The Premier League’s imminent return means that all sides in the division are working hard to get back up to fitness ahead of a hectic run-in.
Manchester United still have a Champions League spot in their sights and will be keen to pick up as many points as they can between now and the end of the campaign.
Despite this fixture-filled flurry that’s to come, attention has unsurprisingly turned towards the imminent transfer window, with teams likely to move fast and make up for lost time ahead of the 2020-21 campaign.
United already posses a plethora of attacking talent in the forms of Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial, Mason Greenwood, Paul Pogba and Bruno Fernandes.
With Jadon Sancho potentially arriving this summer to bolster their forward ranks, it’s important that strong defensive foundations are in place in order to provide good balance throughout the side.
Solskjaer recognised the need for a solid base last summer and made big moves to reinforce the United backline, recruiting both Harry Maguire and Aaron Wan-Bissaka. However, questions still lingered about the suitability of midfielder Fred.
The Brazilian suffered an indifferent first season in the Premier League following his £50million move from Shakhtar Donetsk in 2018. He failed to truly establish himself and ended up amassing a total of just 1118 Premier League minutes.
Yet this season, he has become an integral member of the side and has already eclipsed last season’s Premier League playing total having played 2194 league minutes, with nine games still to go.
This increase in playing time has largely been as a reward for his much-improved performances which have helped him earn the title as one of the league’s best midfielders. Whilst a solid and accurate passer of the ball, it’s his work out of possession that has been so impressive for United. He is tenacious, determined, fast and a great reader of the game.
Whilst often anchored in the centre of the pitch, his work rate and ability to snuff out danger sees him operating across all areas of the pitch, making him a difficult presence for attacking sides to evade - the same is illustrated in the below defensive actions map from this season.
His all-action approach is further highlighted by the fact that across this season, he ranks second in the Premier League for defensive duels attempted. Additionally, he ranks eighth across all central midfielders in the division in terms of possession adjusted (PAdj) interceptions completed per 90 minutes.
(You can see the above graphic in high-definition here)
That average of 7.91 interceptions per 90 is a marked increase on last seasons average of 6.8 and perhaps acts as a good illustration of the 27-year-old’s overall increased in importance for United.
This season, Fred has proved to be the glue through the middle and an option to anchor United's midfield. It is expected that Nemanja Matic will shield the back four behind Bruno Fernandes and Paul Pogba at Tottenham on Friday but Fred is also firmly in the equation. Without his presiding protection in front of the defence, irrespective of formation, Solskjaer may have been forced to sacrifice one or even more of his attacking talents to provide more defensive solidity.
Therefore it’s fair to argue that in many ways, Fred has become Solskjaer’s most important player in terms of maintaining an equilibrium between their attack and defence.
