Remember before the lockdown ? Fred was our best player for a long run of games. But some people are just determined not to like him. Selling him would be a big mistake. Give him to Guardiola if you want to know how good he is.
He works hard and he gets about the pitch, I don’t see much else in him.
Gives away too many silly fouls in bad positions, can’t control a ball, loose passes, no awareness of what’s around him and he doesn’t know when to slow the game down. I just don’t think he has the footballing brain to be CM for a top club.
comment by Reason-Not-the-Need (U4135)
posted 3 hours, 29 minutes ago
Remember before the lockdown ? Fred was our best player for a long run of games. But some people are just determined not to like him. Selling him would be a big mistake. Give him to Guardiola if you want to know how good he is.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
He wouldn’t even be as good as Gundogan for them, and he rarely does anything.
Look how well he performed both games against City, against Chelsea etc to see how good a squad player he could be. He would pre lockdown have been in our top 3 players of the season so getting rid in my opinion would be stupid at this moment in time
Fred has been good this season, and formed a very good partnership with McTominay, which was one of the positives we could cling to in the first half of the season before the arrival of Bruno.
His problem - and McT's - is that they work pretty well as two energetic box-to-box midfielders but don't have that specialist anchor role characteristics that make either of them the idea partner to Pogba in the favoured formation.
I wouldn't make any judgements based on the odd run out in a weakened team after four to five months. without football
I wonder what we would think were it not for the hefty fee.
He'll never be worth what we paid, but can we get 'value' out of him as a squad player? Probably.
Personally though, McT is above him in my pecking order.
“I feel every utd fan will unanimously agree that Lingard, mata, pereira, sanchez, jones and rojo really need to be sold.”
I don’t agree with that.
Any or all of them *could* be sold if we were to bring in enough players of the requisite quality to replace the holes they’d leave in the squad.
You don’t start with a position of “we have to sell all of these players” unless you already have replacements in or coming in. And we simply won’t do that much business this summer.
There are three players I think are looking like near certs to leave, one way or another: Smalling, Sanchez and Rojo. Unless there’s a CB coming in, that would mean Jones being retained.
We’re actually a bit of a mess as far as depth goes at CB, because we only have three players that I can see who can play the kind of football Ole wants us to play: Maguire, Lindelof and Tuanzebe. Bailly demonstrated again last night that his passing and positioning simply aren’t close to good enough, and he and Jones can’t be relied on to stay fit. Both will need replacing over the next 24 months or so.
Having rid of Lingard, Mata and Pereira won’t happen this summer. Between them there’s a versatility you’d have to replace with minimum two players able to cover three positions: inside right, number ten, and central midfield. We might see one player in to who can cover some of those areas, but unlikely two. My guess would be maximum two of those three players will leave, most likely Mata and Lingard. Andreas might be retained as a utility player, if he’s happy playing that role.
Fred is going nowhere, btw, unless we receive a big offer from somewhere (which we won’t) and have a quality, specialist B2B midfielder lined up to come in, which I see no evidence of.
Comment deleted by Site Moderator
comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 1 hour, 35 minutes ago
Fred has been good this season, and formed a very good partnership with McTominay, which was one of the positives we could cling to in the first half of the season before the arrival of Bruno.
His problem - and McT's - is that they work pretty well as two energetic box-to-box midfielders but don't have that specialist anchor role characteristics that make either of them the idea partner to Pogba in the favoured formation.
I wouldn't make any judgements based on the odd run out in a weakened team after four to five months. without football
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Problem, or benefit?
Matic will start the season as Pogba’s partner. We’ll need to replace him somehow, at some point.
But in the meantime, we have two players sat on the bench that offer different kinds of talents to both Pogba and Matic, which has value in itself.
It’s also worth noting that in Ole’s system, despite their different talents, *most of the time* Pogba and Matic are playing one and the same role.
On form, he's a decent squad option, but my only concern is he seems to need a run of games to get into form... which then negates being a decent squad option!
comment by Ji Sung Park's Cousin - Ole's joy Manticore (U2958)
posted 19 minutes ago
On form, he's a decent squad option, but my only concern is he seems to need a run of games to get into form... which then negates being a decent squad option!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
This
comment by merrysupersteve (U1132)
posted 3 minutes ago
comment by Ji Sung Park's Cousin - Ole's joy Manticore (U2958)
posted 19 minutes ago
On form, he's a decent squad option, but my only concern is he seems to need a run of games to get into form... which then negates being a decent squad option!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
This
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I was going to say the exact same thing.
