So if you removed 4 things instead of 1 which is pretty equal - tackling for goals, sure.
But nobody did that because it would be stupid to even suggest it. Fred is a bit more defensive than Cleverley and Anderson, just as those stats pointed out and that I commented on where they do. They are more offensive and had more end product. Other than that not much difference.
If you compared McTominay to Cleverley and Anderson he'd score more goals as well as doing more defensively. So would a lot of DMs. Thats the point.
In the premier league alone :
All the players who have played DM and scored more than 1 goal from the position. So if we include all of the top leagues theres going to be a fair number of them. Ndidi has 1 goal for example and hes miles more defensive than Fred.
But we'll still pretend turn overs and interceptions don't exist? It speaks volumes that you do a comparison between Fred, a predominantly defensive midfielder, and other midfielders and you don't mention such an important stat, but forcus on the one or two extra goals they'd scored.
That's exactly what you're doing. It's literally there in your post.
No, he's not 'a bit more defensive.' You're trying to make out it's a marginal difference here but it's not. Just look at the language you're using here, it's ridiculous. Then you give a disproportionate amount of weight to scoring one or two more goals, while downplaying other areas. You're desperate for the numbers to work in your favour here and they really aren't. You know this.
Neville went years without a goal and it wasn't a problem because he excelled in the areas he was supposed to excel in. A defensive midfielder getting one or two goals less than his counterparts is inconsequential, particularly when their defensive contributions are that much better.
Case in point. McTominay contributes more defensively than those aforementioned players, but he still does significantly less defensively than Fred. So far this season, Fred comes off favourably in the following categories: Touches, ball recoveries, chances created, completed passes, long pass accuracy, through balls, forward passes, tackles, duels won and interceptions. There are more. But your focus are on those areas that really aren't that important for a defensive midfielder because it puts him in a bad light. It's really quite callous. These same arguments were used against Herrera (a player I know you liked very much) and ironically you're now doing the same for Fred. Fred isn't on Anders level, but he's still an excellent player who is integral to the way we play.
What you're essentially saying: let's consider this defensive midfielder but we're going to ignore the most important areas of success for a defensive midfielder, and we're going to look at the areas all defensive midfielders perform poorly in, and use that as the measuring stick.