21 Oct 2020 00:21:47
Great Result tonight.

A few things I noticed I wonder if people think the same.

Tuanzebe - Could potentially be our best CB given a run of games.
Shaw - Looks a much better player when playing as a back 3.
Fred - Arguably our best midfielder behind Fernandes. Things seem to click when he is on the pitch and I think he deserves to be starting more.

1.) 21 Oct 2020
21 Oct 2020 07:01:14
Great result last night

Noticeable how much better we play when away from home against the big teams by playing 3 central defenders, either 3 5 2 or 5 3 2 it’s Oles go to tactic in those games and can be effective. Delighted with the result.

2.) 21 Oct 2020
21 Oct 2020 07:16:50
I’d take Fred over Pogba every day of the week. Not because he’s a better footballer, but because he’s less of a liability and one wants to play for us, the other doesn’t.

I think Shaw was very good last night. Dare I say borderline intelligent in the way he was stepping out of the back to close down play at the right times. Having another player to his left means he doesn’t go awol.

3.) 21 Oct 2020
21 Oct 2020 08:03:32
I think just about every player played well or made a contribution.
Martial was poor but still won a pen.
Ole got all the big calls right.

Pogba out of the team is better. We played well when he was injured since his return post lockdown our form has been getting progressively worse. He can be a useful impact sub.

Lots calling for this shape for a long time it has great advantages for poor defenders in a 4 like shaw lindelof and will help maguire. Axel was great. He is a big unit.
Telles offered quality device from the left.

Awb needs to improve in that area.
Get greenwood or cavani in for martial and we will have more of a goal threat.
Great start to the group. A win against rbl in the next round of matches sets us up to get out of the group.

4.) 21 Oct 2020
21 Oct 2020 08:12:46
Although Fred played better last night, he still squandered a bunch of passes, he's still a very average midfielder at best.

5.) 21 Oct 2020
21 Oct 2020 08:40:45
Fred covered every blade of grass. His passion, attitude and energy are unbelievable.
Only scrutiny of him would be not to loose possession by giving away loose balls.

6.) 21 Oct 2020
21 Oct 2020 09:08:16
Ken where you not adamant that ighalo was our best striker and he shoukd be leading the line.

7.) 21 Oct 2020
21 Oct 2020 09:33:18
Big Difference night was OGS had quality options all across the bench too. - VDB, Pogba, Mata etc. Something that was lacking all last season.

8.) 21 Oct 2020
21 Oct 2020 09:47:06
@TRD, Fred ran a lot, Sanchez ran a lot, Lingard runs a lot, doesn't make them great. He still gave away many balls and was unable to spot passing opportunities. I also heard Solskjaer screaming for him to stick to the right when they switched to a diamond, which suggests he isn't able to stick to a position or adapt on the fly. Fred main positive is that he breaks play, more often slowing it down rather than gaining possession. One thing last night was that we had a bit of luck that many of his loose balls fell to a United player, that isn't often the case in the EPL with opposition players quicker to pounce.

9.) 21 Oct 2020
21 Oct 2020 09:51:26
It's fine to change an opinion Jred i'm sure you have done it many times before.

Igahlo is a mess now. He looks over weight. i'm sure when Ken said he should be the line leader he was talking about a fitter Igahlo.

And I agree with him, get a proper forward and we have a better side.

10.) 21 Oct 2020
21 Oct 2020 10:01:47
I think what happens with a lot of players is people make their mind up early about them. Then they are blind to how they actually perform.

Fred is a perfect example. While there has rightly been a lot of praise for his workmanlike performance, how he covered every blade of grass, how he hassled and harassed the PSG players, tackles and interceptions. There are still comments about him being poor in possession, or giving the ball away too much last night.

When in fact that just isn't true. Fred finished the game with a pass success rate of 90.3%, of all the players to have played the full 90 minutes only Shaw (90.5%) and Kimpembe (94.4%) had a better pass success rate.

The reality is that we have a preconditioned bias when watching players. Every poor pass Fred makes stands out because we are expecting it. Which means when reflecting on the game we feel Fred's passing was poor because we remember the 2 or 3 poor passes.

Fred isn't a Xavi type player, he isn't a passing metronome. He is a worker, he gets through twice the work of most midfielders to allow freedom to others. Players like Bruno wouldn't have as much freedom to create if there weren't players like Fred giving them that freedom by doing the dirty work.

{Ed001's Note - your stats do not prove you correct. A completed pass only takes into account whether the ball ends up at the feet of a teammate, not whether it was the teammate the ball was passed to or if it takes a lucky deflection etc. It is tiresome reading this constant abuse of stats by you, with never a bit of context, just a biased ridiculous agenda. I have not seen the game, so I have no idea whether his passing was bad or not, but your use of stats makes Lukaku's first touch seem world class.}

11.) 21 Oct 2020
21 Oct 2020 11:05:31
Stats or not I used my eyes and thought Fred was amazing last night, his best performances for us have always been in Europe.

12.) 21 Oct 2020
21 Oct 2020 11:19:55
I though Fred had a very good game last night.

13.) 21 Oct 2020
21 Oct 2020 13:42:54
Agree Ed, a good pass is when the passer does the work for the receiver, if the receiver has to adjust their run or back peddle or tussle with an opposition player, then the pass wasn't very good, most of Fred's passes fall into the 'receiver has to work to receive the ball' category. Does anyone truly believe that Fred would have made the pass Pogba makes for Rashford to score? The pass was simple, but Rashford doesn't need to do anything extra, just take up the ball and continue his run.

Fred had a decent game last night, but it was nothing exception, no better than McTominay.