bruno wasn’t ridiculously productive.

This is how balanced midfields work.

 

[Smores]

Just shows a player shouldn't be written off early. He actually had some promising games at the start to be fair, he just needed time to settle.

 

[Rozay]

The disparity in plaudits between him and Kanté are stark. He’s at least as good for me.

 

[Withnail]

Can't argue much with any of this.

Apart from the weird we overpaid by 5m so it's not money well spent comment?

 

[UnrelatedPsuedo]

People casually ignoring the fact we always have to overpay because everyone knows we’ve got dickloads of money and no negotiating skills

Fred would have cost Spurs £10-15m less.

He’s a great little footballer. Money well spent.

 

[Withnail]

Personally, though I quite like Fred I find the caption of £47m well spent ludicrous. Cant shoot, cant pass, poor first touch....but he works hard and shows a lot of energy and commitment, so likeable but certainly no quality for the price paid. I think moving forward it is a case of McTominay OR Fred not AND, little between them and very similar in strengths and weaknesses, too similar for me to accomodate both, I would go for McTominay personally

Did you watch the game last night?

 

[Slevs]

Do I care about the fee we paid for him 3 seasons ago? feck no. More of the same please.

 

[Tom Cato]

People who are unhappy with Fred because he's not scoring a lot of goals, just don't.

Think Sergio Busquets. A player without whom prime Barcelona cannot properly function. Fred is of course nowhere near as good as prime Busquets, maybe 3 players in world football have been in that position, but for the sake of team comparison.

Manchester United is a different team without Fred on the pitch. He's been a phenomenal buy.

 

[Counterfactual]

People casually ignoring the fact we always have to overpay because everyone knows we’ve got dickloads of money and no negotiating skills

Fred would have cost Spurs £10-15m less.

He’s a great little footballer. Money well spent.

Exactly my thoughts.

People bash Fred for the fee (£52 million? He should be better!)
People bash AWB for the fee (£50 mill? He should be better!)
People bash Maguire for the fee (£80 mill? He should be better!)
People bash Pogba for the fee (£90 mill? He should be better!)

We spray money around like a firehose because we're pretty inept at transfers, but that's not the players' fault.

 

[Matt851]

People who are unhappy with Fred because he's not scoring a lot of goals, just don't.

Think Sergio Busquets. A player without whom prime Barcelona cannot properly function. Fred is of course nowhere near as good as prime Busquets, maybe 3 players in world football have been in that position, but for the sake of team comparison.

Manchester United is a different team without Fred on the pitch. He's been a phenomenal buy.

Surely no one is unhappy with fred because of the lack of goals. I think the issue would be the regularity with which he fails to make 5 yard passes or has a heavy first touch

 

[Raoul]

Good player. No reason to invent random things to moan about given he had nothing to do with his own transfer price.

 

[Chief123]

What a player. Aside from the PSG red where we were all fuming at him, he has really come on strong since Ole’s arrival and made himself an indispensable member to the first team. So remarkably energetic, magnificent at breaking up play and this season especially, has added a real technical ability to his game. Add to that his much improved decision-making, and you have the excellent midfielder that Fred is now.

So far, he’s been one of our players of the season. Imo, it’s fair to say by now that the £52m we shelled out for him was inspired business.

Brilliant player and came good in the end. One of the first names on the team sheet in big games. So important to how we play. Especially for the transition into a counter attack.

 

[el3mel]

He's our best CM period. He has improved a lot since his first season it's fantastic to watch. Back then the price looked ridiculous but now it's been a success of a signing.

 

[Chief123]

Pleased with his recent form. But for £52M, no I wanted more.

Have you seen the players that go for £50m+ nowadays? Stones, Richarlison, Siggurdson, Pepe (£72m), Rodri (£62m), Kepa (£72m), Di Maria (£62m)

None of them are as important or have the same influence on their team as Fred. Rather than price tag, we should look at what they bring to a team.

 

[Giggsy13]

Fred sets the tone with his work rate and has been massive in big games for us. If he can add in a few goals now and then even better. He did struggle near the end of the Villa game though I think that is simply fatigue.

 

[MikeeMike]

Good player growing into a better one. Needs to give the ball away fewer times.

