Selling Fred was a mistake

[berbasloth4]

Fred is no paul Scholes or no Vieira but what he was for us was our poor man’s Kante. He covered every bit of grass, he done the extra work others couldn’t. Without any other centre midfielder who with similar work rate we are going to be found out alot and hurt alot.

 

[Grande]

Of all kind of ‘I told you so’ threads, this must rank among the most bizarre. And I really like Fred.

 

[Wing Attack Plan R]

Fred was great unless he got the ball.

 

[OverratedOpinion]

Well he was a very good central midfielder so probably yes, let's see how Amrabat does.

 

[CM]

I think the mistake was replacing him with Mount.

Selling him and using the funds to help buy a midfielder capable of controlling games against any opposition would've been the smart move.

Agreed. Selling him wasn't the mistake, failing to sell McTominay and accruing another number 10 (and a fairly average one at that) was the mistake.

The summer long pursuit of Frenkie de Jong last year genuinely seems like it was more about bringing in a player he knew rather than that profile of midfielder, which sets alarm bells ringing for me. There's no continuity in thought and Ten Hag ignored the biggest problem of this team to go all in on Mason Mount. I think that decision might very well cost him his job in the long run.

 

[Crashoutcassius]

No it wasn't. We have to accept that this only the start of what's to come. We need to completely get fecked in order to build from the scratch. Keeping Fred would only delay the inevitable.

Frustrating the players that we are signing alongside jettisoning internationals for no money

 

[roseguy64]

People come out with the most absurd statements after a loss.

Fred was capable of some abject performances (as well as great ones in fairness), the wrong side of 30, with a year left on his contract I think. Selling him was the right decision.

This exactly. So ridiculous.

 

[Leftback99]

Pretty much every good performance in the last few years Fred was a starter. No coincidence.

 

[Tyrion]

Agreed. Selling him wasn't the mistake, failing to sell McTominay and accruing another number 10 (and a fairly average one at that) was the mistake.

The summer long pursuit of Frenkie de Jong last year genuinely seems like it was more about bringing in a player he knew rather than that profile of midfielder, which sets alarm bells ringing for me. There's no continuity in thought and Ten Hag ignored the biggest problem of this team to go all in on Mason Mount. I think that decision might very well cost him his job in the long run.

I think we could have been OK but Casemiro has dropped off completely while Bruno and Ericsen rarely defend well.

 

[JakeC]

Pick a midfielder from league 1 and he will be better than McTominay.

Absolutely absurd post. Unbelievable.

 

[Tyrion]

Frustrating the players that we are signing alongside jettisoning internationals for no money

That's the problem. We have plenty of players that aren't good enough but I've no faith they'd be replaced adequately. Even if we let Sancho and Antony go (as I believe we should), their replacement would be about as good/bad.

 

[KikiDaKats]

Nope. Fred is not the answer and people should watch him for his new club.

Lesser expectation and still playing like an amateur/stoned yth player. He was never of good ball playing ability to represent United. Still having McT around is not an excuse to further persevere with nothingness.

 

[Care_de_Bobo]

Nope. Fred is not the answer and people should watch him for his new club.

Lesser expectation and still playing like an amateur/stoned yth player. He was never of good ball playing ability to represent United. Still having McT around is not an excuse to further persevere with nothingness.

Look at how easy Brighton found it to keep the ball yesterday, Fred would have been far more useful getting it back than any of our midfielders. Being good on the ball means nothing unless you can actually win the ball back to play with in the first place.

I'm sure our midfielders look great in training though, because, well, they're up against each other. The same probably goes for our defenders as they're coming up against an impotent attack.

 

[KikiDaKats]

Look at how easy Brighton found it to keep the ball yesterday, Fred would have been far more useful getting it back than any of our midfielders. Being good on the ball means nothing unless you can actually win the ball back to play with in the first place.

I'm sure our midfielders look great in training though, because, well, they're up against each other. The same probably goes for our defenders as they're coming up against an impotent attack.

We won the ball back plenty. We just could not keep hold of it longer than them. I doubt Fred would have solved that problem. If not having Fred running around is the issue, then we are in massive trouble.

It does look like they are not allowed to tackle in training. The way they all buckle or fall over under the slightest pressure, I won’t be surprise.

 

[RoyKeaneReborn]

Very strange that such threads are popping out. Love Fred for his commitment but selling him was the absolute right thing to do.

 

[ayushreddevil9]

Absolutely absurd post. Unbelievable.

It isn't but go on.

 

[Josep Dowling]

For the money we got for him I thought it was a mistake to sell. At least he could press, which you can’t say for any one else in our midfield options. McTominay and Van De Beek were bigger priorities to shift.

 

[Oranges038]

Buying Fred was a mistake.

 

[Von Mistelroum]

He was useless, and would have been useless yesterday too. Selling him wasn't the problem. But we have plenty more useless players to take his place. That's the problem.

 

[RedStarUnited]

He got sold because he wasnt home grown. He was a much better option to keep instead of McTomanay.

For all his faults, effort was never questioned with this guy.