I wouldn’t be selling him though unless we got £35m+ which I don’t think we would.
comment by Sat Nav (U18243)
posted 4 minutes ago
comment by merrysupersteve (U1132)
posted 3 minutes ago
comment by Ji Sung Park's Cousin - Ole's joy Manticore (U2958)
posted 19 minutes ago
On form, he's a decent squad option, but my only concern is he seems to need a run of games to get into form... which then negates being a decent squad option!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
This
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I was going to say the exact same thing.
I wouldn’t be selling him though unless we got £35m+ which I don’t think we would.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Same argument would apply though, we’d have to see a player brought in who could do his job as well or better than he can for that to make sense.
Unless we’re going to throw Jimmy Garner in at the deep end. Which I would be happy to do personally, although Ole seems to feel differently.
comment by United we win (U19958)
posted 49 minutes ago
What has tuanzebe shown for us at cb? Has he even started 10 games at CB? We only have 2 who can play the way Ole wants tbh. We need another
----------------------------------------------------------------------
If you can't see that Tuanzebe is an extremely talented player - one who has performed very, very well in every first team appearance he's made and a mainstay (outside of injuries) in the Villa team that got promoted - then maybe you aren't quite the astute and meticulous footballing thinker that we've all been led to believe over the years...
comment by rosso - for your protection, we’ve installed this camera (U17054)
posted 23 minutes ago
comment by Sat Nav (U18243)
posted 4 minutes ago
comment by merrysupersteve (U1132)
posted 3 minutes ago
comment by Ji Sung Park's Cousin - Ole's joy Manticore (U2958)
posted 19 minutes ago
On form, he's a decent squad option, but my only concern is he seems to need a run of games to get into form... which then negates being a decent squad option!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
This
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I was going to say the exact same thing.
I wouldn’t be selling him though unless we got £35m+ which I don’t think we would.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Same argument would apply though, we’d have to see a player brought in who could do his job as well or better than he can for that to make sense.
Unless we’re going to throw Jimmy Garner in at the deep end. Which I would be happy to do personally, although Ole seems to feel differently.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Personally I’d throw Garner in also as it’s the only way for him to prove himself and establish a role in the first XI.
If that’s not going to happen then yes we’d need a replacement.
I wouldn’t actively look to sell Fred but I think JSPC hit the nail bang on the head; Fred needs a decent run of games to gather momentum. His level seems to drop a fair bit when he’s not played regularly.
Fred is a good player. Arguably our player of the season pre lockdown.
However he seems to type that has to play almost every game to stay up to speed and needs about 5 games to get up to speed.
He’s good but not that good that you can afford 5 or so bad games to get him to play well.
I’d definitely keep him though he’s shown his worth and if Pogba or Matic get a long term injury he is quality back up.
comment by Reason-Not-the-Need (U4135)
posted 7 hours, 43 minutes ago
Remember before the lockdown ? Fred was our best player for a long run of games. But some people are just determined not to like him. Selling him would be a big mistake. Give him to Guardiola if you want to know how good he is.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
were things that bad at utd? I thought atleast maguire and a few others were solid. Fred had improved but was still average at best
comment by Nickasaurus (U9257)
posted 24 seconds ago
comment by Reason-Not-the-Need (U4135)
posted 7 hours, 43 minutes ago
Remember before the lockdown ? Fred was our best player for a long run of games. But some people are just determined not to like him. Selling him would be a big mistake. Give him to Guardiola if you want to know how good he is.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
were things that bad at utd? I thought atleast maguire and a few others were solid. Fred had improved but was still average at best
----------------------------------------------------------------------
He was well above average most of the season to be fair. Performed against all levels of opposition.
i can only say the 20 odd games of utd i watch a year tbf, but he had energy and broke things down a bit but was still very very average. Its just that it was still an improvement that imo people went ott
comment by rosso - for your protection, we’ve installed this camera (U17054)
posted 2 hours, 20 minutes ago
comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 1 hour, 35 minutes ago
Fred has been good this season, and formed a very good partnership with McTominay, which was one of the positives we could cling to in the first half of the season before the arrival of Bruno.
