Why did we buy Fred?

Canagel

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He's a baller I'm not worried about him at all. He's just a little out of sync with the rest of the team because he was doing a one man press and no-one else was pressing with him. He won the ball twice for us and was close another third time all in dangerous areas well inside Bournemouth's half. It's going to take some time but he'd be better suited for Klopp and Liverpool. He wouldn't look out of place in an aggressive high intensity team that presses and plays attacking football.
 

r0663664

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He's a baller I'm not worried about him at all. He's just a little out of sync with the rest of the team because he was doing a one man press and no-one else was pressing with him. He won the ball twice for us and was close another third time all in dangerous areas well inside Bournemouth's half. It's going to take some time but he'd be better suited for Klopp and Liverpool. He wouldn't look out of place in an aggressive high intensity team that presses and plays attacking football.
I thought he played well with energy. Jose probably should drop Matic for Herrera.
 

serxyo

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Alexis, Herrera, Pereira and Fred are 100% capable of pressing up higher, but it won’t happen in Jose’s team, for sure.
 

KanieKaned

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I think he is a talented baller but he is having it tough firstly with the league and our style. The pace, physicality and everything that comes with it. If everyone could press together to squeeze a team nobody would criticise him. One man can't do everything. Give em time lads.

I can see what Pep saw in him, a high press from everyone is ideal for his game.
 

meamth

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Why did we buy him? Because he is Brazilian and a total footballer.

Him and Pogba can toy any midfield with their skills. Just a matter of time.
 

The Purley King

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He is used to play for a Shakhtar team that defends way higher up the pitch than we are even close to do. And a team that defends by pressing. He is an aggressive player who is not suited for a defensive setup as ours under Mourinho.
We saw it with Sanchez and its the same with Fred; they look completely confused when we lose the ball and their first instinct is to press and win the ball back. While the rest of our team are running back towards our own goal to "cover spaces". It does make them both look a ltb like headless chickens when they are actually applying another quite relevant type of defending. If the rest of the team does not it looks like this though.
We will see if Mourinho can re-educate Fred. Another idea would of course be to remove Mourinho, but tbh I do not see that happening anytime soon.
I wrote this a bit tongue in cheek, but Fred needs time. I refer to my earlier posts in this thread regarding this.
The expectations on him was way to high to begin with.
Agree with this 100%.
He is just used to a completely different way of defending and it’ll take some time to sort that out - if mourinho stays.....
 

devilish

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Matic is a big lump who produces nothing attacking wise while Pogba is very attacking minded but produces next to nothing on the defensive side of things. Hence why we needed Fred who was a link between the two. Unfortunately by the time we bought Fred, Matic had declined which means we're back to square one.

Honestly I think we need to acknowledge our squad's strengths. For example what's the point of having a big man upfront if we don't have crossers? What's the point of having Matic in midfield to play as an advanced defender especially since our current defenders are more comfortable in a 3 men CB? What's the point of having an attacking fullback like Shaw if we can't unleash him on his full extent?


If you ask me this would be our best team


GK: DDG
DC: Smalling
DC: Bailly
DC: Lindelof

WBR: Dalot
WBL: Shaw
CM: Herrera
CM: Fred

AMLC: Pogba
AMRC: Rashford
STK: Martial



That would mean having an added man in defence, which would unleash Shaw and Dalot at the rear flanks. Meanwhile, we'll see plenty of movement in CM with Herrera, Fred and Pogba + Rashford and Martial. Rashford and Martial can switch roles, going in and out of the box causing havoc to the opponents defence
 

cheeky_backheel

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Think he will become a good complimentary player given time.

If we sort out our backline and DM, his busy bee approach should become more productive
 

Red_Ramirez

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Fred did ok yesterday. Worked really hard in that midfield

He gave us the energy in that first half when Pogba and Matic resembled more like walking wardrobes than footballers.

