He does need more games. That's been a big frustration for me this season, the lack of game time for Fred, McTominay and Pereira (throw in Bailly as well) while other older players who we've seen for years lack consistency and be below par start ahead of them. They need to play so we can evaluate them and figure out if they're good enough.
Pogba-Fred-McTominay Trio
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But will he adjust? Barca just proved that he is good when not playing English teams.
I think need 1 midfielder to build around, and then we can try different combos and players around him.
They shouldnt have been dropped following the game against PSG where they also had a good game.
I really like the look of Fred deeper. Despite looking a bit erratic at times, his passing is progressive and adventurous.
As for McTominay, he's a typical box to box midfielder - all action. Pretty good at everything. Probably better defensively, though.
Going forward, I agree. I think we should continue with the three.
I really like the look of Fred deeper. Despite looking a bit erratic at times, his passing is progressive and adventurous.
As for McTominay, he's a typical box to box midfielder - all action. Pretty good at everything. Probably better defensively, though.
Going forward, I agree. I think we should continue with the three.
Isnt that midfielder Pogba?
McTominic-Pogba (McTominay-Matic-Pogba) is also that good.
We can see Matic performed at his best playing like B2B eventhough his role is more of a holding CDM, because the simple reason of having McT cover him well.
Herrera-Matic-Pogba is just fine, individually strong enough to beat weak teams but likely won't work in big games, and Pogba just can't connect with 'em both. Defensively exposed vs pacy attackers.
Fred-Matic-Pogba is so bad. McTom-Fred-Pogba is so good!
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Guess the key factors there are..
We can see Matic performed at his best playing like B2B eventhough his role is more of a holding CDM, because the simple reason of having McT cover him well.
Herrera-Matic-Pogba is just fine, individually strong enough to beat weak teams but likely won't work in big games, and Pogba just can't connect with 'em both. Defensively exposed vs pacy attackers.
Fred-Matic-Pogba is so bad. McTom-Fred-Pogba is so good!
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Guess the key factors there are..
- McTominay playing.
- Fred on a more disciplined CDM role.
No idea. Give him a run in the side and find out. He's not lacking in talent.
Modern football is about adapting to your opponents using different shapes and line ups. People want to jump the gun too quickly 'this is the new lineup!' bla bla. Against this very specific opponent the trio worked, against others it might not.
Off the back of 1 game, where for some unknown reason, a number of people have decided Fred and McTominay were brilliant you are now claiming this is a promising midfield and we should persist with it? Unbelievable.. We were easily outplayed last night by a team who didn't get out of 2nd gear. We had no shots on target so I'll question how creative this midfield was?
All season Fred has been criticised on here and until McTominay scored the other week he was also a target for criticism, how can a 6 out of 10 performance suddenly change all that?
Its threads like this that have me really worried as a United fan because it highlights how far we have fallen that we are seeing such mediocre players as promising.
Even if he costs us top four? That first Wolves goal is stuck in my head.
I'm hoping that Pereira gets a look in (hopefully a start) against West Ham. I personally think he's been good the last few games he's played and in hindsight wish he'd been subbed on earlier during Barca. I still don't fully trust Fred in the midfield, despite his better performances in Champions League games. McTom I would be happy for them to keep using as well though.
McTom - Pogs - Pereira
That'd be my choice for midfield against West Ham. Take whichever rookie performs better to partner Herrera at Camp Nou.
McTom - Pogs - Pereira
That'd be my choice for midfield against West Ham. Take whichever rookie performs better to partner Herrera at Camp Nou.
How I missed the good old days, when we could just plug in 35 y.o. Scholes, or 40 y.o. Giggs, or even Cleverley in midfield, and we're still dominating teams.
I do like this trio, but we’re still lacking in depth and options especially considering Pogba’s inconsistency. Would be nice to be in a position to actually drop him next season if he has another spell of poor performances like he has of late.
I still think we need another player for the Matic role though. Fred has been impressive, but form will dip and injuries are inevitable. Neves would be perfect. We sorely lack someone who can dictate play.
Throw in Joao Felix as well.
GRANIZO PORTUGUES !
Agreed. Especially if Dortmund play hardball on Sancho. Maybe Bruno Fernandes could be that guy? Scored an impressive goal from the right last week.
I still think we need another player for the Matic role though. Fred has been impressive, but form will dip and injuries are inevitable. Neves would be perfect. We sorely lack someone who can dictate play.
Throw in Joao Felix as well.
GRANIZO PORTUGUES !
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Yeah. People are going overboard. They should be squad options. Maybe Fred can be better but right now isn't.
Doesnt look promising at all.
If Pogba wanted to be here this could very well be the trio moving forward, and allow us to invest in the front three, which is a diabolical weakness at the moment.
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It shows how much the mindset, mentality behind the play and the work in training matters. Also having a solid defence helps. You can see the Ole has started to try and implement some of what we want to see but it won't happen overnight, Rome wasn't built in a day.
Right now it is a better option than when Hererra and Matic came back in, they were shocking, rather keep Scott in and give Fred the opportunity to continue to improve
Surprisingly Mctominay looks like he has pace to burn.
Positive knee-jerk but knee-jerk nonetheless. It was *one* game...Fred and McTominay were joint MoM for me but let's just wait and watch just a little while longer shall we?
Pogba not performing for the 4th game in a row concerns me just as much as watching Fred/ McTominay performing makes me happy
Pogba not performing for the 4th game in a row concerns me just as much as watching Fred/ McTominay performing makes me happy
This
God no. You should build around a midfielder who runs the game. That is not pogba.
