Fred : On Course To Redeem Himself?

Again I'm coming back to Manchester United. But this club at the moment is very eventful. Lots of transitions and changes in the last 2-3 seasons. Always at the focal point of talking. This time we focus on a player who is a changed man. Fred. Yes, the same Fred from the famously average McFred duo of Manchester United. Operating in the pivots. But Fred isn't a defensive midfielder. Nor he is a central midfielder. He's more of a ball carrier. He can carry the ball from defense to offense. That's his strong point. He may look buffed he isn't that much physical. He is not technically gifted. But his work rare is immense. That's why, in that pivot role, he often was caught out of position, often he made silly mistakes on the ball, some of those times he would make them up with his work rate, sometimes he couldn't. And those bloopers looked bad.

Fred was bashed a lot during the Ole Gunnar Solskjaer period. For basically the reasons I just said above. It's not his fault entirely actually. He tried. But doesn't possess the defensive attributes to be one of the pivots. Neither he is physical enough to hold off opposition attackers, neither he is technical enough to distribute the ball from deep. A very sketchy situation. This man has somewhat redeemed himself. And if his current trajectory goes on he's well on course to do just that. Since Ralf Rangnick took over, he hasn't played Fred in the position where Ole has played him. Ole used a 4-2-3-1 formation most of the time. But Rangnick uses a 4-3-3 or a 4-2-2-2 depending on the situation. In these two formations Fred plays as wide Central midfielder. Mostly on the left side. This relieves him from the defensive duties he had from before. And he can now concentrate on his strong point as i said earlier. Instead of being a start of a buildup or running into opposition attackers as a defensive midfielder, he now can solely concentrate on ball progression. This has helped him a lot. Fred has improved his numbers compared to previous seasons. This season, he has scored 6 assists and 4 goals. Which is actually a lot when you compare his previous seasons. But Fred isn't the best in the world nor he is the most consistent. Sadly to say he isn't just good enough to start every game for Manchester United. But he is a very good backup player or a rotation player. Talks are ongoing for a new coach for Manchester United. There are many candidates and Erik Ten Hag being the frontrunner among them. It'll be interesting to see how the new coach uses him. If he uses Fred for ball progression it's likely that Fred will be a valuable asset.

But at the end of the day Manchester United need a proper defensive midfielder. Players like Fred have been playing proxy and taking the fall for Manchester United board's mismanagement. Or else who wouldn't sign a defensive midfielder in this day and age for 2-3 years when you desperately need one? In the end Fred is a ball runner. Nothing more than that. Rather, mediocre.