MEN: Fred identifies Manchester United's biggest problem this season

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The Original

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I can't believe he would say all that publicly. How is throwing your teammates under the bus going to help team unity?
 

Rajma

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He's not wrong and it's something I suspected, it makes me go crazy when I see our players accepting nonsensical calls from the refs or not stepping up for their teammates when they're are getting bullied by the opposition. Imo team/players are normally the mirror of their manager, and our manager just lacks aggressiveness and is all too nice and passive.
 

DoomSlayer

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It's quite astonishing for a player to publicly admit that a squad lacks unity and understanding. Not a good look for the players or Ole, to be honest.
 

Mainoldo

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Clearly they don’t believe in the new project/culture!!

They looked United when they had special handshakes.
 
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Not a fan of Fred, but all fair comments - aimed at Martial? Vanity. Think so.

the amount of change over the past 3-4 years is going to create a lack of team unity, that’s obvious, and anyone can see it. See nothing wrong with a player saying something every fan can see.
 

DWelbz19

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Is that *yet another* player praising Paul Pogba’s behaviour? Unprompted at that? I for one am outrageously surprised. Furiously so.
 

VP89

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Who is the vanity aimed at I wonder?
 

JPRouve

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To be fair none of what he says is surprising. We lack creativity and clearly our players don't trust/understand each others on the pitch, most of the starters can pass a ball but when they clearly refuse to do it in tight spaces there is only one conclusion they don't trust the recipient, they don't and won't take chances.
 

The Original

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Not sure going the deluded approach is any better like Ole does every press conference.

"Great strides, young squad, improving" when we look like shit.
Internal and external messaging serve different needs. The public and the press do not need this kind of info that may only increase the pressure and scrutiny that the club will come under.
 

Sky1981

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I can't believe he would say all that publicly. How is throwing your teammates under the bus going to help team unity?
This "throwing someone under the bus helps no one" myth have to die. Not everyone thrive in a "you did good, here's a 10th runner up medal". Most winners thrives in a cutthroat environment, many more flourish under such hardship. Many famous people got ridiculed before they prove everybody wrong.

If you're not man enough to be criticized for playing like a drunk then you don't have that winner mentality.

Critics can be good, constantly patting everyone in the back for doing a shit job is equally bad in the long run.
 

Samid

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Pathetic how Pogba has bribed all his teammates to say good things about him. Get him out of here.
 

AaronRedDevil

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Had the same assumptions. Sometimes saying it like this is better. Every match for a long while now feels like 11 individuals are playing. Like the team doesn’t know how to play football or even has a plan. Feels like they do care about the squad but aren’t really being bullish about it. Every bad call a ref makes, they just carry on without complaining, funny enough De Gea is the only one who does that. Their attacking plan is too simple and too easy to stop.
 

JPRouve

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This "throwing someone under the bus helps no one" myth have to die. Not everyone thrive in a "you did good, here's a 10th runner up medal". Most winners thrives in a cutthroat environment, many more flourish under such hardship. Many famous people got ridiculed before they prove everybody wrong.

If you're not man enough to be criticized for playing like a drunk then you don't have that winner mentality.

Critics can be good, constantly patting everyone in the back for doing a shit job is equally bad in the long run.
And nothing says that he didn't tell his teammates the exact same thing behind the scene.
 

DoomSlayer

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Can we assume that little groups in the squad are still prevalent and that's what Fred is talking about when saying they pull in different directions?

This is the sort of scenario that requires a strong and vocal captain. Not sure Maguire is that guy, but we need someone to get the whole group on the same page. Hearing so many stories about Sir Alex's squads, it's obvious how vital the captains were to act inside the squad and provide what the manager doesn't.
 

JPRouve

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Can we assume that little groups in the squad are still prevalent and that's what Fred is talking about when saying they pull in different directions?

This is the sort of scenario that requires a strong and vocal captain. Not sure Maguire is that guy, but we need someone to get the whole group on the same page. Hearing so many stories about Sir Alex's squads, it's obvious how vital the captains were to act inside the squad and provide what the manager doesn't.
I think that some players don't care much about winning, they are not necessarily bad apples but they simply have no experience of winning and don't have the taste for it.
 

jamesjimmybyrondean

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I always thought it was a bit weird when people say Ole is keeping the moral high even though or performance and results have been shit
 

Black Adder

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Finally someone to tell it as it is, without all that everything is fine shit Ole serves week in week out.
 

