Even if he keeps this level of performance up and does not improve - he is better than Herrera as a player trying to keep a tempo to our game.
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik and Imran hold a long overdue conversation about United's awful league form with 1 win in 7. They discuss a disappointing draw at Bournemouth, a not so disappointing draw against Liverpool and a crushing defeat at Chelsea - Is time nearly over for Erik Ten Hag?
Then in a special second half of the pod, Nik welcomes Natalie ( https://twitter.com/natalie_17) to discuss the fortunes of Manchester United Women as they booked a place in the FA Cup Final after a historic first ever win vs. Chelsea.
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And who were Fred's midfield partners today? You can't criticise Fred for the midfield being open when he the only player doing anything in there. Mata, Lingard, and Pogba offer absolutely nothing to a midfield battle.
If Ole thinks we were too open then he should try not playing a single midfielder who isn't even a defensive midfielder.
I thought he did ok. With more games hopefully he will do better.
Easily one of the best players today.
Easily one of the best players today.
Totally on point.
You can, to some extent, say that. I agree that nobody in this team played at 6/10 or above level today. However, when Ryan Giggs and John 'f'n' O'Shea were our centre midfield we looked much better than we did today.
With this squad its always someone else's fault. Where's the leadership? Take Fred out of this team and put Michael Carrick in and the whole thing would've looked massively different. I'd like to believe one day Fred will be that level. Not seeing it.
Thought he was our best player today.
Played well, looks more comfortable now.
My motm aswell
Fred was the only player who played well today. And that’s a fact.
Michael Carrick played with world class strikers like Rooney, Van Persie etc and wingers that could cross a ball. Pointless comparison.
No, i also thought he wasn't as good today as people on here believe he was. It's just that the others had shockers (except De Gea) what makes his decent performance look great. And Ole wasn't on his best day either with his selections.
He was our best passer (51/56 with 70 touches), so, despite the error you mentioned, he didn't give the ball away much (at least not as much as his teammates). But i thought there wasn't much purposefulness in his passing either. Did it instil calmness and control? Did it help us dominate the centre of the park? I don't think it did. Not entirely his fault, imho. Tactically, he's not the best player to have next to Pogba in a two-man midfield. Pogba's positioning is quite erratic and he always wants to play the difficult pass. So, a more disciplined player, both positionally and in his passing ability, would feel a more appropriate choice.
He gets the nod because Matic looks like a wreck nowadays and Herrera is pathetic in possession during the first phase of attacking transitions but high energy levels aren't the be all end all in the midfield battle. There were too many times when he left his position and surged forward to close down a player all alone, he was nullified by a simple pass and then we had WHU players attacking the space he left behind him. Add to this that for some strange reason, our attacking players (whoever plays there) do minimal tracking back under Ole and you understand why WHU had so many spaces to exploit
On the other hand, he worked his socks off and he looked like he gave a damn. You have to give him that.
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He was good today, long may it continue
One or two sloppy moments but overall a decent performance.
Played well. Miles better than our world class midfield maestro.
I know he's on a stack load of cash etc, etc but it can't be easy for any individual knowing they are not doing well in their job and are being heavily criticised from all quarters.
Therefore purely from a personal point of view I'm generally glad the lad is starting to fit in and deliver. Not only a relief for the fans but him too. Sometimes I think we forget these superstars on mega money are human too.
Therefore purely from a personal point of view I'm generally glad the lad is starting to fit in and deliver. Not only a relief for the fans but him too. Sometimes I think we forget these superstars on mega money are human too.
good game from Fred. Must be tired from his performance on Wednesday. We'll need the same level from him, so hope he's got some left in the tank. He pretty much was running the midfield himself.
One of the few players today who took the responsbility. I like his attitude. Even if makes a mistake he will make up for it.
Pretty good . Can see why Pep was interested . The very pass and move kind of guy. Sadly, Pogba is not his best partner.
Thought he was pretty decent too. Hopefully he really cracks on from here into next season and it's not yet another player that never grows.
Would like to see a McT-Fred and sell Pogber
(not because I don't like Paul, but because he would be worth too much money and ability to reinforce many positions, while he's a bit expendible imo)
(not because I don't like Paul, but because he would be worth too much money and ability to reinforce many positions, while he's a bit expendible imo)
He might just make it here. Good to see.
A few sloppy moment but he did well today. His level of dictating tempo and passing are much higher than Matic & Herrera in that no 6 role. I was complaining about it during Jose’s first season when he used Herrera in that role and Matic since his Chelsea era. Finally a no 6 who can make decent passes since Carrick took the role.
MOTM for me.
I just hope he will keep it up and he'll deserve a starting spot next season.
I just hope he will keep it up and he'll deserve a starting spot next season.
Our best player today. The only one knitting the play in the midfield for us while our supposed maestro was nowhere to be found.
