Why did we buy Fred?

Sparky Rhiwabon

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He was never a top level signing to be fair, playing in a shite league. What was he? £50m? You have to pay more than that for genuine top level quality now. Same with Bailly, Lindelof and others. Look how Liverpool went out and paid £75m for the actual right player, VVD. That looks value now. Spending less on these players is false economy and you end up wasting more money in the long run.
 

simplyared

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Nope we arent the only club to ever buy players and not play them. Also theres this thing called competition and also tactics.
C'mon I would assume if you were prepared to cough up 50 mill for a player you would have looked at the level of the players you already have and come to the conclusion he is a better option regardless of tactics and therefore we should be using him. Let's not complicate matters. Simple as that!
 

Crashoutcassius

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Most of those players you name are part of a very strong set-up built to compete at the highest level. City, sorry to say, are light years ahead of us in every dept. Players the likes of Stones, Mahrez, Gundogan and Silva can play in City's starting line-up and produce top class displays. Fred, Lindelöf and Bailly were bought to go straight into our team as replacements for other players who were ageing, injury prone or just not good enough to play at the level required. So any comparison with those city players is totally irrelevant!
how do you know fred was signed to start every game and not as a squad option? especially given that he has immediately taken a squad role? same question for lindelof
 

pcaming

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Same as Lindelof and Bailly don’t seem to be what he wants in defence yet he signed all 3 players for around £110m.

At what point do we ask why the hell is he signing these players.
I think Ed has already reached that point tbf.
 

JohnnyKills

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As others have said, he deserves time. He's done more than Fabinho, that's for sure.
 

peridigm

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It's obvious. We got rid of Mkhitaryan and Jose needs to shun a player he signed in order to feel good about himself.

He should be starting for us. He had one bad performance and has not featured since. The good outweighs the bad.
 

VP89

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It's obvious. We got rid of Mkhitaryan and Jose needs to shun a player he signed in order to feel good about himself.

He should be starting for us. He had one bad performance and has not featured since. The good outweighs the bad.
It's obvious. We got rid of Mkhitaryan and Jose needs to shun a player he signed in order to feel good about himself.

He should be starting for us. He had one bad performance and has not featured since. The good outweighs the bad.
I found him underwhelming in every performance for us thus far tbh. Don't think he earns a spot on the starting XI ahead of what we have just yet.
 

Fridge chutney

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This time next year? That's awfully long. If he isn't playing regularly for us by Christmas time then something is definitely the matter. He cost us 50m pounds and an investment like that has to be utilized.
Agreed. It's longer than ideal. But to write him off immediately would be foolish. Look at Salah. His first year in the premier league was poor relative to last year.
 

Mainoldo

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mahrez 60m bernardo silva 55m john stones 50m mangala 42m. jesus danilo gundogan and bony 30m. none of these are guarantee starters. us signing fred for 50m and him not 'walking into first 11' isn't a big deal, neither is paying 35m for bailly and lindelof and them not 'walking into first 11'
Don’t remember him singing Mangala. Bernardo plays plenty same for Stones and Mahrez. Both started against Liverpool. The rest are cheap buys and he never signed Bony I’m pretty sure of it.
 

wolvored

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We are not quite quarter of the way into his first season and he is making the transition to a new country, a new team and a new league which by any measure is far tougher than the league he came from. Trying to judge if he is a success or not at this point is like noticing it is chilly in May and saying it is going to be freezing all summer.

I saw a comment about Jose not being behind the signing and I can't buy into that logic at all, I do think that maybe it is fair to say Jose wanted him in conjunction with some other names and the fact he didn't get the winger and CB he wanted might have impacted his use of Fred a little but to say Jose doesn't fancy him or didn't scout him first is Daily Mirror level nonsense.

If Jose played him in every game straight away and he is not ready then he could ruin his confidence and wreck the investment he has made, if the lad needs time to get up to speed then give it to him and lets judge where he is after he has a full season under his belt. The limited game time he has had so far has shown that he definitely has talent and a good motor but also lacks a little of the tactical sense and discipline required in the PL which can certainly be developed by gradually increasing his game time and letting him find his feet in the reserves and as a squad player until he is fully ready to go.
corrected
 

AndyJ1985

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Because it's fun to keep throwing piles of cash about without any real plan. That's the new United way
 

Josep Dowling

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Nope we arent the only club to ever buy players and not play them. Also theres this thing called competition and also tactics.
You’re missing the point. 8 games into a season, we should have a plan before the beginning of the season.

Why buy a player for £50m if he doesn’t fit into your tactics?
 

Crashoutcassius

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Don’t remember him singing Mangala. Bernardo plays plenty same for Stones and Mahrez. Both started against Liverpool. The rest are cheap buys and he never signed Bony I’m pretty sure of it.
who pep? im talking about the idea that someone costs x and has to go into starting 11. city dont care about that at the 30-60m level. that is where we are competing
 

Josep Dowling

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Give him a chance before writing him off.

He's come from a different league and needs time to settle, Vidic took a while to settle into form when he came from the Russian league, if we are still talking about him not settling or getting a good amount of games by the end of the season we can start to worry
I’m not writing the player off, I’m questioning why a club would pay £50m for a player and not give him a proper chance before benching him.
 

VP89

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Don’t remember him singing Mangala. Bernardo plays plenty same for Stones and Mahrez. Both started against Liverpool. The rest are cheap buys and he never signed Bony I’m pretty sure of it.
How much of a say do you really think Jose has in transfers? I'm sure he has his shortlist but it's obvious our transfers are broadly a shit show for 3 managers.

Fred never struck me as a Jose sort of midfielder and he may well come good but I'm not surprised he's struggling to get a look in right now.
 

