[rooney2009]

I can’t believe he didn’t start on Thursday and Today even
Eriksen is not fit yet and does not bring the energy in big games

 

[Andycoleno9]

Brighton found it a lot harder to play through the middle. I don’t know why he’s played such sporadic minutes when our midfield has been so porous recently

It is weird. As soon as McT got fit, he replaced Fred. After that Eth did all sort of combos with Bruno, Sabi, McT and Eriksen. All without Fred.

 

[Tony247]

Excellent game today. Controlled the midfield and very good defensively. We became better with him.

 

[Borys]

I keep repeating he should play more but he's clearly out of favour with the Gaffer for whatever reason.

 

[Tony247]

I can’t believe he didn’t start on Thursday and Today even
Eriksen is not fit yet and does not bring the energy in big games

With Eriksen you have creativity. Fred is an anchor. To rest Eriksen we need someone of similar profile.

 

[Borys]

With Eriksen you have creativity. Fred is an anchor. To rest Eriksen we need someone of similar profile.

With Fred we get more turnovers which is what you want if you setup to play on the counter. I believe Fred was the better option to start all things considered.
I am not sure if we'll be looking for Eriksen type of midfielder tbh.

 

[MadDogg]

It is weird. As soon as McT got fit, he replaced Fred. After that Eth did all sort of combos with Bruno, Sabi, McT and Eriksen. All without Fred.

Scott is Casemiro's replacement. He only played because it was Casemiro who was out. Then ETH ended up moving Bruno back into midfield to get extra creativity there while both Eriksen and Casemiro were out, which actually worked surprisingly well in a couple of games. That has the knock-on effect of Sabitzer getting the nod in the now vacant #10 role.

I don't think Fred really dropped down the pecking order too much, it's just that the open spots were either in the #6 or #10 roles which ETH doesn't use him in. The problem for Fred is that ETH now sees Bruno as an option in the #8 role. In some of those games it worked well. In some it didn't. Personally I'm not a fan of it unless we're against a weak team who doesn't play with much intensity, but that seemed to be ETH's thinking over the last month or two.

 

[Mickeza]

Honestly have no idea where he’s been. Our press first half was mind boggling bad - it was outstanding second half when he came on:

Tweet

— Twitter API (@user) date

 

[Lyng]

With Fred we get more turnovers which is what you want if you setup to play on the counter. I believe Fred was the better option to start all things considered.
I am not sure if we'll be looking for Eriksen type of midfielder tbh.

No but we need a deep lying play maker. Something Fred is absolutely not. He is good when playing on the counter. That should not be our end goal.

 

[Borys]

No but we need a deep lying play maker. Something Fred is absolutely not. He is good when playing on the counter. That should not be our end goal.

We were clearly set up to play on the counter yesterday, wouldn't you agree?

Regarding deep lying playmaker - I am not sure if that is what we need, I always thought DLP is like Pirlo/Veratti/Alonso kind of player, while I think we need more someone who can drive the ball from defense to forwards under pressure.

Casemiro already has some DLP skills, I don't think we are getting any better player at that, and I don't think we really need this. What we need is Caicedo kind of player, press-resistant, good passing ability, defensive capability and loads of energy.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

No but we need a deep lying play maker. Something Fred is absolutely not. He is good when playing on the counter. That should not be our end goal.

While I agree with that, we aren’t at the end goal right now. He’s a better Cm than Sabitzer and McTominay anyday and also better than Eriksen for certain games

 

[Lyng]

We were clearly set up to play on the counter yesterday, wouldn't you agree?

Regarding deep lying playmaker - I am not sure if that is what we need, I always thought DLP is like Pirlo/Veratti/Alonso kind of player, while I think we need more someone who can drive the ball from defense to forwards under pressure.

Yes we where and it was the correct decisions given our current squad.

Yes but a ideally we need someone with a great pass, great press resistance and able to drive the ball forward. Which is why we have hunted De Jong for so long. He is the ideal midfielder for us.

 

[Lyng]

While I agree with that, we aren’t at the end goal right now. He’s a better Cm than Sabitzer and McTominay anyday and also better than Eriksen for certain games

I agree. We need a clear upgrade on all of them.

 

[justboy68]

I'm wondering if he's already arranged a move away or something. So Ten Hag is giving others who might be staying the nod over him. Seems a bit strange otherwise.

 

[Cassidy]

Strange hes not been in the team

 

[Borys]

Yes we where and it was the correct decisions given our current squad.

Yes but a ideally we need someone with a great pass, great press resistance and able to drive the ball forward. Which is why we have hunted De Jong for so long. He is the ideal midfielder for us.

I don't get it. You said Fred would be a better choice if we play counter attack, which we did yesterday, and then said going for Eriksen was the right choice?

