Why did we buy Fred?

Mr PG

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He has less minutes so far than the likes of Lingard, Fellaini, Young, Lindelof, etc. who are supposed to be worse players than him. Matic is also probably our worst player this season and he is playing all the time.
Mourinho needs matic height at set pieces as our defenders are totally shit
 

UNITED ACADEMY

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I think Fred is too identical to Pogba in term of style. Take too many touches with the ball, often lose the ball, a midfielder with flair, energetic and dribbling ability and can use both feet. Having two midfielder that loses the ball too often isn't a good idea, I think Fred has talent, just might need to change his style a little bit to be more effective playing alongside Pogba.

I think it's too early to judge him but it also bothering me why we signed Fred instead of having fully trust on Pereira as backup and use the 50m fees as additional in our budget to sign a new top class centre back, it would have been a season changing transfer. Clearly we need to upgrade our centre back more than a midfielder, poor man management there from the club (manager and the board).
 
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nainaisson

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Fabinho says hello.

Zero minutes in the PL.

Sitting in the bench today despite their injuries.
There have been so many stories about him signing for United, maybe he's confused about what team he's supposed to be playing for. Maybe he puts the wrong uniform on before each game.
 

breakout67

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New player new system, £50m is nothing in todays market. Players generally struggle in their first season unless they are playing the same way ie Jorginho and Matic.

City's midfield were ordinary in Guardiola's first season, now they boss 95% of games. Same midfield with more practice.
 

ash_86

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I certainly think he'd start CL and Cup games. 4-3-2-1 worked for us great today and wondering if he could play #10 in place of Mata.
 

Sereques

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I mean seriously we must be the only club that would pay £50m for a player then he can’t even make the first 11. Especially when the likes of Fellaini and McTominay are preferred options.

Why did we buy him if he isn’t good enough to come straight into the first 11? If he’s not settling quickly surely we should be assessing this stuff as part of the scouting?

This is part of the problem, we keep buying players that should improve the first 11 but almost immediately revert back to players who haven’t been up to the mark, hence why we are trying to replace them.

The same thing happened with Mkhitaryan, Bailly and Lindelof.
You can add Fred to the list of players Mourinho sign but can't use. Then, later complain to the press that he wasn't backed by the board. His groupies will pick up on it and then fly a plane asking for the CEO to leave and compare Manchester United to Pep's team who is allowed 3-4 attempts on same signings before he got the one that worked.
 

RochaRoja

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: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.
£50m nowadays is like £30m a few years ago. Both Fernandinho and Willian (admittedly via a few months at Anzhi) came from Shakhtar for that price and have been excellent signings for their clubs.
 

flappyjay

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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.
Jorginho was signed for less
 

devilish

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If people think that United would spend 50m on a player without the manager's specific instructions to sign him up then they are deluded at best. In the absence of a DOF then the scouts fall under Mou's direct jurisdiction and have no final say on which players we buy or not. If scouts do have a final say then rest assured that Mou would have made a public scene about that long ago.

We've seen this countless of times now. Mou brings a player in only to fall out of love with them few weeks/ months later. It happened to Mkhitaryan and its happening with Lindelof, Bailly, Sanchez and Fred as well. Dalot has barely ever featured either.

Its funny how Mou speaks about 'squad inheritance' when his best player is SAF's signing (DDG), his defence is made up nearly entirely by SAF/LVG men and we still have issues in midfield despite him spending big on Fred, Matic, Pogba, Mkhitaryan and Sanchez. Yesterday we were bailed out by Martial whom he had previously criticised while Shaw, Smalling, Mata and DDG (2 SAF's signings, 1 LVG's signings + 1 Moyes signings) were the best players. Meanwhile his players were unwatchable (Pogba committed a big mistake, Lindelof was all over the place, Lukaku was a donkey, Matic was bad etc)
 

kouroux

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If people think that United would spend 50m on a player without the manager's specific instructions to sign him up then they are deluded at best. In the absence of a DOF then the scouts fall under Mou's direct jurisdiction and have no final say on which players we buy or not. If scouts do have a final say then rest assured that Mou would have made a public scene about that long ago.

We've seen this countless of times now. Mou brings a player in only to fall out of love with them few weeks/ months later. It happened to Mkhitaryan and its happening with Lindelof, Bailly, Sanchez and Fred as well. Dalot has barely ever featured either.

Its funny how Mou speaks about 'squad inheritance' when his best player is SAF's signing (DDG), his defence is made up nearly entirely by SAF/LVG men and we still have issues in midfield despite him spending big on Fred, Matic, Pogba, Mkhitaryan and Sanchez. Yesterday we were bailed out by Martial whom he had previously criticised while Shaw, Smalling, Mata and DDG (2 SAF's signings, 1 LVG's signings + 1 Moyes signings) were the best players. Meanwhile his players were unwatchable (Pogba committed a big mistake, Lindelof was all over the place, Lukaku was a donkey, Matic was bad etc)
Big mistake or not, Pogba is by far, our best player. I agree with your general point, the players he's brought and chosen have been terrible in general. It makes it hard to trust a man like that with more money
 
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devilish

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Big mistake or not, Pogba is by far, our best player. I agree with your general point, the player's he's brought and chosen have been terrible in general. It makes it hard to trust a man like that with more money
I am a big Pogba's fan but its evident that DDG is our best player by far. I fully agree with the rest.
 

devilish

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Outfield player I meant. It's hard to compare DDG with the rest
In that case then yes, talent wise, he's by far our best player, followed by Martial. The irony is that both ended up in Mourinho's firing line not that long ago. Which is kind of ironic since the only people who seem to always be in Mou's good graces are the grafters ie Fellaini, Matic, Lingard, Lukaku and co. Which makes me really wonder. If he likes such type of players so much then why doesn't he consider managing West Ham or Stokeinstead? They'll be quite happy having a top manager who doesn't need to win big to stay with them and who would fill them with such sort of talent.
 