 

[christinaa]

Getting rid of De Gea and selling Henderson were mistakes too.

 

[Frank White]

He got sold because he wasnt home grown. He was a much better option to keep instead of McTomanay.

For all his faults, effort was never questioned with this guy.

He was 30 and at the end of his contract... in what world would it make sense to renew a player of that age profile and general ability.

Neither should be United players but Fred shouldn't have been kept.

 

[Rockets Redglare]

If the choice was Fred or McTominay I’d have kept Fred all day, but that doesn’t mean we should’ve kept him.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

If the choice was Fred or McTominay I’d have kept Fred all day, but that doesn’t mean we should’ve kept him.

That’s the bottom line. The other thing is that if we sold Fred we had to replace him with a better player. Otherwise what’s the point?

Looks like MM is supposed be the be that player. Time will tell if he really is.

 

[sullydnl]

If the choice was Fred or McTominay I’d have kept Fred all day, but that doesn’t mean we should’ve kept him.

This is true.

Financial realities also come into it. Fred is a 30 year old whose contract was expiring in 2024, McTominay is a 26 year old whose contract is expiring in 2025. If you were going to lose both over the coming this summer and next, which we probably will, then this was the order to do it in.

Not sure what people wanted us to do really. Lose Fred for free next summer? Hand the 30 year old midfielder who is very reliant on physicality a new contract when we're already overly reliant on two 31 year old CMs? From a medium term squad building perspective replacing him now was the better move.

We're just unlucky that the two midfielders we brought in were injured at the same time.

 

[Varun1]

Not replacing him adequately was a mistake.

Posters like to say that about Smalling, Welbeck and now Fred (and probably others)... it was the right decision every time, the issue is who we replaced them with.

On Fred specifically, he was shit 80% of the time. The remaining 20% when he played well... well you never knew when that would be because he was so inconsistent.

 

[André Dominguez]

HE was a bit clumsy with the ball, but he had an engine on him.

 

[Siorac]

Lose Fred for free next summer?

We got 8m for him so losing him for free wouldn't have made much of a difference. At the same time, we rejected 30m for Scott fecking McTominay who has literally no use on a football pitch. No matter how we spin that, it's bizarre. We had the option of selling McTominay, keeping Fred, and netting much more money in the process and we opted for the worst possible scenario instead.

Admittedly, if we had signed an actual midfielder instead of Mason Mount, selling Fred alongside McTominay could have been the right move.

 

[Zoo]

He wanted to go and play first team football instead of sitting on his wages here as a bit part player. Credit to him.

Haven’t replaced him yet but let’s see what Mainoo and Amrabat can offer. Hannibal too.

 

[Revan]

He was average as feck, but miles better than McTominay who also would have brought more money.

 

[tomaldinho1]

I was a big Fred fan but it was time to move him on. There’s going to be some pain if we do evolve as a team and for all his positives you can’t avoid the fact he was terribly erratic on the ball.

 

[spiriticon]

Selling Fred wasn't the mistake.

The mistake was not buying a midfielder better than Mount.

 

[ShinjiNinja26]

Selling Fred over McTominay was definitely a mistake. We really miss his engine and legs in midfield, he also showed good quality on the ball at times even although it was very erratic.

 

[pratyush_utd]

Selling Fred was not a mistake. Mistake was to sell him before Scott and not replacing him.

 

[crossy1686]

Stockholm syndrome.

Google it.

 

[Ali Dia]

I was a big Fred fan but it was time to move him on. There’s going to be some pain if we do evolve as a team and for all his positives you can’t avoid the fact he was terribly erratic on the ball.

This is it. He is and was always 5 times the player McT is which doesn’t say much but there has to be short term pain to grow. I really don’t understand why we didn’t sell McT for 30 million though. It’s not like he’s going to gain any value this season unless he does something outrageous at international level. He’s not going to get a run of games once our first choice midfield is in place. His only use will be if we take off a winger and use his height in the final minutes to close games out or pump it up into the box. Not great from us but also not impossible to understand

 

[Ekeke]

Selling him isnt a mistake. The player we bought to replace him, Amrabat - That may very well be a mistake or a sideways move. Signing a midfielder who isnt fit to play was certainly a mistake though. Now we dont have either Fred or his replacement

 

[Gordon Godot]

Selling Fred over McTominay was definitely a mistake. We really miss his engine and legs in midfield, he also showed good quality on the ball at times even although it was very erratic.

No he didnt he used to pass it into touch from 5 yards. Thats why he ended up in Turkey

 

[bond19821982]

Selling Fred was a mistake, not renewing DDG was a mistake - jeez !

We were almost having a dream window with Fred, McT,DDG and Maguire all going out. At times, things doesn't always work as we expect. In the long run , it will just help us.

Stop being a knee jerk.

 

[Gordon Godot]

I was a big Fred fan but it was time to move him on. There’s going to be some pain if we do evolve as a team and for all his positives you can’t avoid the fact he was terribly erratic on the ball.

Dont know how you could be a fan of such a poor player. The odd 'good' game in that he ran around a lot and didnt hoof it into touch was not enough