Regarding the second part of the sentence, this is obviously true, as almost every club would take De Jong as he's world class in that playmaking role. But this is still a dream which is most likely not hapenning. This is irrelevant really because Ten Hag needs to work with what he has and not talk all year about what would've hapenned if we got De Jong. Eriksen isn't even that kind of player therefore it's a totally different discussion we're having.

 

[Lyng]

I don't get it. You said Fred would be a better choice if we play counter attack, which we did yesterday, and then said going for Eriksen was the right choice?

Regarding the second part of the sentence, this is obviously true, as almost every club would take De Jong as he's world class in that playmaking role. But this is still a dream which is most likely not hapenning. This is irrelevant really because Ten Hag needs to work with what he has and not talk all year about what would've hapenned if we got De Jong. Eriksen isn't even that kind of player therefore it's a totally different discussion we're having.

No what i meant was changing to Fred was the correct choice for that match.
But I dont see Fred as a first 11 player if we are supposed to challenge for the title.
Neither is Eriksen to be fair.

 

[Berbasbullet]

I'm wondering if he's already arranged a move away or something. So Ten Hag is giving others who might be staying the nod over him. Seems a bit strange otherwise.

Could be some truth in this.

 

[Borys]

No what i meant was changing to Fred was the correct choice for that match.
But I dont see Fred as a first 11 player if we are supposed to challenge for the title.
Neither is Eriksen to be fair.

Fully agreed here.

I agree. We need a clear upgrade on all of them.

Depends on how you view all of our midfielders.
Eriksen and Fred are very good quality squad players. What we need is first team midfielder to compliment Casemiro in midfield and I hope this is not another AM. Another player we definitely need is Casemiro backup.
McTominay and Sabitzer are surplus stop-gap players, and once we get the balance right in midfield, they won't be needed anymore.

 

[Lyng]

Depends on how you view all of our midfielders.
Eriksen and Fred are very good quality squad players. What we need is first team midfielder to compliment Casemiro in midfield and I hope this is not another AM. Another player we definitely need is Casemiro backup.
McTominay and Sabitzer are surplus stop-gap players, and once we get the balance right in midfield, they won't be needed anymore.

Yes I agree completely with that.

 

[MadDogg]

No but we need a deep lying play maker. Something Fred is absolutely not. He is good when playing on the counter. That should not be our end goal.

Long term we certainly should be looking to sign someone who is capable of bringing the best of both worlds, but for now we need to be a bit smarter with how we rotate Eriksen and Fred in that role next to Casemiro. Firstly because Eriksen shouldn't be expected to play every match (before his injury he'd been in very average form for a month or two and looked exhausted), and secondly because Fred is more suited to some games.

 

[Shimo]

I felt early on ETH really trusted him but, has really fallen off. Can understand that ETH was maybe thinking that a combination of Casemiro/Eriksen/Bruno would control midfield but, Case has been really timid since he has been back and all season he does this dawdle bit on the ball and gets it nicked and in Eriksen, even before his injury, unless it's a game we are controlling well, he can't keep up with the defensive side of the game.

For the most part he has performed well when called upon, so not sure why he has fallen so far down the pecking order.

Think Fred needs to start against Spurs - it's a must win for them and they will be at it, so let Fred help disrupt and press, let Eriksen come on once they are a little more tired and pace would more suit him.

 

[top1whoisman]

I admire him for being brave enough to go on the podcast and doing it in English. Such a lovely guy.

Tweet

— Twitter API (@user) date

 

[MADReaLJL]

Improved the athleticism in the midfield when he came in, made it better for us. But he takes too many touches on the ball. If only he can control the ball better...

 

[chris123]

Dreadful today.

 

[IrishRedDevil]

Dog shit.

 

[DevTheRed]

Get rid.

 

[Based Adnan]

Been obvious for 5 years he's not up to standard

 

[arnie_ni]

One of the worst cameos I've ever seen

 

[Ekeke]

Historically poor performance.
Eric Djemba Djemba would have been disgusted by that effort

 

[Josh 76]

One of the worst cameos I've ever seen

I’ve seen a few from him

 

[ha_rooney]

The day he leaves the club will be a good day

 

[Marcelinho87]

Poor.

The hyperbole will go off the charts here though.

 

[spiriticon]

That might be the first 0/10 performance which I genuinely don't think is an exaggeration. Staggering.

 

[NinjaZombie]

Can he feck off already? Came on and actively hurt our chances with his braindead sloppiness.

 

[MDFC Manager]

One of the worst cameos I've ever seen

Yup. Had no clue what his role was and did literally nothing useful

 

[AjaxCunian]

Wish to never see him play again. Some will act as if it is a one-off, genuinely one of the worst midfielders and players in the league.

 

[MyOnlySolskjaer]

Get rid as soon as possible.

 

[VeevaVee]

Insanely shit

 

[Stadjer]

He has been good when coming on as a sub quite a few times this season.... but whatever he was doing today? No idea...