Fred has a great shot on him and will start scoring more eventually

Sandikan

aka sex on the beach
Joined
Mar 14, 2011
Messages
52,710
Yep, I can definitely see him scoring more...than his current zero.
 

Mike Smalling

Full Member
Joined
Jan 27, 2018
Messages
10,464
His shooting is very erratic for sure, but he does have the ability to hit them cleanly once in a while. Case in point his strike that hit the bar against Astana.


The worst aspect of his shooting seems to be his decision making. He often takes shots at awkward angles, when the ball is dropping, etc., which never really comes close to the target. If we were better at moving the ball quickly to create the space for shooting and he could sort out his decision making, I'm sure he could add some goals to his game.
 

Lentwood

Full Member
Joined
Jan 2, 2015
Messages
6,783
Location
West Didsbury, Manchester
I've literally never seen a player as bad at shooting as Fred. Even the likes of Phil Neville scored a couple of screamers in his time. Fred is absolutely atrocious and if I were Ole I'd be saying if I catch you even attempting to be shoot I'll be hauling you straight off!
 

spiriticon

Full Member
Joined
Feb 3, 2013
Messages
7,384
I know this is Sunday League type advice but...

'Just bloody keep it down, lad'
 

limerickcitykid

There once was a kid from Toronto...
Joined
Oct 3, 2012
Messages
14,051
Location
East end / Oot and aboot
Scores a load in an easier league with more time on the ball and more opportunities to take those shots on. This is the same danger we'll have with Bruno. If they start missing a few the crowd starts to groan and the pressure grows on them every time they take a shot on.
Where? Because he didn’t score a load in Ukraine anyways 14 goals in 155 appearances is barely average let alone a load.
 

Annihilate Now!

...or later, I'm not fussy
Scout
Joined
Nov 4, 2010
Messages
49,674
Location
W.Yorks
I'll echo what others say about him, he's really bad at shooting. Like really, REALLY bad. It's a struggle for him to get shots on target let alone fluke a goal.

Premier League Stats (taken from Whoscored)

PlayerTotal Shots
Rashford74
Martial40
James31
Pereira29
Fred27
McTominay27
Maguire20
Lingard17
Greenwood15

How we look at the percentage of shots that were off target

PlayerShots Off Target% Shots Off Target
Fred1763.0%
Lingard635.3%
Maguire735.0%
Pereira1034.5%
Rashford2533.8%
Greenwood426.7%
McTominay725.9%
James825.8%
Martial615.0%
63% off target? Feck me, why has no one banned him from shooting yet?

His shooting is very erratic for sure, but he does have the ability to hit them cleanly once in a while. Case in point his strike that hit the bar against Astana.
I don't know if thats having the ability to hit it cleanly or just the fact that eventually with his wild swings one will be hit cleanly and possibly go in? So more just a law of averages thing.

His dead ball strike is very good but whenever he hits a moving ball, he seems to slice it or lean back and spoon it high and wide.
Is his dead ball strike good? His free-kicks are shit - especially the ones he shoots from.
 

Classical Mechanic

Full Member
Joined
Aug 25, 2014
Messages
35,216
Location
xG Zombie Nation
Where? Because he didn’t score a load in Ukraine anyways 14 goals in 155 appearances is barely average let alone a load.
Sorry squire, I was assuming that he was a cold eyed assassin in Ukraine from the tone of the thread title only to find that his record was modest latterly.

63% off target? Feck me, why has no one banned him from shooting yet?



I don't know if thats having the ability to hit it cleanly or just the fact that eventually with his wild swings one will be hit cleanly and possibly go in? So more just a law of averages thing.



Is his dead ball strike good? His free-kicks are shit - especially the ones he shoots from.
Bruno Fernandes's accuracy has only been 42% in Portugal this season.
 

Marcus

Full Member
Joined
Oct 3, 1999
Messages
6,085
@kouroux and I were discussing this and he disagrees with me that he has good technique. I think he has a wicked shot on him but is lacking confidence. He doesn't need much lift to generate a lot of power. To me he seems like a confidence player. After the first one goes in we will start scoring a lot more.

What do you all think? Seems like I'm in the minority since most tell me he's crap at it.
I fully agree.
 

Canagel

Full Member
Joined
May 26, 2016
Messages
13,888
No big deal either way. If he scores good, if not there are far more important things for a centre midfielder to be excelling at.
 

Apokalips

Full Member
Joined
Dec 10, 2013
Messages
844
Fred is not great technically, I think some of us have gotten carried away because he's gone from completely useless to being serviceable. He is very loose and erratic with both his passing and shooting, especially if it's being done at pace. He has had a few shots look decently close, but defensive midfielders like Matic have scored absolute bangers in their careers and are not considered great shooters. A great shot every once in a while is not evidence of anything other than getting lucky and I'd be shocked if Fred has ever been a goal scorer.
 

Redplane

( . Y . ) planned for Christmas
Joined
Sep 4, 2013
Messages
10,222
Location
The Royal Kingdom of Trumpistan
How many mids are there these days who have a consistently great shot? Seems like the days of Sneijder, Scholes, Gerard, Lampard, Pirlo etc are kind of gone.
 
Last edited:

MackRobinson

New Member
Joined
Dec 30, 2017
Messages
5,134
Location
Terminal D
Supports
Football
How many mids are there these days who have a consistently great shot? Seems like the days of Sneijder, Gerard, Lampard, Pirlo etc are kind of gone.
Xhaka, Neves, Ox, and Pogba in the PL. Lower profile of players though
 

tjb

Full Member
Joined
Sep 6, 2013
Messages
3,309
Fred's technique may be good but he has poor balance on the ball which means that he's always fighting against gravity to get the shot off. It's the same reason why despite his energy, he does not win tackles. He runs around, getting close to the offensive player on the ball, but can't get the tackle in because he can't get his balance right quickly enough to perform the tackle. I like Fred, he's useful. He has good energy, decent passing and can play in both the 6 and no.8 position. But he's not a starting level player for us. Would make an awesome third choice however.
 

tjb

Full Member
Joined
Sep 6, 2013
Messages
3,309
Comments like this..really man?

