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

NewGlory

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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.
Public shaming is not criticism. He should say these things in the dressing room, not at some dude's dinner table with a glass of wine. If Fred really said all of this publicly, he should be disciplined. It doesn't matter whether this is true or false and is equally wrong if it is true. This is not how you fix the lack of unity, it's the opposite of it.

Y'all applauding him are just happy that your curiosity has been satisfied. Good for you, but this does not help the club, nor the unity.

Doubt he went running to the media. They will have requested an interview and he is just being honest.
This isn't "being honest". This is running his mouth and being stupid... again - if he really said all of these things.
 

Florida Man

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On one hand, I tend to agree that these comments, no matter how accurate they are, should be kept private. On the other hand, if the management and senior players actually cultivated a unified culture, we wouldn’t be having these interviews in the first place. As an aside, I really believe this mentality has a lot to do with Mourinho’s bullshit causing distrust anx division.
 

Sky1981

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Public shaming is not criticism. He should say these things in the dressing room, not at some dude's dinner table with a glass of wine. If Fred really said all of this publicly, he should be disciplined. It doesn't matter whether this is true or false and is equally wrong if it is true. This is not how you fix the lack of unity, it's the opposite of it.

Y'all applauding him are just happy that your curiosity has been satisfied. Good for you, but this does not help the club, nor the unity.



This isn't "being honest". This is running his mouth and being stupid... again - if he really said all of these things.
Is it being shamed if you're called correctly on your performance?

It's nothing personal, if you're called that you're performing like shit.

There are penalties, public penalties if you constantly underperform in your job. Kpi, bonus, targets, warnings and many other forms of punishment. If god forbid a doctor being so shit at their job they got sued.

How do you fell about ole treating us like a fool saying lingard is playing well? Wont someone thinks about how he feels?

Ps: i dont give a feck what they think. If a deserved public criticism made them sulk and quit then good riddance.

This is professional football where they're being paid millions. Not a kindergarten feel good football team. If you cant handle the heat. Dont ask for big contracts.

And dont give me talks about what happened behind closed door. Whatever ole does behind closed door definitely doesnt work, time to escalate.
 
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Bobcat

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I'm going on a rage here but I have to ask honestly. Like what the feck is wrong with our dressing room? Who the feck do they think they are? We've been gutting and rebuilding since 2013 and yet there still seems to be attitude problems.

How can the worst group of United players in 30 odd years be THAT far up their own asses and not realise it?

Let's get this straight. They are nothings. Nobodies. Not fit for purpose. It's beyond a parody.
Exactly. IF what Fred says here is true, where the feck did that attitude come from?

Players where, unhappy under Moyes, and perhaps understandably so, but they were also unhappy under LvG, and we all know they were unhappy under Jose, and they are unhappy now. Also there is a common theme here between the three managers, the players become "unhappy" when they are being criticized or when demands are being put on them

Like where does it fecking end? So say we appoint yet another manager, how long until they become "unhappy" with him as well because he dares to put demands on them
 

Bondi77

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Geez, Fred might think there is no unity because the rest of the team think he is garbage at set pieces and should be nowhere near them and he thinks he is good at taking them.
 

Adisa

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I'd be surprised if there was unity and happiness. We're fecking shit.
 

NewGlory

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Is it being shamed if you're called correctly on your performance?

It's nothing personal, if you're called that you're performing like shit.

There are penalties, public penalties if you constantly underperform in your job. Kpi, bonus, targets, warnings and many other forms of punishment. If god forbid a doctor being so shit at their job they got sued.

How do you fell about ole treating us like a fool saying lingard is playing well? Wont someone thinks about how he feels?

Ps: i dont give a feck what they think. If a deserved public criticism made them sulk and quit then good riddance.

This is professional football where they're being paid millions. Not a kindergarten feel good football team. If you cant handle the heat. Dont ask for big contracts.