He'll get better over time
 

Ecstatic

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Do you have any links to reliable sources? If so, please share the links.
Regarding depay

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/32657823

A French link

https://www.lequipe.fr/Football/Act...a-failli-signer-au-psg-revele-van-gaal/556970

Regarding Fred, PSG had a limited budget (40 millions) because of the FFP so it was needed to sell in order to raise ore funds; while his former club asked for 70m

http://www.culturepsg.com/news/mercato/le-psg-avait-une-enveloppe-de-40m-pour-fred-ff/21634
 

Handré1990

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He’s 25 already? He doesn’t look the finished article.

Thought he was decent, won the ball high up in Bournemouth’s half a couple of times. The through ball to Sanchez was scrumptious, but Herrera is also capable of those. He’s clearly used to pressing high and playing in a team dominating possession. He has the skills, looks equally good with both feet (except finishing), hope he’ll come good. I doubt we’ll see the best of him unde Mourinho.
 

deafepl

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I like the look of him, our defensive low block makes him look so worse in defending and look like a headless chicken. if we play football with the high line and dominate the possession, he'd be looking 10x better, he's all-around midfielder as a box to box player, winning second balls, be playmakers, pressing and defending. You can see he has talents and skills.
 

Lentwood

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We’re shopping around for a bargain thats why. For the most part under SAF we spent top dollar for the best players around.

You’re not going to get a ready-made world class midfielder for £50m these days. We’ll have to hope Fred can improve
 

Irrational.

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He did well initially yesterday, he's not on the same wavelength as Pogba (we'll forget Matic).

I think we should give a midfield of Fred-Herrera-Pogba a run. Two busy midfielders would give Pogba license to roam forward.
 

Bestietom

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The Bigger question is "Why did we buy Sanchez". He has upset the whole system since he came here and is being paid far too much which has caused unrest with some players.

Martial was playing well before he came and was then dropped to the bench, even when Sanchez was playing bad. We should have more points on the board but for Mourinho sticking with him for far too long.
 

Adisa

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We’re shopping around for a bargain thats why. For the most part under SAF we spent top dollar for the best players around.

You’re not going to get a ready-made world class midfielder for £50m these days. We’ll have to hope Fred can improve
Good one.
 

Adisa

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We have to persist with him. Let him have a run of games.
 

pocco

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He's been inconsistent over 90 minutes but you can see what he brings. Yesterday he was winning the ball for fun, he's got insane energy levels and he's capable of playing some defence splitting passes. He played about 3 yesterday alone.

He just needs time. Fans want instant gratification these days but under Fergie we always knew that a players first season was often a write off whilst they got to know the league and the team. This seems forgotten about these days but the same still applies in reality.
 

Bestietom

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Fred will come good. He is full of energy and always looking for the ball. Sometimes it seems he is too fast for our midfielders and his passing is a bit too early, but this will come right. We need his energy in midfield but with another who can work with him. I don't think that Matic can, atm.
 

zenith

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As a few above have been quoting, if only Jose would relent a little and play a midfield of pogba, Herrera and Fred which could defend and attack together and he could coach cohesion and coordination amongst them, it'll be the foundation of some amazing football
 

Bestietom

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As a few above have been quoting, if only Jose would relent a little and play a midfield of Pogba, Herrera and Fred which could defend and attack together and he could coach cohesion and coordination amongst them, it'll be the foundation of some amazing football
Yes, he should try this. Both Herrera and Fred could work together, or even Pereira.
 

Rajma

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He’s very good, you can see why Pep wanted him would have been perfect for his high press and possession based football.

Unfortunately, Jose doesn’t have a scooby-doo on how to set the team to attack as a unit.
 

red woppit

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He's a baller I'm not worried about him at all. He's just a little out of sync with the rest of the team because he was doing a one man press and no-one else was pressing with him. He won the ball twice for us and was close another third time all in dangerous areas well inside Bournemouth's half. It's going to take some time but he'd be better suited for Klopp and Liverpool. He wouldn't look out of place in an aggressive high intensity team that presses and plays attacking football.
Agree. Pressing is an all or nothing game, just one or two pressing doesn't work, the whole team or none.
 

