08 Sep 2021 12:29:56
Fred not available for our next two games due to the brazil FA invoking bans on premier league players not released for the international break.

Maybe a chance for donny to get a game depending on mctominays fitness.

1.) 08 Sep 2021
08 Sep 2021 12:52:25
I'd hope so. Fred isn't as bad as he is often made out. But he is a limited player who is in poor form.

Surely Donny should be given a couple of games to try and lay down a marker.

If he doesn't play while Fred is banned a d McTominay isn't fully fit then it's time for him to leave sadly.

2.) 08 Sep 2021
08 Sep 2021 13:17:36
I would hope Donny gets to games, but can see Pogba and Matic like lining up.

3.) 08 Sep 2021
08 Sep 2021 13:18:54
If Donny doesn’t get a game now then he’s toast.

4.) 08 Sep 2021
08 Sep 2021 13:26:14
Shappy, Fred should not be anywhere near a team with aspirations of winning major trophies. There's zero point in having limited qualities like winning the ball back, if you turnover possession almost immediately.

Let's hope Donny makes himself undroppable.

5.) 08 Sep 2021
08 Sep 2021 14:24:39
It'll be Pogba and Matic. More chance of Lingard starting than Donny even though I'd be delighted to be wrong.

Donny will get 7 minutes at the end of the Young Boys game in midweek.

6.) 08 Sep 2021
08 Sep 2021 14:30:50
Mumbles, I think Fred gets more abuse than he deserves due to people's frustrations about the club not having a world class midfielder.

Fred is limited and does have his flaws, but on the whole with how we set up and how we play he is fairly effective, certainly more effective at the job asked of him than Pogba, Donny and Matic. Which is why he starts.

Fred tends to win the ball back more than anyone else on the pitch, he also tend to have a pass success percentage in the mid to high 80's.

What let's him down is his control tend to put him in difficult situations and his passing isn't expansive enough.

That said Matic doesn't start because he has poor mobility and he can't last more than 70 minutes.

Pogba doesn't start because he lacks any sort of defensive sense or drive.

Donny doesn't start as he hasn't shown enough in the games he has been given to suggest he would offer more than Fred. Better passing but worse defensively.

Fred is the kind of player the top sides need once every 8-10 games, not every week and certainly not against the sides the club should be fairly easily beating.

The problem is that over the past 3 season's no one else has managed to perform better than Fred on a consistent basis. Maybe that is why the club looked at trying to find a deal for another midfielder. Sadly that didn't happen.

7.) 08 Sep 2021
08 Sep 2021 14:35:40
Can they make the ban permanent?

8.) 08 Sep 2021
08 Sep 2021 14:49:58
A blessing in disguise. As others have said though, Ole will probably just play McMatic or Mogba instead.

9.) 08 Sep 2021
08 Sep 2021 15:04:42
Oh no, no fred, Ole will now shift to back 5 to help the team defensively against a mighty Newcastle.

{Ed025's Note - you must all be gutted rohan.. :)

10.) 08 Sep 2021
08 Sep 2021 15:51:07
Ed025 we as a team have always had a special talent of letting out of form strikers get in form by letting them score against us. I fully back joelinton to score.

{Ed025's Note - lets be honest rohan, joelinton couldn,t score in a brothel mate.. :)

11.) 08 Sep 2021
08 Sep 2021 16:32:33
Thats not so bad rohan, if we manage to beat those teams. Help their players get in form and make trouble for other contenders, evil plan ????.

12.) 08 Sep 2021
08 Sep 2021 17:18:40
I really hope DVB gets a decent chance, not just a couple of games but 4 or 5 to make a claim. Matic is struggling, his reflexes are just not there anymore, anything knocked just slightly off from where he thinks the ball will go, he misses.

Shappy some news mate, Fred IS as bad as made out, the opposition target him for his lack of control and commentators and pundits alike are mentioning, more and more often Fred has given it away again. As I've said in the past I love his energy and total commitment but we need more.

13.) 08 Sep 2021
08 Sep 2021 17:37:22
That goes without saying saying Shappy. I don't like Fred in the team because I don't think he's good enough to be a Manchester United player. He works hard but that's not a free pass. Lingard and James were similar. Hard workers but not good enough.

82% pass completion for a player who passes in 10 yards to the nearest player is appaling.

I don't think he's been treated unfairly at all. His time on the pitch mirrors the managers time in the dugout. Excuses made for mediocrity delivered.

14.) 08 Sep 2021
08 Sep 2021 17:49:49
The 82% pass completion was to opposition players. Its actually 18% to team mates.

15.) 08 Sep 2021
08 Sep 2021 18:53:48
Fred just needs to be given a run of games, I'm sure he will come good then.

16.) 08 Sep 2021
08 Sep 2021 18:59:30
Fred is a massive weak link. He's a squad player not a starter.
If Donny and Fred gametime was swapped I would have no issues.
Fred playing 10-15 games a season is fine. He's backup at best.

