You can read all the stats you want, Fred shitness cannot be translated into numbers. Any stats for shit control and shitty pass ?
It seems more than a bit difficult for some to look beyond the latest scapegoat. At some point it was Shaw and Maguire, now everyone regard them as some of our best the moment narratives started changing. Fred seems to be the new one now, and that quite a few put McTominay above him says everything really.
Fred does more defensive work among the two and also more work on the ball, and is so much better at the latter, but is the worse because he is the one on everyone's lips!
Fred does have the occasional horrible games where his bottom level is in full display, but it is difficult to believe that many who have watched him over the course of his time here still can't see his quality as a central midfielder and want he brings to the team. Look beyond the occasional errors and you'd see it. There aren't many midfielders in the Premier League that to the level he does, combine his workrate and proficiency in defense with his control and incision with the ball.
The thread title could be right about his partnership with McTominay, but if you look at them in isolation, you'd see that Fred is among the best, and McTominay among the worst, at least the last time I checked. That obviously makes McTominay the weaker of the partnership, but then Fred is the other part, and everyone is talking about Fred, so let's talk about Fred too!
Fred has made big errors this season, and it is easy to get caught in the shitshow, but I prefer to look at the net impact of players, and I'd say Fred has been a net positive. Im not going to go into stats as that has been done already, and unsuprisingly, got ignored, but I don't think he has been much worse than those quality midfielders, the likes of Ward-Prowse, Luiz and other midfielders that has been mentioned in this thread.
Ndidi, Kante, Rice, Phillips, Jorginho, Kovacic, Wijnaldum, Thiago, Tielemans, I ran out of names pretty fast. None of those midfielders have as much responsibility as he does, and neither do they play with a partner as ineffective as McTominay in both phases of the midfield game, and even with that, I'm sure he'd still compare favourably with them.
For what it is worth, this is a full-fledge defense of Fred. I have probably done a horrible job, but i rate him as a midfielder and it is difficult for him to be consistent when he plays with a partner that doesn't get involved when we have the ball, and doesn't do much defensive work either. The Premier League probably doesn't have the best midfielders around, but he has been one of the best these season imo, at least one of the best at combining both, and I think we'd be so much better if we get him a better partner.