His problem - and McT's - is that they work pretty well as two energetic box-to-box midfielders but don't have that specialist anchor role characteristics that make either of them the idea partner to Pogba in the favoured formation.
I wouldn't make any judgements based on the odd run out in a weakened team after four to five months. without football
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Problem, or benefit?
Matic will start the season as Pogba’s partner. We’ll need to replace him somehow, at some point.
But in the meantime, we have two players sat on the bench that offer different kinds of talents to both Pogba and Matic, which has value in itself.
It’s also worth noting that in Ole’s system, despite their different talents, *most of the time* Pogba and Matic are playing one and the same role.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
When pogba is our for a month, it’s a problem. When Matic inevitably reverts to type, it’s a problem.
comment by Busby (U19985)
posted 41 minutes ago
comment by rosso - for your protection, we’ve installed this camera (U17054)
posted 2 hours, 20 minutes ago
comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 1 hour, 35 minutes ago
Fred has been good this season, and formed a very good partnership with McTominay, which was one of the positives we could cling to in the first half of the season before the arrival of Bruno.
His problem - and McT's - is that they work pretty well as two energetic box-to-box midfielders but don't have that specialist anchor role characteristics that make either of them the idea partner to Pogba in the favoured formation.
I wouldn't make any judgements based on the odd run out in a weakened team after four to five months. without football
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Problem, or benefit?
Matic will start the season as Pogba’s partner. We’ll need to replace him somehow, at some point.
But in the meantime, we have two players sat on the bench that offer different kinds of talents to both Pogba and Matic, which has value in itself.
It’s also worth noting that in Ole’s system, despite their different talents, *most of the time* Pogba and Matic are playing one and the same role.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
When pogba is our for a month, it’s a problem. When Matic inevitably reverts to type, it’s a problem.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The pair are better backup than you’ll find at most top half PL sides.
Part of the issue is that the two six roles are absolutely key positions - I’d argue the two most important - in Ole’s system. Both players have to have exceptionally wide skill sets, even for central midfielders.
Fred and McT *do* both have wide skill sets. The questions are: are they proficient enough across the requisite set of aptitudes, and if not, which players might we look at to replace them.
tbh when I vreated this article it was not to push an agenda for him to be sold.My views and that of others on Fred are well documented.
what I really wanted to discuss is if anyone else thought scholes was on to something about fred being on his way out. Before scholes comment i would have said the likelihood of fred being sold was zero for a number of reasons but now i am not so certain
comment by rosso - for your protection, we’ve installed this camera (U17054)
posted 4 hours, 50 minutes ago
comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 1 hour, 35 minutes ago
Fred has been good this season, and formed a very good partnership with McTominay, which was one of the positives we could cling to in the first half of the season before the arrival of Bruno.
His problem - and McT's - is that they work pretty well as two energetic box-to-box midfielders but don't have that specialist anchor role characteristics that make either of them the idea partner to Pogba in the favoured formation.
I wouldn't make any judgements based on the odd run out in a weakened team after four to five months. without football
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Problem, or benefit?
Matic will start the season as Pogba’s partner. We’ll need to replace him somehow, at some point.
But in the meantime, we have two players sat on the bench that offer different kinds of talents to both Pogba and Matic, which has value in itself.
It’s also worth noting that in Ole’s system, despite their different talents, *most of the time* Pogba and Matic are playing one and the same role.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I see it as Fred's problem more than United's. But I do think McT and Fred complement each other more than they complement Pogba, so it's a bit of a conundrum as long as Pogba is first choice when fit.
Rosso, if you felt like writing an article to expand on this statement:
'Part of the issue is that the two six roles are absolutely key positions - I’d argue the two most important - in Ole’s system. Both players have to have exceptionally wide skill sets, even for central midfielders.'
...I'll fail to say anything intelligent in response, but I'd be fascinated to read it. Why is that the critical role? What is the skill set required? Which of those skills do our current midfielders possess and lack?
Sign in if you want to comment
Fred???
Page 1 of 2
posted on 6/8/20
Remember before the lockdown ? Fred was our best player for a long run of games. But some people are just determined not to like him. Selling him would be a big mistake. Give him to Guardiola if you want to know how good he is.
posted on 6/8/20
He works hard and he gets about the pitch, I don’t see much else in him.