Mainoldo

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who pep? im talking about the idea that someone costs x and has to go into starting 11. city dont care about that at the 30-60m level. that is where we are competing
Competing? I can’t remember Real Madrid and Barcelona wasting 30-60m on players to keep on the bench. The players you mentioned that a current manager brought play if not every week every other week and are key players. We keep buying players and benching them.
 

Borussin

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Fabinho says hello.

Zero minutes in the PL.

Sitting in the bench today despite their injuries.
he looked a class above Henderson and Milner when he finally came on today, even in just 20 mins or so, so maybe now finally Kloppo will start playing him more. Henderson is a dreadful player, he can't cope with any team that attempts to press.

Anyway, Fred, I wish I had some knowledge of what he was like before to go on, but I can safely say I didn't see him play much! But it really isn't a massively unusual thing that he isn't playing now, it becomes a bigger deal if he isn't part of the team later in the season. Be interesting to see how he works his way back into contention.
 

Mainoldo

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How much of a say do you really think Jose has in transfers? I'm sure he has his shortlist but it's obvious our transfers are broadly a shit show for 3 managers.

Fred never struck me as a Jose sort of midfielder and he may well come good but I'm not surprised he's struggling to get a look in right now.
Yes Woodward brought Fred. He went from Schneiderlin to Fred. The guy that knows nothing about football; thinks Varane is the best CB in world football but always scouts the market for players like Fred.

Do you know how stupid this sounds. All our players have been approved by the current managers at the club
 

simplyared

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Why the feck can't we just buy players, slot them into the team and get results for money spent. How many more 50 mill aquisitions are we taking on board as "squad players" Can't we just admit we're shit on the transfer market!
 

klsv

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Emphasizing his price-tag is a bit pointless. He was bought for 50 mil into a league where Benteke went for 40 and Sigurdsson for 45. Times have changed, you're not going to buy a figo or a zidane for 50 mil anymore.
 

doriandun

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Patience people, Jose is going to switch back to 4-2-3-1 with Fred and Pogba, behind a front three, Dalot coming in on the right. Fred will be Jose's Essien.
 

Member 93275

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Come on, everybody thought Fred would free The Pogba, admit it.
 

POF

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One of the main reasons he isn't playing in my opinion is his height (or lack thereof). The team is shambolic on set pieces and only one of the back 4 is good in the air. For that reason, Jose tries to load up his deeper midfield roles with taller players, which Fred isn't.

If they had another tall physical player next to Smalling and someone like Fosu Mensah at right back, he would probably play more.

It is an utterly ludicrous situation and shows a shocking lack of squad planning but that seems to be the case to me.
 

Ramshock

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You’re missing the point. 8 games into a season, we should have a plan before the beginning of the season.

Why buy a player for £50m if he doesn’t fit into your tactics?
Who said its purely about fecking tactics? Players have to fit in too. Stop making everything about Jose for feck sake. Do you think he is just leaving him out for shits and giggles?
 

Ramshock

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One of the main reasons he isn't playing in my opinion is his height (or lack thereof). The team is shambolic on set pieces and only one of the back 4 is good in the air. For that reason, Jose tries to load up his deeper midfield roles with taller players, which Fred isn't.

If they had another tall physical player next to Smalling and someone like Fosu Mensah at right back, he would probably play more.

It is an utterly ludicrous situation and shows a shocking lack of squad planning but that seems to be the case to me.
Complete nonsense. Pogba was at fault for first Chelsea goal and he is one of the biggest players we have.
 

Ramshock

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C'mon I would assume if you were prepared to cough up 50 mill for a player you would have looked at the level of the players you already have and come to the conclusion he is a better option regardless of tactics and therefore we should be using him. Let's not complicate matters. Simple as that!
Lets assume real football is like FM, simple as that.
 

Zlatattack

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Give him a chance. We've been doing terribly, he's not in vogue with the manager at the moment.
 

Jojo <3 Mou

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Let's write off a player new to the league after 2 months. How often do you see a player with limited preseason start well in a new team, new league and new country? He was also recovering from injury?

I want to see us signing players that are up and running right off the bat but let us apply context to each situation and not be too hasty in judgement.

Just a reminder, Luka Modric was voted the worst signing in Spain for 2012/13. Some people are slow starters.
 

POF

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Complete nonsense. Pogba was at fault for first Chelsea goal and he is one of the biggest players we have.
Yes and he is a non natural defender picking up one of Chelsea's best headers from set pieces because of his height and because there is nobody better.

Did you hear Jose's press conference? He mentioned the team's lack of aerial prowess without Fellaini in the team.
 

The holy trinity 68

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Ukrania not Russia mate.
It's Ukraine.
He's never played in the Russian Premier League.
He played in Ukraine not Russia

:lol:

What a brain fart I had there, I was thinking we bought him from CSKA Moscow :houllier:

What I meant stands even more then, the Ukrainian league is worse than the Russian. Wouldn’t actually be surprised if Fred doesn’t get to the levels we need.

Looking good in a few CL games a season then all season in the Ukrainian league shouldn’t warrant the £50m that was paid.

Now that I think about it, imagine paying £50m for a player in Ukraine. Only we would do that haha.
 

stevoc

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Why can't it work? Fred is a holding midfielder. That's where he played for Shakhtar. Nobody had more interceptions in the CL last season or he was one of the highest maybe. Take Matic out and start Fred.

Fred Pogba
Lingard Mata Martial
Sanchez

He's not a DM that much is clear from watching him this season. He's played very few games as a defensive midfielder in his career. Playing in a midfield 2 doesn't makes you a holding midfielder either.