And dont give me talks about what happened behind closed door. Whatever ole does behind closed door definitely doesnt work, time to escalate.
OK, but escalation ≠ unity. You want Ole out. Does Fred also want Ole out? Because in that case him publicly speaking out makes sense. Except, if Fred is waging a campaign against Ole - that is also called a rebellion. A rebellion against current manager.
 

sillwuka

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Not the best time to come out with this statement is it? He's finally got a foothold in the team, why would you jeaprodise that by infuriating the boss.

I'm all for coming out and telling it how it is but I'd rather he knuckle down and focus on improving himself.
 

Carolina Red

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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.
Well said.
 

UnitedSofa

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The point is that Ole should have done something to improve this. According to him everything is fine and rosy
He’s protecting the players in public, what you hear in public may not be the case in reality, as shown here
 

ROFLUTION

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All of the problems he adresses, could be solved with proper scouting.

We need to know/scout if the player we buy:
- Sticks up for his teammates
- puts a lot of work in
- doesnt just go straight on SoMe after a game and into his own bubble. Fellaini adressed this too. We need to take things in and get pissed about losing pts to mediocre sides. Digest the negative and psoitives it as a team. For some it's just 'meh' how is my insta. There's a "I made it" mentality at our club - Chong's ballin video after PSG reeeked of this.
- preferably is good social
- has a lot of hunger

In hindsigt Pool/City has been great at this: KdB, Mane, Salah, Sane, etc

At least some of our recent signings under Ole has looked more like ticking those boxes, so maybe we're already doing stuff. As usual, the proces is just slow with Ed.
 

RedBanker

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I find it surprising that Fred could do this candid interview. I thought our players only say club mandated unicorns and rainbows stuff.
 

Morpheus 7

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Players chat on international break, if any of ours did it was hardly going to be good. Fred has been one of our best performers this year, still not saying a lot. Say some of our players would probably cry reading them comments instead of questioning them, weak mentality throughout that squad.
 

fastwalker

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For anyone who was wondering, this revelation by Fred is an absolute hammer blow. Is it shocking or surprising? Not really. But what it does do is put into sharp perspective the fact that United have much deeper and more fundamental problems than anyone has been willing to acknowledge before now. In the context of a rebuild, it reminds me of a bucket with a hole in the bottom. No matter how much you put in it, it can never retain it and you will never be able to make the most effective use of it. If there is discord in the dressing room, if players are not pulling in the same direction and if players are more interested in themselves than the good of the club, then United won't be competing for major prizes any time soon.

The use of the word "vanity" is particularly striking. I recall back in the 90's the Liverpool side which boasted Fowler, McManaman, Redknapp, David James, Babb and Collymore being branded the "Spice Boys". That term was reflective of the fact that those players cared more for the trappings of their wealth and fame than about being successful on the pitch. How poignant therefore that even with all their undoubted talent those Liverpool players won virtually nothing during that period. Contrast that with today and you see a side where everyone in seemingly pulling the same direction. There are no apparent egos or prima donnas and as result they are walking to the title.

Another take away here is the manager. What is Ole doing about this? He has been in charge over a season now. One would presume that Ole is getting rid of those players or has plans to. Although, no names were mentioned, it might not be difficult to guess who Fred might have been referring to? Is Ole going to take on players irrespective of their reputations, number of twitter followers and the size of their bank balances.

So now we know. The problems at United are just about greedy owners and incompetent administrators they are about a divided dressing room.
 

JPRouve

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Was he hell as like, Keane's was the rant of a raving lunatic and was rightly pulled, Fred just answered question in a language he's still coming to terms with as honestly as he could.
The interview was in portuguese.
 

VP89

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The whole interview gave negative vibe about the team. I'm not sure why it could be different about the manager.

Anyway. He needs a PR training. If I said that about my boss on paper's interview, I surely get into big trouble.
He went out of his way to say the coach will win titles. I don't think it's the same as what he said about the team. I also think what he said was fine.
 

Suv666

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We have 35 points from 25 games. This is the worst Utd team I've seen in my life, obviously there are massive problems. Doesnt take a genuis to figure that out.
 