By far his most frustrating flaw. Versus Villa he had a spell just constantly giving ball away or poor touch.
I am not a big fan as I cant understand why he cant be coached / understand to read the game more and stop ball watching.
I re watched games and so often he is just marking empty space. Has developed a great engine but needs more focus.
Hoping he can get to a consistant level and not sporadic “great” games.

 

[RashyForPM]

Brilliant player and came good in the end. One of the first names on the team sheet in big games. So important to how we play. Especially for the transition into a counter attack.

Yep. In bigger games, he seems to actually step his hustle and bustle and technique up a notch. Fantastic midfielder.

 

[keithsingleton]

What a player. Aside from the PSG red where we were all fuming at him, he has really come on strong since Ole’s arrival and made himself an indispensable member to the first team. So remarkably energetic, magnificent at breaking up play and this season especially, has added a real technical ability to his game. Add to that his much improved decision-making, and you have the excellent midfielder that Fred is now.

So far, he’s been one of our players of the season. Imo, it’s fair to say by now that the £52m we shelled out for him was inspired business.

Sadly I disagree, he has his moments and certainly not one of our best players. Id have no complaints if he went in the next two windows or have him as a decent sub. He defiantly lacks consistency though.

 

[SAFMUTD]

He’s been very good since last season, very consistent. Just unlucky being dropped due to lockdown. This season being nominated in our POTM 3x (October, November & December). However, his role is not match winner or playmaking midfielder, any Midfielder who is not match winner or playmaking is not worth more than 50m in my opinion, more of a support role. 40m-45m worth player at best. However, we actually spent 47m on him not 52m so I would force it and say alright it’s well spent.

Totally agree, he's a good CDM, but for 50M+ we should expect some worldclass CDM someone like Casemiro or Kimmich.

Not his fault though even in Ukraine they were surprised we were willing to pay that much for him.

 

[bond19821982]

One of our most important player but not worth the fee we paid. We overpaid.

 

[SAFMUTD]

For me he looks a bargain now, no decent CM in the PL would go for less than that now. McGinn for example, I thought he was fantastic yesterday, if we went in for him we’d end up paying more than that I reckon.

No way McGinn is worth more than 30-35M, nevermind 50M. He's on a good spell but I can't imagine anyone paying over that.

 

[afrocentricity]

No pleasing some on here.

Fred has been a very good acquisition from the club.

Are you surprised though? Honestly, it's tedious...

 

[TheReligion]

I honestly think Jose refused to play him as a way of attacking the board for not giving him an extra 80 million to sign Maguire. A little Jose petulant trick 'If you don't give me what I want, then I'm gonna cause a bit of trouble.'

People can say he took a year to settle in, but I think he just needed a run of 10 dodgy games in the team to bed in which Ole gave him, before finding his rhythm.

People saying we overpaid for him are wrong... There's been a ton of flops bought for around 35 to 40m in recent years.

Danny Drinkwater - 35m
Granit Xhaka - 35m.
Oxlade-Chamberlain - 35m
Bakayoko - 40m

What about Keita at £60+m

 

[RashyForPM]

Sadly I disagree, he has his moments and certainly not one of our best players. Id have no complaints if he went in the next two windows or have him as a decent sub. He defiantly lacks consistency though.

You wouldn’t mind him going? He’s a class midfielder. He provides energy and defensive nous to a level that no one else in our midfield can, and has a technical ability that only Pogba can trump in that CM area. He is indispensable and even for next season, I believe his place in our XI is more than safe. It’ll be McTominay who has to vacate that area should reinforcements come in.

 

[Maticmaker]

Fred gives us a boost in midfield energy and getting about the pitch, but he still gives away (for me) more balls in dangerous positions from poor passing than any other player. I would say he is in the Ju-Sung Park category, but currently without Parks goal contribution. Saw a much better player, McGinn, in his position last night. Fred has developed some sort of understanding with McTominay and as a pair they can be effective, but that pairing takes away other possibilities in midfield, which Ole has to balance and seems to be doing better at just recently.

 

[Leftback99]

Not a bargain but in comparison to the multi millions spent on others under LVG, Moyes and Mourinho we're getting a good return.