Gives away too many silly fouls in bad positions, can’t control a ball, loose passes, no awareness of what’s around him and he doesn’t know when to slow the game down. I just don’t think he has the footballing brain to be CM for a top club.
posted on 6/8/20
comment by Reason-Not-the-Need (U4135)
posted 3 hours, 29 minutes ago
Remember before the lockdown ? Fred was our best player for a long run of games. But some people are just determined not to like him. Selling him would be a big mistake. Give him to Guardiola if you want to know how good he is.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
He wouldn’t even be as good as Gundogan for them, and he rarely does anything.
posted on 6/8/20
Look how well he performed both games against City, against Chelsea etc to see how good a squad player he could be. He would pre lockdown have been in our top 3 players of the season so getting rid in my opinion would be stupid at this moment in time
posted on 6/8/20
Fred has been good this season, and formed a very good partnership with McTominay, which was one of the positives we could cling to in the first half of the season before the arrival of Bruno.
His problem - and McT's - is that they work pretty well as two energetic box-to-box midfielders but don't have that specialist anchor role characteristics that make either of them the idea partner to Pogba in the favoured formation.
I wouldn't make any judgements based on the odd run out in a weakened team after four to five months. without football
posted on 6/8/20
I wonder what we would think were it not for the hefty fee.
He'll never be worth what we paid, but can we get 'value' out of him as a squad player? Probably.
Personally though, McT is above him in my pecking order.
posted on 6/8/20
“I feel every utd fan will unanimously agree that Lingard, mata, pereira, sanchez, jones and rojo really need to be sold.”
I don’t agree with that.
Any or all of them *could* be sold if we were to bring in enough players of the requisite quality to replace the holes they’d leave in the squad.
You don’t start with a position of “we have to sell all of these players” unless you already have replacements in or coming in. And we simply won’t do that much business this summer.
There are three players I think are looking like near certs to leave, one way or another: Smalling, Sanchez and Rojo. Unless there’s a CB coming in, that would mean Jones being retained.
We’re actually a bit of a mess as far as depth goes at CB, because we only have three players that I can see who can play the kind of football Ole wants us to play: Maguire, Lindelof and Tuanzebe. Bailly demonstrated again last night that his passing and positioning simply aren’t close to good enough, and he and Jones can’t be relied on to stay fit. Both will need replacing over the next 24 months or so.
Having rid of Lingard, Mata and Pereira won’t happen this summer. Between them there’s a versatility you’d have to replace with minimum two players able to cover three positions: inside right, number ten, and central midfield. We might see one player in to who can cover some of those areas, but unlikely two. My guess would be maximum two of those three players will leave, most likely Mata and Lingard. Andreas might be retained as a utility player, if he’s happy playing that role.
posted on 6/8/20
Fred is going nowhere, btw, unless we receive a big offer from somewhere (which we won’t) and have a quality, specialist B2B midfielder lined up to come in, which I see no evidence of.
posted on 6/8/20
Comment deleted by Site Moderator
posted on 6/8/20
comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 1 hour, 35 minutes ago
Fred has been good this season, and formed a very good partnership with McTominay, which was one of the positives we could cling to in the first half of the season before the arrival of Bruno.
His problem - and McT's - is that they work pretty well as two energetic box-to-box midfielders but don't have that specialist anchor role characteristics that make either of them the idea partner to Pogba in the favoured formation.
I wouldn't make any judgements based on the odd run out in a weakened team after four to five months. without football
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Problem, or benefit?
Matic will start the season as Pogba’s partner. We’ll need to replace him somehow, at some point.
But in the meantime, we have two players sat on the bench that offer different kinds of talents to both Pogba and Matic, which has value in itself.
It’s also worth noting that in Ole’s system, despite their different talents, *most of the time* Pogba and Matic are playing one and the same role.
posted on 6/8/20
On form, he's a decent squad option, but my only concern is he seems to need a run of games to get into form... which then negates being a decent squad option!
posted on 6/8/20
comment by Ji Sung Park's Cousin - Ole's joy Manticore (U2958)
posted 19 minutes ago
On form, he's a decent squad option, but my only concern is he seems to need a run of games to get into form... which then negates being a decent squad option!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
This
posted on 6/8/20
comment by merrysupersteve (U1132)
posted 3 minutes ago
comment by Ji Sung Park's Cousin - Ole's joy Manticore (U2958)
posted 19 minutes ago
On form, he's a decent squad option, but my only concern is he seems to need a run of games to get into form... which then negates being a decent squad option!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
This
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I was going to say the exact same thing.