Maticmaker

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The problems Fred refers to will not be solved until there is a complete clear out of the majority of those players who have been seen to be failing under 3 possibly 4 managers already. Every new player brought in in the last two seasons, Maguire, AWB, James and Fred, included will be wondering what they have let themselves in for?

A dressing room containing Individuals with 'chips' on their shoulders, little 'clique's' of players (some stretching back to SAF) mumbling and spreading disaffection, young players desperate to establish themselves before Ole is replaced, the mix in the dressing room must be a bit like the 'devil's cauldron' at times. Add to this the 'soap opera's surrounding the so called 'stars,' the mega-bucks earners principally; De Gea, Pogba and of course Sanchez, neither of these last two are even contributing at the moment but who are being paid (reputedly) possibly 3x what most of the others are getting.
In such situations chaos must be always be lurking just beneath the surface.

To cap it all a senior management structure at the club that is hard to define from the outside, but at the very pinnacle has an astute business 'cartel' who know how to make money, but now they have no longer have their ace 'football' magician SAF in play, have no idea how to move forward as footballing entity.

Ole is I believe wanting to do the right thing, but is struggling manfully because his lack of experience as a manager in a top job is limited. Youngsters he knows about, from his experience previously at the club, but how to deal with disgruntled underperforming (in some cases massively) super stars and 'cliques' of players 'dug in' for years, he doesn't seem to know about. Ironically some those who have left, who could have still done a job for us, look more and more to have been mistakes, which were nearly added to when Matic was looking to leave a few months back.

If there is anybody who isn't convinced we need a DoF urgently then I would like to know what the answer can be and I 'bet Fred' is too!
 

Andycoleno9

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There's been whispers online for ages that the supposed great team spirit isn't all that at the moment, and there's a a lot disenchanted with how things are. I think we'll see a few more interviewers and stories along these lines as the season draws to a close.
Even under Jose and Lvg ( where mood was supposedly toxic) players didn't go in public with interviews like this. Except agents and family of couple of players of course( Martial, Shaw, Pogba).
 

RedIan

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Im pretty sure Fred has said what many have been thinking and it certainly rings true. BUT i agree this should have been said in a team meeting with the manager present and thrashed out. Going to the media is wrong and will create more internal problems and division... it reflects very badly on the whole management of the club from top to bottom
Vain players - they are multi millionaires these days, over paid and over hyped and its gone to too many of their heads. They need to concentrate on being sportsmen as real athletes do when training for and competing... social media and personal sponsorships should be banned for professional player, they are already paid way too much without million pound advertising deals distracting them.. The whole crazy world of billions of pounds swirling around football is really toxic. £50m- 100m transfer fees, sometimes for bang average players is obscenity personified.
 
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Disgraceful from Fred. Keane was sacked for doing the same, let’s see if Ole has the bottle to do the same with Fred. Won’t hold my breath.
Fred is showing the attitude a United player needs.

Roy Keane called out players after we got battered by Middlesbrough. Rightly so, but his sacking was the culmination of a longer deterioration in Keane and Fergie's relationship.

Keane and Fergie would often criticise the team's attitude, concentration, desire in public after games when we lost games against poor teams or crashed out of Europe.

The 3 great teams Fergie had were full of big characters who held each other to account and it's well known the dressing rooms managed themsevles.

Robson, Bruce, Ince, Hughes, Schmeichel, Cantona

Schmeichel, Stam, Keane, Giggs , Becks, Neville,

Van der Sar, Rio, Vidic, Rooney, Evra, Ronaldo, Giggs, Scholes

These teams were full of players who'd hold each other to account and call people out if they fell below United's standard - a standard of winning. This is exactly what United have lost - so if players like Fred are prepared to stand up and call out things that are holding the team back then good!!
 

Cantonagotmehere

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We have 35 points from 25 games. This is the worst Utd team I've seen in my life, obviously there are massive problems. Doesnt take a genuis to figure that out.
Yep, and the least of them is Fred calling some of them out. I have no problem with it, anything to shake things up is fine with me.
 