But we had Carrick.
Right now? Yes. Herrera has been poor-to-awful in his last 3 appearances against PSG, Watford and Wolves. Fred had a very bad mistake against Wolves, but has looked sharp in his most recent appearances against PSG, Arsenal, Wolves and Barca.
Matic has been terrible all year and while he's much more assured in possession, he also slows down our tempo and has been a turnstile defensively all year.
On current form Fred and McTominay are more likely to help us get top-4 than Herrera and Matic.
Fred has looked better of late but I worry about his touch at times always seems to be stretching for the ball. McTominay has been great bit still alot to learn. Been said multiple times but Pogba needs to start asserting himself more save the Hollywood passes and pirouettes for moments and concentrate on getting the basics right. If he wants a new contract or a move he needs to play for it.
Three of those games we lost. I don't think Fred and McT have yet to bring out the beast in Pogba. Although a correlation is not a causation.
The latter is my belief. Pogba's been off the boil for awhile regardless of who he's been paired with.
I have my doubts about Fred obviously - he's no doubt a tidy and very competent player, but it's been a long settling in period. I see no reason to not play him in most/all games for the rest of the season to find out though. Pogba, well who knows. He's been pretty anonymous for months... Ole needs to find a way to get the best out of him, and quickly; I haven't seen him doing anything a hundred other midfielders couldn't have recently. McTominay looks the part. He literally plays on his toes, looks super sharp and intelligent and can actually play too.. He could slip into the Matic or Herrera role right now and I don't think we'd suffer - pretty amazing considering the short time he's been playing.
As a trio they may well shine, but the team performances have to come good before we'll really know. The opposition have to allow us to play on the break, so it's not a viable strategy for any top club. Do I think these three could play in a midfield with the responsibility of creating and dictating? Pogba yes, he's shown this in spades. The other two have a lot to prove still.
As a trio they may well shine, but the team performances have to come good before we'll really know. The opposition have to allow us to play on the break, so it's not a viable strategy for any top club. Do I think these three could play in a midfield with the responsibility of creating and dictating? Pogba yes, he's shown this in spades. The other two have a lot to prove still.
That's why he's one of my favorite United players. A very intelligent player. He's so adaptable to any type of partners, even the lesser quality one, and still made our midfield functional.
I mean, you'd hard to find any player who could make partnering with Cleverley as a League title winning team.
Anything that keeps Matic off the pitch is probably a good thing.
McTominay looked like a future Tunnicliffe until very recently. As far as we've seen recently though in the big games he surpasses Matic at literally every aspect of the game.
Fred is a pretty shite midfielder if we're being honest though. Obviously needs upgrading along with a Matic replacement this summer, assuming Herrera leaves.
McTominay looked like a future Tunnicliffe until very recently. As far as we've seen recently though in the big games he surpasses Matic at literally every aspect of the game.
Fred is a pretty shite midfielder if we're being honest though. Obviously needs upgrading along with a Matic replacement this summer, assuming Herrera leaves.
If it were up to me, I'd keep this trio as starters for the rest of our season. Fred and Tom are not world beaters, but they made the team functioned better.
You may be right. I find Herrera more energetic and intelligent when playing well. McT is too green and Matic too old but only one of those situations will improve over time.
Especially when he clearly wants RM at some point
Fairly harsh on Fred, a close second for our best player against Barca. Indeed, we are now starting to see why we have brought him to our club imho.
Fred looks good recently in that holding midfielder. He made mistake against wolves but overall play he was much better than Matic in term of building up play from the back. From point of my view I can see his potential to reach Fernandinho level and style of play in my highest expectation. I really wants us to give him that no 6 role until end of season, if he shows that he can do the job in that role then we settle that role next season and no more Rice or Neves rumour anymore.
As for McT. He had very good game since the PSG game. I always thought ever since Jose introduced him, his playing style a bit similar to Rabiot. We’ll still need to see him more until end of season.
The issue is that we can’t judge these trio midfield based on a few games because we have seen how our players performed brilliant in some short period of time and gone missing later on. We were overhyping the Herrera Matic Pogba when Ole took in charge and now we aren’t amused anymore.
Best part is that our next games are Barcelona, Chelsea & City. If they can perform for the rest of our remaining game, we might be able to save some penny for our midfield transfer.
As for McT. He had very good game since the PSG game. I always thought ever since Jose introduced him, his playing style a bit similar to Rabiot. We’ll still need to see him more until end of season.
The issue is that we can’t judge these trio midfield based on a few games because we have seen how our players performed brilliant in some short period of time and gone missing later on. We were overhyping the Herrera Matic Pogba when Ole took in charge and now we aren’t amused anymore.
Best part is that our next games are Barcelona, Chelsea & City. If they can perform for the rest of our remaining game, we might be able to save some penny for our midfield transfer.
Fred winning the ball well but needs some more time to adapt.
Mctom is potential and needs o improve over time obviously, but looked lovely on the ball last nigh
Mctom is potential and needs o improve over time obviously, but looked lovely on the ball last nigh
Well according to our manager, thats who he wants to build the team around.
still pretending to be a United fan?No creativity. But it's a good midfield to fight for an Europa League spot.
If I read the game correctly, Fred played the DMF role in front of the 3 CB, McTom more of a Herrera role box2box. With 3x CB, Fred is OK to be a DMF, with only 2 CB and against EPL teams, Fred probably need more time to adapt. Not saying he won't make it because Xavi was as weak and Pirlo wasn't that physical neither. Against European teams, Fred should be OK.