17.) 08 Sep 2021
08 Sep 2021 19:21:49
With Sancho potentially out with injury I would go back to the Leeds Game and play Pogba left. Give VDB a go in the middle either alongside Matic and have him as the energetic 8 or as the 6 if McTominy back and allow McTominy to being the box to box energy whilst VDB plays the quarterback role and defensive play like Carrick.

18.) 08 Sep 2021
08 Sep 2021 20:03:55
Fred is the best player we have.

19.) 08 Sep 2021
08 Sep 2021 20:31:38
There are sunday league players who work hard.
Fred can't control the ball let alone the midfield.

20.) 08 Sep 2021
08 Sep 2021 20:37:52
While Fred's average passing success is down to 82% this season, he has averaged 87-88% in all the other season's of his United career. Which probably highlights the poor start to the season he has had this year.

21.) 08 Sep 2021
08 Sep 2021 21:02:59
But that stat means nothing when the pass is bad. As long as the player receives the pass, it's considered successful, but he plays behind the player, fast into their feet, basically makes them run in an opposite direction to the flow, or forces them to take two or three touches to get the ball under control. A good pass is a pass the receiver can either run onto, or pass anew with one touch. Fred's passes almost never fall into that category.

22.) 08 Sep 2021
08 Sep 2021 21:16:11
Donny doesn’t play in Fred’s position and McT is recovering. Sorry but it has Matic all over it.

23.) 08 Sep 2021
08 Sep 2021 22:02:32
LLV spot on. Stats without context are useless.

24.) 08 Sep 2021
08 Sep 2021 22:10:30
LLV, it's a measure to judge a player but shouldn't be considered without context or as a sole measure of a players passing ability.

For example you could play every pass back to one of the CB's and end the match with 100% pass success.

The other issue is that we consider interceptions a mark of a good defensive positioning/ reading of the game. Yet it in Fred's we never give any credit to the defending player and place all the blame on Fred for the pass being intercepted. Maybe a few times his passes are just intercepted by good work from the opposition.

I never said Fred's passing was good, but he doesn't give the ball away with poor passes quite as often as many would assume.

This idea that him winning the ball is pointless as he always gives it straight back just isn't true.

What is true though is that he lacks the technical ability and vision to make the most of the ball once he has it.

25.) 08 Sep 2021
08 Sep 2021 23:36:17
Mctominay is still out matic is long past it so if dvb doesn't get a start at neecastle and then overlooked at young boys then I think we can safely assume Ole didn't want him.

26.) 09 Sep 2021
08 Sep 2021 23:59:51
Just a perfect storm. No one will be happy unless DvdB wins ballon D'or and Fred is sent to the tower.

Fred has had a rough start to this season, no doubt.

Donny deserves a chance given that poor start. If he played well, he stays in the team.

Fred remains an important member of this squad, and I'm sure he will have an important part to play in our title winning season ????.

27.) 09 Sep 2021
09 Sep 2021 00:36:27
I think an Ed added some question marks!

{Ed001's Note - it is just the way it came through mate.}

28.) 09 Sep 2021
09 Sep 2021 03:14:45
DodgyBanter, Fred as an "important member" in a title winning season - would love to see that ????????.

29.) 09 Sep 2021
09 Sep 2021 03:25:01
Haha
I think I put an emoji. I thought someone was questioning my pretty outrageous claim of a title season. I can but dream Ed.

{Ed001's Note - ah right yes, Ed007 was just saying on the widget some emojis are not showing up, I will mention this to Ed33. Cheers mate and keep dreaming, everyone needs to have dreams, no matter how unlikely.}

30.) 09 Sep 2021
09 Sep 2021 03:48:55
Ed001, it seems DodgyBanter has crashed the emojis on here by that outrageous title claim.

Poor emojis.

{Ed001's Note - it is very possible they are just too busy laughing to appear.... ;-)

31.) 09 Sep 2021
09 Sep 2021 05:43:59
Ed001, very possible. Let me try ????.

{Ed001's Note - ohhh must be! Nice one dodgy you broke the emojis...}

32.) 09 Sep 2021
09 Sep 2021 09:40:58
Ed001, any chance of Ole replacing the smiling emojis for the time being?

{Ed001's Note - he does like to smile.}

33.) 09 Sep 2021
09 Sep 2021 10:29:10
@shappy: "This idea that him winning the ball is pointless as he always gives it straight back just isn't true. "

Again, the same stats do not prove this. Imagine the following scenario, which happens a lot with Fred. Fred passes to Pogba, the pass is heavy, Pogba has to take several touches to get the ball under control, by which time the opposition player has made a challenge and come away with the ball. Here, from a stat point of view, Fred has a successful pass, and Pogba is chalked up as losing possession. Although technically this may be true, ultimately it was Fred m that I initiated the bad pass that Pogba was unable to take under control, leading to a loss of possession. It's these kind of things that are constant in Fred's play that make him a bad choice as a first choice midfielder, and the stats will 'ever show this.