Again they did well in the circumstances, better than our midfield did at home with the first choice players.
But now you're saying excellent under the circumstances, whereas before it was just excellent period.
Under the circumstances? sure.
But in terms of what was being talked about, proving yourself at a high level, then I dont think that performance showed Fred was a top CM. Ander had much better big games against most of the top teams we played, he was our best big match player and did more than just break up play occasionally. He got a couple of goals and he actually made our 2nd most forward passes out of our midfield last season behind Pogba. I also looked at the PSG players in comparison because some people had a hard time understanding why they wanted him, only Veratti played more forward passes out of PSG's CMs last season.
Fred is doing fine but still has a long way to go to match Ander in terms of big games.