LoneStar

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Give him more time. If he is in the same position by next year, then it's a cause for concern.

But it was a weird transfer, even at the time. We needed a different sort of midfielder.
 

Sereques

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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.
Nemanja Vidic played for Spartak Moscow before joining Manchester United.
 

Litch

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Jose doesn't know what the feck his doing and the lad has his best game in a Utd shirt, scores and was taken off at half time and not started since....
 

Castia

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Laporte, Bernardo, Mahrez.

It’s nothing like our situation, Mahrez for example is fighting for a starting spot against Sane, Sterling and B.Silva, you wouldn’t expect Mahrez to start every match he was signed as a squad player.

We aren’t in that position, there’s far too many average players in our squad starting games, if we spend £50m on a midfielder you’d expect him to improve the first team when we’re giving minutes to McTominay and Fellaini.
 

Cassidy

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Liverpool are having the same problem as us, Gundogan doesn't seem to fit at City.
It seems to be so hard to adapt to English midfields. If its the same by Christmas then its time to worry
Not sure about that, hes absolute quality when he plays, they are just stacked,
 

davidmichael

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Could it be a case of the same thing as when we signed Sanchez ? City wanted Sanchez so we went after him, City wanted Fred so we went after him.

It kills me to say it but we’re playing such a game of catch up with them I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if we’re just signing players that City want to stop them going there and in the hope they’ll improve us at the same time.

In home games against the seen as such smaller sides we should be playing a midfield three of Fred, Pereira and Pogba as Fred and Pereira bring a lot of energy to the side and want to move forward quickly rather than us parking the bus with Fellaini and Matic.

The only way we’re going to see what Fred can do is to give him games and bring up his confidence levels as well as adapt him to our league quicker, other than route one and an aerial presence there’s no one on the planet that can convince me Fred doesn’t offer more to our team than Fellaini or McTominay do and I’d also take Herrera ahead of Fellaini and McTominay as well.
 

fellaini's barber

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Said multiple times he's not a Mourinho signing at all and it's obvious but people were laughing.

Mourinho doesn't fancy him, but our scouts probably said they were good and Mourinho said "ok, go for it" or some thing like that. When the results went shite he immediately dropped him for good.

Whether he'll come good or not under the next manager is something to see but I think he's very down in the pick order for Mourinho at the moment.
Like he dropped Martial? Or Bailly? Or Lindelof? Or sold Mikhi? Or are they are all not Mourinho signings either? You keep talking this not a 'Jose signing' nonsense like the it's the first time in Jose's tenure here that he's signed someone only to decide he's absolutely shit. Matic has been pretty rubbish too I'm sure if he wasn't bought from Chelsea you'd claim he's a club signing too
 

Smores

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Such a non issue and it appears to me that it's only picked up as one from people looking for something to moan about. That was very evident in the matchday thread yesterday and the language used, wumming or not i don't know.

Show some damn patience rather than coming up with unfounded theories. Jose doesn't need to explain why he isn't playing and I'm pretty sure if he did like Klopp has with Fabinho he'd just be accused of criticizing him.
 

VP89

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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
Where have you read that?
 

SCJY

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No offence to guy, I think he’s done OK from what I’ve seen, but I legit forgot we bought him. Between our defensive woes, and alexis not getting on the pitch, and the attention Mourinho’s been getting, Fred hasn’t entered my mind in weeks. That’s crazy for our only major signing in the summer. There is something not right about that.
 

Schmeichel's Cartwheel

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Luke Shaw was dumped on the bench for a long time when Jose arrived with little hope of a future here and now he looks essential. Lindelof was dumped on bench by Jose for most of his first season. Mkhitaryan too. Martial barely a look in and was the star today. So Fred's time will come. Adjusting from Ukranian league to Premier League takes time.
Fernandinho seemed to do it straight away.
 

Mainoldo

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Where have you read that?
I don’t need to read it. It’s bleeding obvious. Fellaini player for David Moyes. LVG brought two Dutch guys and former players. Yes scouting and previous deals like Shaw and Herrera were already wrapped up but like with Renato Sanchez if the manager doesn’t want them we don’t sign them.

Like where is the evidence otherwise?
 

Ashley R1+O

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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.
Yeah, I am pretty skeptical now as well.

Not convinced any of our managers have been "backed". It feels like a "try and get me these guys please".... "couldn't do it sorry champ, good luck this season" type of scenario. I don't see much evidence that the two (manager and DOF/CFO) are genuinely working together to complete well structured and thought out deals. After the summer's fiasco and there are far to many weirdities like LVG/Falcao+ADM, Moyes etc etc.

Not convinced at all.
 

Walters_19_MuFc

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It was obvious we needed a 'link' player in our midfield threee to get on the ball and control the game.

Fred, despite playing some good passes, at times, looks a bit erratic on the ball.

Dont think it helps that we were in a bit of a bad spell at the start of the season.

I personally feel he'll come good. He's still settling in and has shown, especially against Spurs in the first half, that theres a player in there.

I would personally like to see him in a double pivot next to Pogba in a 4231, which is where he played for Shakhtar.

I specifically remember him being very good at playing the ball through the lines. With the wingers coming off the line and the 10 playing between the lines, it would give Fred a few options to get the ball into the attacking quartet.

Matic, as good as he's been since joining, has looked a bit slow this season. Fred would provide that much needed dynamism and directness I think our game lacks. It would be kind of like Kante and Pogba for France.