He is a professional player. If he can't shoot, he should be a barber somewhere in Brazil.
TBH sometimes he plays like that's what he should be.
 

Teja

Full Member
Joined
Aug 17, 2014
Messages
5,701
How hard can it be to train to have a decent (not excellent) shot? He doesn't have to be Sneijder / Lampard levels, just an average premiership midfield level of standard and he'd score a lot more.

I'm sure it's more fun to train than whatever else they get midfielders to do.
 

Marzo

Full Member
Joined
Mar 11, 2015
Messages
771
Location
South Africa
Read the title thread and thought it was an April’s Fool joke........then realized it is only January :confused:
 

Son

Full Member
Joined
Apr 24, 2019
Messages
1,688
Fred should be banned from shooting or trying anything remotely hard. Needs to keep it simple and play the supporting role.

I actually think he’s our best midfielder after Pogba due to his consistency and fitness but that’s not exactly a complement looking at our options.

Would be nice to have a first 11 midfielder who’s better on the ball than chasing it again.
 

Nevilles.Wear.Prada

Full Member
Joined
Apr 11, 2015
Messages
2,691
Location
Malaysia
Supports
JDT
How hard can it be to train to have a decent (not excellent) shot? He doesn't have to be Sneijder / Lampard levels, just an average premiership midfield level of standard and he'd score a lot more.

I'm sure it's more fun to train than whatever else they get midfielders to do.
If its that simple we would have improved our crossings in 2014!!
 

Le Red

Full Member
Joined
Jul 13, 2017
Messages
1,441
Where? Because he didn’t score a load in Ukraine anyways 14 goals in 155 appearances is barely average let alone a load.
Funny how this guy didn't have any idea what he was talking about, still he somehow managed to make some mind gimnastics to bash Bruno Fernandes, who is obviously a great shooter from distance.
Today in the Caf, I learned that a player who can't hit a barn door in the PL can become Scholes by playing in a lower league. :lol:
 

Litch

Full Member
Joined
Dec 23, 2013
Messages
10,183
The table doesn't say shots from where? All Fred's shoots are outside the box and I'm pretty sure in the prem the shot percentage on target would be around 20 - 30% from that distance anyway. I think this is just another opportunity to bash Fred by some and he's the least of our problems at the mo (rate him or not)
 

SER19

Full Member
Joined
Apr 15, 2008
Messages
12,478
If the optimism of this thread could be bottled and sold somebody would be very rich :lol:
 

Acole9

Outstanding
Joined
Feb 17, 2013
Messages
12,503
When I think of him that free kick against Arsenal comes into my head....
 

Godfather

Full Member
Joined
Feb 18, 2007
Messages
29,803
Location
Austria
He reminds me of Ando with his shooting sadly. Anderson could also strike a dead ball pretty neatly but was unable to do so when the ball was moving. Must be the shooting technique. Although Fred's dead balls are better than Anderson's.
 

VeevaVee

The worst "V"
Scout
Joined
Jan 3, 2009
Messages
46,248
Location
Manchester
The percentage isn't that bad. Gerrard (who had far better technique but still wasn't as good at shooting as made out in my opinion) is on 66% off target in the PL too. He'd just take a million shots a game but those actually on target had more chance of going in because of said technique (seriously, he's on about 500 more shots than Scholes in the PL).

What's annoying about Fred is just how bad those shots are.
 

Denis79

Full Member
Joined
Nov 2, 2014
Messages
7,752
@kouroux and I were discussing this and he disagrees with me that he has good technique. I think he has a wicked shot on him but is lacking confidence. He doesn't need much lift to generate a lot of power. To me he seems like a confidence player. After the first one goes in we will start scoring a lot more.

What do you all think? Seems like I'm in the minority since most tell me he's crap at it.
I lean towards your opinion. One thing I've noticed about Fred is that he either progressively gets better and bolder during a match or the complete opposite. I think this is a sign of a confidence player. Sadly he seldom gets in those positions to be able to get a shot of because of the way we play but I can definitely see him score a handful of goals from outside the box if we improve a bit. My problem with Fred is that he has a tendency to lose/misplace balls in very dangerous areas, he really needs to improve in this area.
 

SweetRightFoot

New Member
Newbie
Joined
Aug 24, 2019
Messages
372
How many mids are there these days who have a consistently great shot? Seems like the days of Sneijder, Scholes, Gerard, Lampard, Pirlo etc are kind of gone.
Midfielders are more industrious these days, don't get the time or space to let them crack so much. Gylfi Sigurdsson comes to mind though, Grealish too. Jonjo Shelvey also and of course De Bruyne.
 

goatmeister

New Member
Newbie
Joined
Oct 29, 2019
Messages
188
Supports
PSKI
Xhaka, Neves, Ox, and Pogba in the PL. Lower profile of players though
Surely De Bruyne is top of the pack in PL. Mason Mount is also decent, there's a shade of Lampard about him.

Back to Fred, his decision making is his downfall as several posters has mentioned. He frequently picks the wrong time to hit it. Matic has better shooting than him IMO.
 

Superden

Full Member
Joined
Jul 13, 2013
Messages
2,081
What's it come too when we have a key midfielder who has precisely zero goal threat.