I wouldn’t be selling him though unless we got £35m+ which I don’t think we would.
posted on 6/8/20
comment by Sat Nav (U18243)
posted 4 minutes ago
comment by merrysupersteve (U1132)
posted 3 minutes ago
comment by Ji Sung Park's Cousin - Ole's joy Manticore (U2958)
posted 19 minutes ago
On form, he's a decent squad option, but my only concern is he seems to need a run of games to get into form... which then negates being a decent squad option!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
This
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I was going to say the exact same thing.
I wouldn’t be selling him though unless we got £35m+ which I don’t think we would.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Same argument would apply though, we’d have to see a player brought in who could do his job as well or better than he can for that to make sense.
Unless we’re going to throw Jimmy Garner in at the deep end. Which I would be happy to do personally, although Ole seems to feel differently.
posted on 6/8/20
comment by United we win (U19958)
posted 49 minutes ago
What has tuanzebe shown for us at cb? Has he even started 10 games at CB? We only have 2 who can play the way Ole wants tbh. We need another
----------------------------------------------------------------------
If you can't see that Tuanzebe is an extremely talented player - one who has performed very, very well in every first team appearance he's made and a mainstay (outside of injuries) in the Villa team that got promoted - then maybe you aren't quite the astute and meticulous footballing thinker that we've all been led to believe over the years...
posted on 6/8/20
comment by rosso - for your protection, we’ve installed this camera (U17054)
posted 23 minutes ago
comment by Sat Nav (U18243)
posted 4 minutes ago
comment by merrysupersteve (U1132)
posted 3 minutes ago
comment by Ji Sung Park's Cousin - Ole's joy Manticore (U2958)
posted 19 minutes ago
On form, he's a decent squad option, but my only concern is he seems to need a run of games to get into form... which then negates being a decent squad option!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
This
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I was going to say the exact same thing.
I wouldn’t be selling him though unless we got £35m+ which I don’t think we would.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Same argument would apply though, we’d have to see a player brought in who could do his job as well or better than he can for that to make sense.
Unless we’re going to throw Jimmy Garner in at the deep end. Which I would be happy to do personally, although Ole seems to feel differently.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Personally I’d throw Garner in also as it’s the only way for him to prove himself and establish a role in the first XI.
If that’s not going to happen then yes we’d need a replacement.
I wouldn’t actively look to sell Fred but I think JSPC hit the nail bang on the head; Fred needs a decent run of games to gather momentum. His level seems to drop a fair bit when he’s not played regularly.
posted on 6/8/20
Fred is a good player. Arguably our player of the season pre lockdown.
However he seems to type that has to play almost every game to stay up to speed and needs about 5 games to get up to speed.
He’s good but not that good that you can afford 5 or so bad games to get him to play well.
I’d definitely keep him though he’s shown his worth and if Pogba or Matic get a long term injury he is quality back up.
posted on 6/8/20
comment by Reason-Not-the-Need (U4135)
posted 7 hours, 43 minutes ago
Remember before the lockdown ? Fred was our best player for a long run of games. But some people are just determined not to like him. Selling him would be a big mistake. Give him to Guardiola if you want to know how good he is.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
were things that bad at utd? I thought atleast maguire and a few others were solid. Fred had improved but was still average at best
posted on 6/8/20
comment by Nickasaurus (U9257)
posted 24 seconds ago
comment by Reason-Not-the-Need (U4135)
posted 7 hours, 43 minutes ago
Remember before the lockdown ? Fred was our best player for a long run of games. But some people are just determined not to like him. Selling him would be a big mistake. Give him to Guardiola if you want to know how good he is.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
were things that bad at utd? I thought atleast maguire and a few others were solid. Fred had improved but was still average at best
----------------------------------------------------------------------
He was well above average most of the season to be fair. Performed against all levels of opposition.
posted on 6/8/20
i can only say the 20 odd games of utd i watch a year tbf, but he had energy and broke things down a bit but was still very very average. Its just that it was still an improvement that imo people went ott
posted on 6/8/20
comment by rosso - for your protection, we’ve installed this camera (U17054)
posted 2 hours, 20 minutes ago
comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 1 hour, 35 minutes ago
Fred has been good this season, and formed a very good partnership with McTominay, which was one of the positives we could cling to in the first half of the season before the arrival of Bruno.
