Manchester United were able to notch their first win in the post-Ole Gunnar Solskjaer era with a convincing 2-0 win over Villarreal in the UEFA Champions League.
The win means United will finish top of their group in the Champions League with a game to spare, a handy opportunity for any prospective manager to test out their tactics and players.
We also saw much-needed encouraging performances from individual players against Villarreal. Jadon Sancho continued from where he left off against Watford on the right-wing, this time scoring a beautiful goal to make it 2-0.
The backline, and especially the centre-back pairing of Harry Maguire and Victor Lindelof were back at their best.
But. in my opinion, Fred 's role and consequently fine display definitely needs mentioning.
The Brazilian midfielder has often been played in a double pivot, or even as the more defensive-minded midfielder in the pivot. Being asked to drop back and dictate play has never been Fred’s style of play, as was shown time and again under Solskjaer.
For his national team under head coach Tite, Fred is normally played in a similar role to a box-to-box midfielder or the modern-day equivalent - being asked to cover all the pitch between the penalty areas without too much of a fixed position, while also adding either direct dribbling or passing.
N’Golo Kante has become a phenomenon in this role - his genuine position. It is drivel to call the France star a mere defensive midfielder.
Fred has normally played this role for Brazil next to a dedicated defensive midfielder, like Fabinho or Casemiro, and thrives.
He was arguably their star player in the 2021 Copa America and again impressed during the recent 0-0 World Cup qualification draw against bitter rivals Argentina
Carrick seemingly took inspiration from Tite and used Fred in his natural position, which didn’t go unnoticed in the team’s performance.
Even though he completed an excellent 92% of his passes, including four out of four long passes, it was Fred’s defensive display and high-pressing that stole the show.
The 28-year-old was responsible for Ronaldo’s opener after harassing Etienne Capoue into giving the ball straight to the goalscorer.
The second goal was more of the same story. Fred harried Villarreal into turning over possession, found Ronaldo, who recycled the ball to Scott McTominay and the counter was on.
These were moments that showed why Fred was bought for £47million in 2018. Akin to an Energizer bunny, he was an opposition midfielder’s nightmare back in his Shakhtar days.
The Villarreal game showed more of the Fred that United fans expected when their club secured a player previously coveted by Pep Guardiola.
His intelligent passing, ability to push the ball up through the middle-third of the pitch and knack for being everywhere when his team operated a high press was why he became known as ‘the Conductor’ in Ukraine.
When Ralf Rangnick takes over as interim manager for Manchester United, he will want the Fred we saw against Villarreal.
Rangnick is a known advocate of high-pressing. Akin to how Pep Guardiola, Mauricio Pochettino, and Diego Simeone attribute Marcelo Bielsa for their systems, the likes of Thomas Tuchel, Julian Nagelsmann, and Jurgen Klopp attribute Rangnick for their famous high-pressing systems.
Similar to how Marcel Sabitzer and Naby Keita thrived in the Red Bull systems at both Salzburg and Leipzig, Fred can emulate these two players' performances as marauding pressers of the ball who can offer attacking input in the form of splitting-passes.
Even though the Brazilian has been on the receiving end of criticism for years from some fans, his performances in his natural position show that he is a man United can easily rely on going forward.
Carrick has provided the Tite blueprint for Ralf Rangnick. Fred should be able to thrive and I can feel justified in owning a Manchester United shirt with Fred on the back of it.