Rajma

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He is used to play for a Shakhtar team that defends way higher up the pitch than we are even close to do. And a team that defends by pressing. He is an aggressive player who is not suited for a defensive setup as ours under Mourinho.
We saw it with Sanchez and its the same with Fred; they look completely confused when we lose the ball and their first instinct is to press and win the ball back. While the rest of our team are running back towards our own goal to "cover spaces". It does make them both look a ltb like headless chickens when they are actually applying another quite relevant type of defending. If the rest of the team does not it looks like this though.
We will see if Mourinho can re-educate Fred. Another idea would of course be to remove Mourinho, but tbh I do not see that happening anytime soon.
I wrote this a bit tongue in cheek, but Fred needs time. I refer to my earlier posts in this thread regarding this.
The expectations on him was way to high to begin with.
I’m baffled how some people can’t see this when it’s right on the surface. Do people actually watch football sometimes I wonder?
 

Rajma

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Agree. Pressing is an all or nothing game, just one or two pressing doesn't work, the whole team or none.
Very true, while Jose wants us to be something in-between and it makes us look like amateurs when defending. It’s either all team is switching on for the press or scrape it altogether as it only leaves acres of space for opponents to exploit with minimal pressure.
 

KennyBurner

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Really don’t know what game we are all watching given what I’m reading so far. He was by far our best player before he was removed. He made like 4 interceptions and released Sanchez twice when we were struggling. He constantly pressed their midfield and it didn’t work sometimes because matic kept ball watching.

I’d say the only problem was he made some bad passes which had good intentions but just didn’t reach his man, other than that he is pretty solid. Also missed that chance from martial but whatever it happens.

When he came off I thought we would regret it but Herrera did well which is a big positive. He really is the type of player we have needed for a long time. Hope mourinho plays him against Juventus because we need his energy and finesse.
 

Irwin99

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You don't watch much football then, clearly.
Agreed. I mean, a few misplaced passes granted, but he looked pretty decent and won the ball a lot of times and made interceptions inside the oppo half (something that rarely ever seems to happen with our players). He was getting absolutely slaughtered in the match day thread though.

I'm cautiously optimistic that he could turn out to be a very good buy for us, especially if we want to transition into a more aggressive, pressing team.
 

Sassy Colin

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Agreed. I mean, a few misplaced passes granted, but he looked pretty decent and won the ball a lot of times and made interceptions inside the oppo half (something that rarely ever seems to happen with our players). He was getting absolutely slaughtered in the match day thread though.

I'm cautiously optimistic that he could turn out to be a very good buy for us, especially if we want to transition into a more aggressive, pressing team.
It's a bit difficult when you only play every few months. I guess we won't see him again until after Xmas now.

It's fecking annoying we don't see him in Europe, he has lots of experience in the CL, after all.
 

Irwin99

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It's a bit difficult when you only play every few months. I guess we won't see him again until after Xmas now.

It's fecking annoying we don't see him in Europe, he has lots of experience in the CL, after all.
I still think Herrera can do the number 6 role and Fred and Pogba could be the two box to box players. For all our lethargy over the past few seasons (some of the lowest running stats in the league) it's easy to forget that we have a fair few players that have pace and energy- Fred, Herrera, Rashford, Pogba, Martial, Lingard etc.
 

Dante

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68.8% pass completion, and it's not like he was particularly creative with it, either.

I like the guy and think he's got potential. But there's a lot he still has to work on.
 

amolbhatia50k

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I don't know what to make of him. At times he seems very skillfull showing interesting qualities. Other times you wonder how he's a 25 year old. Everything about him seems to be very raw and frantic.
 

Andy_Cole

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Really don’t know what game we are all watching given what I’m reading so far. He was by far our best player before he was removed. He made like 4 interceptions and released Sanchez twice when we were struggling. He constantly pressed their midfield and it didn’t work sometimes because Matic kept ball watching.

I’d say the only problem was he made some bad passes which had good intentions but just didn’t reach his man, other than that he is pretty solid. Also missed that chance from Martial but whatever it happens.

When he came off I thought we would regret it but Herrera did well which is a big positive. He really is the type of player we have needed for a long time. Hope Mourinho plays him against Juventus because we need his energy and finesse.
I’ve not watched our game but have no idea what to think of Fred’s performance. Really has polarised opinions. You’re saying he was our best player, then I read from a journalist who gives him a 1/10 player rating.

Very confused! May have to just watch the match myself.