His problem - and McT's - is that they work pretty well as two energetic box-to-box midfielders but don't have that specialist anchor role characteristics that make either of them the idea partner to Pogba in the favoured formation.
I wouldn't make any judgements based on the odd run out in a weakened team after four to five months. without football
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Problem, or benefit?
Matic will start the season as Pogba’s partner. We’ll need to replace him somehow, at some point.
But in the meantime, we have two players sat on the bench that offer different kinds of talents to both Pogba and Matic, which has value in itself.
It’s also worth noting that in Ole’s system, despite their different talents, *most of the time* Pogba and Matic are playing one and the same role.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
When pogba is our for a month, it’s a problem. When Matic inevitably reverts to type, it’s a problem.
posted on 6/8/20
comment by Busby (U19985)
posted 41 minutes ago
comment by rosso - for your protection, we’ve installed this camera (U17054)
posted 2 hours, 20 minutes ago
comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 1 hour, 35 minutes ago
Fred has been good this season, and formed a very good partnership with McTominay, which was one of the positives we could cling to in the first half of the season before the arrival of Bruno.
His problem - and McT's - is that they work pretty well as two energetic box-to-box midfielders but don't have that specialist anchor role characteristics that make either of them the idea partner to Pogba in the favoured formation.
I wouldn't make any judgements based on the odd run out in a weakened team after four to five months. without football
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Problem, or benefit?
Matic will start the season as Pogba’s partner. We’ll need to replace him somehow, at some point.
But in the meantime, we have two players sat on the bench that offer different kinds of talents to both Pogba and Matic, which has value in itself.
It’s also worth noting that in Ole’s system, despite their different talents, *most of the time* Pogba and Matic are playing one and the same role.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
When pogba is our for a month, it’s a problem. When Matic inevitably reverts to type, it’s a problem.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The pair are better backup than you’ll find at most top half PL sides.
Part of the issue is that the two six roles are absolutely key positions - I’d argue the two most important - in Ole’s system. Both players have to have exceptionally wide skill sets, even for central midfielders.
Fred and McT *do* both have wide skill sets. The questions are: are they proficient enough across the requisite set of aptitudes, and if not, which players might we look at to replace them.
posted on 6/8/20
tbh when I vreated this article it was not to push an agenda for him to be sold.My views and that of others on Fred are well documented.
what I really wanted to discuss is if anyone else thought scholes was on to something about fred being on his way out. Before scholes comment i would have said the likelihood of fred being sold was zero for a number of reasons but now i am not so certain
posted on 6/8/20
comment by rosso - for your protection, we’ve installed this camera (U17054)
posted 4 hours, 50 minutes ago
comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 1 hour, 35 minutes ago
Fred has been good this season, and formed a very good partnership with McTominay, which was one of the positives we could cling to in the first half of the season before the arrival of Bruno.
His problem - and McT's - is that they work pretty well as two energetic box-to-box midfielders but don't have that specialist anchor role characteristics that make either of them the idea partner to Pogba in the favoured formation.
I wouldn't make any judgements based on the odd run out in a weakened team after four to five months. without football
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Problem, or benefit?
Matic will start the season as Pogba’s partner. We’ll need to replace him somehow, at some point.
But in the meantime, we have two players sat on the bench that offer different kinds of talents to both Pogba and Matic, which has value in itself.
It’s also worth noting that in Ole’s system, despite their different talents, *most of the time* Pogba and Matic are playing one and the same role.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I see it as Fred's problem more than United's. But I do think McT and Fred complement each other more than they complement Pogba, so it's a bit of a conundrum as long as Pogba is first choice when fit.
posted on 6/8/20
Rosso, if you felt like writing an article to expand on this statement:
'Part of the issue is that the two six roles are absolutely key positions - I’d argue the two most important - in Ole’s system. Both players have to have exceptionally wide skill sets, even for central midfielders.'
...I'll fail to say anything intelligent in response, but I'd be fascinated to read it. Why is that the critical role? What is the skill set required? Which of those skills do our current midfielders possess and lack?
Page 1 of 2