Standards in the toilet. His "contribution" these last few weeks. Neither are good enough.
Fred is better generally by a tiny bit buts costs us more. He is good at very little and bad at a lot
Some examples.
1. Today against Liverpool. Crap in general and started the gift that was their third goal.
2. Villa himself and McTominay linking up to gift Traore a goal. Lindelof crap too but it starts from losing the ball for no reason. Fred started it by selling McTominay short and then they all fecked up.
3. One Roma's goal in the second leg. Lost the ball on the edge of our box trying to do Skill. Despite the fact he is very poor at it.
4. Leicester in the FA Cup final. Did it 3-4 times until they finally scored
I'll defend Fred and rightfully so. He's not the top of the top CMs, but for what is needed for United in a midfield two, he does more good than harm.
Yes, he's made his share of mistakes and does get caught out, but I can live with it when you look at the totality of it which is last season and this season. To that, you're gonna need a ball winner and scrappy player with decent to good passing to replace him. It's going to cost more than 40M pounds, at least.
He was undoubtedly bad today, but so was everyone else for the most part. Like unrecognizably poor. The Villa goal was them two not being on the same length but also a top class shot that you cannot take away.
United only have 4 orthodox central midfielders, all with different characteristics, but the one that functions the best for the team is Fred and McTominay. That pairing obviously has its shortcomings and it cost them today.