He's definitely not a holding midfielder. His defensive works look good but his defensive anticipation and awareness (reading of the play) isn't the best for the role, especially with foraging Pogba who probably thought he could do whatever he likes, now that the midfield has a maestro in the mould of Pirlo/Marchiso (Fred isn't as good as Pirlo) to progress the play and there was no need for him to drop deep to provide option like he would do if Herrera was playing. If at all Fred is to be deployed deep, he should operate in a 3-man midfield such as the Barca game, where both Pogba and MCTominay provided lots of options for him in the midfield.
If we could get a playmaking no 6 in the summer, we could have a 3-man midfield of:
Mctominay - A playmaking no 6 - Fred/Pogba.
He's definitely not a holding midfielder. His defensive works look good but his defensive anticipation and awareness (reading of the play) isn't the best for the role, especially with foraging Pogba who probably thought he could do whatever he likes, now that the midfield has a maestro in the mould of Pirlo/Marchiso (Fred isn't as good as Pirlo) to progress the play and there was no need for him to drop deep to provide option like he would do if Herrera was playing. If at all Fred is to be deployed deep, he should operate in a 3-man midfield such as the Barca game, where both Pogba and MCTominay provided lots of options for him in the midfield.
If we could get a playmaking no 6 in the summer, we could have a 3-man midfield of:
Mctominay - A playmaking no 6 - Fred/Pogba.
Giggs and O'Shea aren't one person are they? So what relevance does that have to someone playing in midfield by themselves? None. Put O'Shea out there next to him and things would look different because one player can't be an entire midfield by himself.
When you're playing in midfield by yourself then yes of course it's someone else's fault because why the feck is he playing midfield alone? No, put Carrick in and we'd continue to be overrun in midfield because he wasn't capable of running entire midfields by himself either. It isn't possible for a single player to cover that much space.
Been playing very well recently, good for him. The signs were there that he just needed a run in the team to build his confidence/match sharpness.
Not sure what you are aiming at but I have never made that argument for any of those. However, I really like what I am seeing in Fred. I think he's quite clever and has finesse.
Best player on the pitch today. Was difficult for him basically playing on his own in midfield, we need our players to move and show and we need a Mcfredinay midfield to have better control.
This is incorrect. The quality of teams since those days have vastly improved. A midfield of ryan giggs and john oshea today in the league will be massacred.
So any other midfielder plays well and it's reason to sell Pogba? Feck me, is this what it's like to be a Madrid fan constantly pissing on your players out of some entitlement trip?
Players like fred are the key to how we want to build our team going forward. Technical players have always been yhe standard at the top and fred has lots of it. Ofcourse he needed a little time given the physicality of our league but today you can tell he was less sloppy of the ball and offered more mobility. I'm glad ole has started playing him more and although the team is still under performing statistically we will soon get there.
Another quality performance. Ole set out to play attacking football today and with none of our attackers at the races he and Pogba had it all to do in midfield.
Loving his form of late. Long may it continue.
Loving his form of late. Long may it continue.
The same posters wanted to get rid of Pogba last season after watching a 5 minute video of Milinkovic Savic on Youtube.
Stats aside, I don't see him being anything more than a squad player, at best. He gives the ball away too easily at times; United players don't do that.
He needs to start for the rest of the season now. He's looking half a footballer now, I'm sure the sloppy mistakes will iron themselves as he gets more games under his belt.
Must be watching a different match.Glad he seems to be coming good at the moment. Looked very talented from day dot but one of those players who hasn’t quite mastered controlling it all into something effective.
His pitch coverage today was insane. He also gives us a lot of forward momentum.
Issue remains that he’s too gung ho to be relied upon as sole DM in EPL imo so we need another B2B there with him or a specialist CDM. That creates a separate issue which is as good as Fred has been recently - not quite sure he’s a game controlling sort of mid (he’s more of an all rounder who does a bit of everything) so how would we get in a Ruben Neves style mid unless we gamble on Fred as the CDM?
It’s tough to see how Ole will go about solving this midfield conundrum. McTominay recent development as well has thrown an interesting spanner in the work in terms of summer recruitment.
If Pogba goes I’d go for Felix\Fernandes/Coutinho/Grealish for that AM role, get in Rice for the CDM role. Let Fred and McTominay battle it out for the b2b role unless you can grab a Thiago/Kroos/Modric/Neves.
First thing is to reconstruct that midfield - inject energy and discipline in it first. Have people who can cover ground, and pass the ball mostly forward and retain it with ease - be competive in every game. That will stand this United side in good stead.. for too long we have been leggy as feck.
He shown in the past with limited appearances he's got good ability. Linked up well with Pogba for super goal earlier on this season but was then left out by Jose.
I'd start him for the remaining games.
I'd start him for the remaining games.
He needs a solid DM behind him but I've come to enjoy his ball control and forward passing. Really helps with building momentum for the next attack.
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