Troy Deeney has revealed Watford players identified Fred as Manchester United's main weakness when the two sides met earlier in the year.
United secured a 3-0 win over Watford at the end of February in a close game which saw the visitors threaten early and see a goal ruled out by VAR.
Looking back on the game Deeney thought his side were unlucky not to take anything from the Old Trafford encounter, and he has revealed how Watford's tactics looked to exploit Fred in midfield.
“I thought Bruno [Fernandes] was very good, surprised me how good he was," Deeney told The United Stand.
“I liked Fred – although he gives the ball away a lot he always wants it. So sometimes you see a player lose the ball and then they just go safe, backwards, left, right, he’s just like, ‘Alright, I lost it, but next one’.
“Because we targeted him. We targeted him, not the manager, but on the pitch he gave the ball away two or three times and we were like, ‘Let him have it and then we’ll jump on him’.
“We probably won the ball back four or five times in the first half. We tried to do that because we know he likes to take four or five touches instead of maybe doing the two.”
