The lads weren’t great there to be fair. I’d give the half to Thiago and Gini there but Fred is playing them by himself as usual. The forwards have done nothing.
McFred is the worst midfield 2 of the PL’s top 10 teams
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If we have to play Pogba on the left wing because we don’t have a viable midfielder to play alongside him then that’s a problem in itself. He’s a midfielder not a winger.
McTominay is horrendous on the ball isn't he?
If only midfield was all about interceptions. We surrender the midfield in every big game they play.
Mctominay has been poor today, but don't really have any other option do we? Pogba is very suspect in defence, rather him stay at left. I really hope we go for someone like Rice in the summer.
There’s twisting the truth and there’s this. He’s on the left because he can’t play in midfield beside anyone. Matic/Fred/Ander- none of them were the answer. Pogba can’t play in a midfield 2. That’s the long and short of it. That’s why he’s on the left.
Pogba at his worst in a midfield 2 is still leagues ahead of these 2. Doesn’t get anymore mediocre than McFred. Awful.
McTominay has definitely been an issue.
Fred has done well. Another poor half from McSauce though.
Like I said on my other post he’s not worse than these 2 in midfield I dont care what anybody says. Fred and McTominay? better than Pogba (who I accept is better in a midfield 3) no chance.
Id take Pogba’s defensive frailties over the bang average performances we see consistently from these 2.
Right. You clearly have an unbiased idea of how Pogba has actually performed in a 2 over his time here and the amount of times he let us down defensively jogging through games? He’s way more intense and useful on the wing or on the left of a midfield 3. He can’t be given defensive duties.
They've carried the ball forward well and haven't lost possession needlessly either. The problem is that the moment they pass the ball forward, none of our attackers and creative players can do something productive with it.
Number 1 problem for current United team.
Absolute nonsense. McFred on a bad day are shite going forward. Pogba is invisible defensively which is far more destructive.
They're showing why we need an actual DM and not 2 players who take up vaguely defensive positions and then overcommit, leaving the back 4 exposed. They do it over and over again.
They don't provide more stability, nor do they really create anything.
I disagree. We've been poor, but McTominay and Fred have arguably been the least of our issues.
Pogba has been the worst player on the pitch.
I’ve figured it out with Mct. He’s unsure of his touch so he puts it into a general area and uses his body to shield the ball and pick his next pass. It slows us down and he can only take the ball with a lot of space to open up. The thing is he’s behind the play and his passing isn’t great. He’s not really been putting in decisive tackles either. Just running and pressing. It’s odd enough that he’s playing so much.
That’s why we need a top class DM and not 2 mediocre players who don’t really seem to excel at anything other than having decent work rate?
There are plenty of candidates but Rashford has been comfortably worse. Absolutely nothing has come off for him so far.
If your midfielder's pass completion drops below 80%, then that is poor. If it drops below 70%, then that should tell you where the big problem is. Let's hope McTominay improves in the second half because our biggest problem isn't shielding the defence from midfield, but rather showing some craft and guile from deeper.
Mctominay showing why we desperately need a midfielder in the summer, he can’t continue to be a regular starter, just isn’t good enough on or off the ball.
You’re right, he’s been so bad I forgot he was even on the pitch.McTominay's first half stats:
Pass accuracy: 66.7% Possession lost: 12 Ball recoveries: 6
He's been really poor.
Shambles
Fred and McTominay should be the players coming into the Leicester game, not starting the bigger game. I'm not massively against them but do feel they're squad player quality, or should be.
Nah that’s nonsense. They offer this team absolutely nothing technically and barely even offer much defensively they’re poor at everything but work rate.
Pogba isn’t ideal in a 2 but he’s better than either of these 2
Without the Maguire behind them, McFred will be exposed more than ever against top midfields. Maguire brings a calming presence to the back 4 and midfield.
It's laughable that some are saying Ole bottled the league title by going too cautious too often. 2nd place and a Europa league title would be a miracle return with this squad.
We need a Pau Torres and a Saul Niguez in the summer for this team to improve next season. I don't think there will be any money left over for Sancho too.
It's laughable that some are saying Ole bottled the league title by going too cautious too often. 2nd place and a Europa league title would be a miracle return with this squad.
We need a Pau Torres and a Saul Niguez in the summer for this team to improve next season. I don't think there will be any money left over for Sancho too.
That's the problem
That's just not true though? He's been absolutely phenomenal whenever he's played in a 2 next to Kante for France. Matic/Fred/Ander are not the only types of players that can play in a double pivot. I can easily see him in a midfield two next to a genuine holding midfielder like a Casemiro or a Rodri, or even a Pjanic/Verrati type that are comfortable on the ball.
I agree, hence wanting United to sign a player in midfield who will provide the discipline, ball retention, along with the line breaking ability which is, imo non existent in midfield for us currently. Pogba isn't the answer in a two because defensively he's poor.
Fred facing our own goal and loses the ball again. A lot happens after that from Shaw, Lindelof and Hendo But it stems from that.
His ball winning stats are meaningless when he has done this 5 times this season.
His ball winning stats are meaningless when he has done this 5 times this season.
you think a Pogba Verrati midfield would cut it in the PL? Seriously?
That's happened a lot. Must be six/seven times now since Ole took over that Fred has given away that pass which resulted in a goal (last time was against Leicester in the FA cup)
Fred again
Verrati probably not. But I don't see why a hypothetical Rodri/Pogba midfielder wouldn't work. The absolute number one priority of this transfer window, is finding someone like that so we can play Pogba deeper, have two actual wingers on the pitch, and then rotate both McTominay and Fred where necessary. Because ultimately they are both squad players.
You can't play out the back with the ability of these two on the ball. Not against a team like Liverpool anyway.
No idea why people defend Fred so much. He is so poor on the ball