Focusmate

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Am amazed Fred has said this...
Am not Ole out and was hoping to see improvements over the next few months that with some summer signings move us forward for next year.
Not only has he called out Vanity of some players being an issue ( difficult to know who or what is being called out here) and a lack of togetherness in the squad.
But I cant remember a player being so undermining towards his manager before unless he has had a massive public fall out. “Positives and negatives” “he's a young manager” That is seriously patronising and disrespectful, and just not what a player would normally say about their manager.
Whilst we need players and leaders to step forward the stuff about Ole was not acceptable and Fred has only recently found his feet himself.
We really are in a mess.
 

zenith

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Not the best time to come out with this statement is it? He's finally got a foothold in the team, why would you jeaprodise that by infuriating the boss.

I'm all for coming out and telling it how it is but I'd rather he knuckle down and focus on improving himself.
Absolutely agree with this.

He's had a few good performances and just about been a mainstay in the team owing to depleted squad and injuries and things he's big enough now to run his mouth about what he thinks is right and wrong with the club.

Even if the points he makes are valid, he should bring them to the manager and not in an interview in public. I hope ole has the good sense to giving him a dressing down for his big mouth and what is basically washing dirty laundry in public.

As it is there is a very good chance that he'll find himself on the bench and surplus to requirements next season.
 

Bastian

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To everyone saying this should be addressed in-house: who is to say that had not already been done? Maybe more than once. We don’t know. All we know is what we see: a team bereft of confidence and a clear purpose.
 

Green_Red

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Finger firmly pointed at Martial I think. Not running on the pitch and vanity, sounds like Martial. Good to see him call him out. I reckon Martial is next out the door if he doesnt change his attitude.
 

Josep Dowling

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Did he identify himself as being part of the problem?

He may have improved from last season but he’s still not good enough.
 

JPRouve

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Finger firmly pointed at Martial I think. Not running on the pitch and vanity, sounds like Martial. Good to see him call him out. I reckon Martial is next out the door if he doesnt change his attitude.
:lol:

Edit: He is talking about players who talks in the locker room and players trying to be the hero instead of working within the team framework.
 
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fastwalker

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The problems Fred refers to will not be solved until there is a complete clear out of the majority of those players who have been seen to be failing under 3 possibly 4 managers already. Every new player brought in in the last two seasons, Maguire, AWB, James and Fred, included will be wondering what they have let themselves in for?

A dressing room containing Individuals with 'chips' on their shoulders, little 'clique's' of players (some stretching back to SAF) mumbling and spreading disaffection, young players desperate to establish themselves before Ole is replaced, the mix in the dressing room must be a bit like the 'devil's cauldron' at times. Add to this the 'soap opera's surrounding the so called 'stars,' the mega-bucks earners principally; De Gea, Pogba and of course Sanchez, neither of these last two are even contributing at the moment but who are being paid (reputedly) possibly 3x what most of the others are getting.
In such situations chaos must be always be lurking just beneath the surface.

To cap it all a senior management structure at the club that is hard to define from the outside, but at the very pinnacle has an astute business 'cartel' who know how to make money, but now they have no longer have their ace 'football' magician SAF in play, have no idea how to move forward as footballing entity.

Ole is I believe wanting to do the right thing, but is struggling manfully because his lack of experience as a manager in a top job is limited. Youngsters he knows about, from his experience previously at the club, but how to deal with disgruntled underperforming (in some cases massively) super stars and 'cliques' of players 'dug in' for years, he doesn't seem to know about. Ironically some those who have left, who could have still done a job for us, look more and more to have been mistakes, which were nearly added to when Matic was looking to leave a few months back.

If there is anybody who isn't convinced we need a DoF urgently then I would like to know what the answer can be and I 'bet Fred' is too!
Absolutely agree with this.

