Man United brought in Fred from Shakhtar in the summer of 2018 but last season, all the midfielder did was warm the benches at Old Trafford.
This season too he was destined to do the same thing but the untimely injury to Paul Pogba has given the Brazilian renewed hopes as he’s been getting constant game time during the past few months.
Pogba has been ruled out of action for a significant amount of time and during this period, it’s Fred who has been providing the creative spark at the heart of midfield.
So far, Fred has featured in 8 Premier League matches playing a total of 508 minutes but he is yet to win over the Man United fans completely.
While the player’s performances have not been steady but against Brighton, he did show a glimpse of his talent for which he was brought in from Shakhtar.
And according to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, the midfielder has gotten his confidence back due to the constant run of games that he has been playing thanks to the absence of Paul Pogba.
“You get confidence from playing games,” Solskjaer told a press conference[as quoted by Goal].
“He has not really had a run of games and I think he set us up with his midfield play.
“He won the ball. We had to get after them because, with Propper and [Dale] Stephens in midfield, we couldn’t let them get on the ball and I thought Fred was maybe the catalyst.
“Maybe there were a couple of fouls he shouldn’t have made in the first half to give them chances because that was one of the big opportunities they had, from set-plays. But, otherwise, he was excellent.”
Fred’s game by numbers vs. Brighton:
100% aerial duels won
79% pass accuracy
12 ball recoveries
3/3 long balls
2/3 dribbles
2 tackles won
1 through ballFirst among Man Utd players for passes and ball recoveries. 🙌 pic.twitter.com/hWlehNxq41
— Statman Dave (@StatmanDave) November 10, 2019
While Fred certainly has done pretty well but it will be interesting to see what the Man United manager will do once Paul Pogba returns back to full fitness.
Obviously, Pogba will get to start whenever he’s available for selection and with Scott McTominay a guaranteed starter, the selection process will surely be a headache for the manager.
There is one possibility though that the Brazilian gets to play in the attacking midfielder’s role just behind the front three replacing Andreas Pereira.