Pexbo

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Wonder how Ole's fanatics will spin this
To be fair to Ole, I don’t think this is anything new. We’ve had cliques in the squad forever the only difference is that now we’re no longer successful it’s pointed to as a cause for our woes.

That ridiculously successful Real Madrid side was famously plagued with factions but they also knew how to play football so it didn’t matter.
 

Sandikan

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As they managed to write Mnu Utd at the start, i dare say they've totally mugged Fred too.
 

VeevaVee

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Pretty damning and unsurprising. It’s a really tough thing to sort out as well. Don’t think you can do it without changing a lot of personnel
 

NinjaZombie

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Not a fan of Fred, but all fair comments - aimed at Martial? Vanity. Think so.

the amount of change over the past 3-4 years is going to create a lack of team unity, that’s obvious, and anyone can see it. See nothing wrong with a player saying something every fan can see.
I like Martial. I think he's very talented and some of the goals he scores are absolute worldies but I've had mixed feelings about him ever since the stories of him being upset and hurt that Zlatan took his number 9 from him.

Such a childish thing to get upset about.
 

Cassidy

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Who is the vanity aimed at I wonder?
Sounds like hes speaking about a player or
players who tries to do things by himself and not trust teammates.

Rashford is one the other could be Maguire could be a few other candidates also.
 

JPRouve

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Pretty damning and unsurprising. It’s a really tough thing to sort out as well. Don’t think you can do it without changing a lot of personnel
You can do it by bringing winners or natural leaders, I'm not talking about bullies or the barking type but simply players that have won and now what it takes. You also need player that are actually good at bringing people together, I personally didn't like the few articles that we saw this week about Ibrahimovic because from what I understand he has never really been the type of player that creates the correct environment, at PSG the likes of Maxwell, Zoumana Camara and Thiago Motta were labelled as the actually leaders while Zlatan was more the type of player that you watch, you look at how he trains and try to mirror it, he can be a positive influence but not by his interactions with other players.
 

JPRouve

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I like Martial. I think he's very talented and some of the goals he scores are absolute worldies but I've had mixed feelings about him ever since the stories of him being upset and hurt that Zlatan took his number 9 from him.

Such a childish thing to get upset about.
It's not childish and people are making a bigger deal of it than it was. The issue was the way they did without telling him beforehand which is a simple matter of politeness.
 

Maticmaker

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"there are players that just want to solve problems alone and this is wrong"... who and/ or what sort of problems do we think Fred is referring to with this comment (assuming accurate translation..)?

Some examples, maybe:

Quickly taken free kicks...when the player playing the ball and the player receiving the ball are clearly not on the same wavelength?
Set plays generally, but corner kicks in particular... very predictable and/or poor completion rate?
Ability to press as a team... who is involved, how far back in our line up does supportive movement need to take place, and/ or when does it drop off and how do we cover the break-out space?
Players who are only prepared to get actively involved... when its 'ball to feet'?
Failure to exploit offside rule at throw ins … in the final third of the pitch?
Why can't all defenders tackle....
as efficiently as AWB?
'Sacrifice of self'....How, and/or when is this required in our general play?
.... and many more?
 

The Original

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This "throwing someone under the bus helps no one" myth have to die. Not everyone thrive in a "you did good, here's a 10th runner up medal". Most winners thrives in a cutthroat environment, many more flourish under such hardship. Many famous people got ridiculed before they prove everybody wrong.

If you're not man enough to be criticized for playing like a drunk then you don't have that winner mentality.

Critics can be good, constantly patting everyone in the back for doing a shit job is equally bad in the long run.
No one says people should be patted on the back for playing badly!! But why does Fred have to go to the media to say these things? He sees these people every day! He's got their numbers! He's probably on a whatsapp group with them! Do you think his colleagues are going to appreciate this?

Coming from a player who only recently found his footing?
 

DomesticTadpole

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No one says people should be patted on the back for playing badly!! But why does Fred have to go to the media to say these things? He sees these people every day! He's got their numbers! He's probably on a whatsapp group with them! Do you think his colleagues are going to appreciate this?

Coming from a player who only recently found his footing?
Doubt he went running to the media. They will have requested an interview and he is just being honest. They don't fight enough, they are far too placid, they do need to become a team and have an understanding. They are just a bunch on players thrown on the pitch, there are very few partnerships that have been built.