He's had a few good performances and just about been a mainstay in the team owing to depleted squad and injuries and things he's big enough now to run his mouth about what he thinks is right and wrong with the club.

Even if the points he makes are valid, he should bring them to the manager and not in an interview in public. I hope ole has the good sense to giving him a dressing down for his big mouth and what is basically washing dirty laundry in public.

As it is there is a very good chance that he'll find himself on the bench and surplus to requirements next season.
I don't disagree with you but how do you know he hasn't already raised those issues with the manager and got nowhere? How do you know he has not raised them with Woodward as well? How do you know that he has not raised them with other players - especially the players in question? A player has the balls to say what many United fans have long suspected and some of our fans are suggesting that he is a "rat" for doing so. That is the sort of behaviour and reasoning of mobsters not football fans. Whatever next? Should he be "whacked" for it?

So when a player cares enough about a club in decline to speak out we bench him or bundle him out of the club at the earliest possible opportunity? If United do that I guarantee you it will be decades before we rediscover anything like the glory of the past. Liverpool's thirty year wait will seem like nothing compared to the wait that we are in for. Our reasoning has become warped and our logic distorted. Fred should be applauded for publicly highlighting a malignancy that is killing the club not pilloried for going public about it.
 

RUCK4444

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Did he identify himself as being part of the problem?

He may have improved from last season but he’s still not good enough.
Serious? With our best two players out injured he's been by far our best player culminating in the player of the month award.

I agree it's a bit early for him to be shouting his mouth off but he's only telling the truth, it's clearly aimed at Martial imo and rightly so.

When you compare how much stick Pogba gets to Martial it's a joke. The latter consistently has worse numbers and plays further up the pitch and supposedly wants to be our no. 9. No chance.

I would argue that Martial is even less consistent than Nani or anybody else that comes to mind. Plays with his mind in the clouds and his head up his arse.
 

Josep Dowling

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Serious? With our best two players out injured he's been by far our best player culminating in the player of the month award.

I agree it's a bit early for him to be shouting his mouth off but he's only telling the truth, it's clearly aimed at Martial imo and rightly so.

When you compare how much stick Pogba gets to Martial it's a joke. The latter consistently has worse numbers and plays further up the pitch and supposedly wants to be our no. 9. No chance.

I would argue that Martial is even less consistent than Nani or anybody else that comes to mind. Plays with his mind in the clouds and his head up his arse.
I agree on Martial. He’s proved this season he isn’t good enough either.
 

Augustus Gloop

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But I cant remember a player being so undermining towards his manager before unless he has had a massive public fall out. “Positives and negatives” “he's a young manager” That is seriously patronising and disrespectful, and just not what a player would normally say about their manager.
Agree with you - I think Ole will want to address this with him. His statement about “lack of creativity from midfield” is awfully self-deprecating too, especially since he has zero goal contributions.
 

Walters_19_MuFc

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Based on what players said themselves and Deschamps. The established leaders are the likes of Matuidi, Mandanda and Griezmann, Pogba is a work in progress in that department he grew during the world cup but he wasn't the leader, what he absolutely is, is an important member of the locker room with his positive attitude.
If you can provide quotes that would be great.

The following quotes I have are as follows:

Deschamps - “Another is that he arrived at the World Cup really prepared and he took on the mantle of leadership, on and off the pitch. He became a bit of a spokesman for the team and he can do that because he’s a good speaker"

https://www.independent.ie/sport/so...-leader-claims-didier-deschamps-37345878.html

Matuidi - "He is a leader of the game and also a leader outside. When he expresses himself, I can tell you that he is being listened to"

Pavard - "He is a true leader. He is very important for the group".

https://www.goal.com/en-bh/news/pogba-a-natural-leader-for-france-matuidi/cacaax6j1vn11vippm0z78rpo

Mbappe - “He’s important. He’s a great player, and great players are always leaders. Wherever we go, he leads everyone, and you feel like following him too.”

https://ronaldo.com/football-news/mbappe-hails-pogbas-leadership-skills/