It has been widely speculated that Manchester United are about to make Brazilian midfielder Fred their first signing of the summer. The deal is thought to be anything between £47m and £52m.

The twenty-five year old has also been linked with Premier League champions Manchester City but it seems that Jose Mourinho has pipped Pep Guardiola to his signature with City now looking at Napoli middle man Jorginho.

Fred himself has suggested that he’s ready for a new challenge:

“I’m very happy at Shakhtar. I’ve been working well here, but it has been five years.”

“I made it clear to the club that I was very happy here, but I want to make a bigger leap in my career. There are other clubs interested in England and France. I want to make a bigger leap, I made it clear to the club.”

So why are United so keen to tie up the deal to bring Fred from Shakhtar Donetsk? 

Well Jose clearly still feels he has issues in his engine room.

At times he felt Namanja Matic was being overworked as Paul Pogba switched off from his defensive duties. Youngster Scott McTominay filled in well but I believe Mourinho was always going to sign another midfielder who had more experience during this transfer window.

Question marks still surround the United careers of Pogba and Ander Herrera, while Marouane Fellaini is almost certainly leaving Old Trafford on a free transfer.

Fred is an exciting dynamic midfielder who can use both feet confidently, is comfortable dribbling the ball directly at opponents, can make defence splitting passes to the forward players and who plays with his head up.

Importantly he’s also a midfielder that doesn’t shirk from the defensive side of the game. Fred has a good engine on him, so if the ball is heading in the wrong direction then the Brazilian internationalist will chase after it and hope to snuff out any potential trouble.

While the arrival of Fred may have some suggesting that Pogba is definitely on his way out, you could make a case that with the Brazil midfielder coming in that could see Jose playing with a three man midfield (a formation Paul appreciates) or it could see the French maestro pushed further forward into the number ten role (where he’d be given more attacking freedom). It could actually be the making of the Frenchman in a Man Utd jersey!

Fernandinho made a similar footballing journey to Fred. He too went from his homeland to Ukraine and then the defensive midfielder arrived in Manchester, becoming a hero at the Etihad. Man United will hope, if they sign Fred, that he can have the same impact at Old Trafford.

All in all, Jose Mourinho will hope that he has solved a problem if he can clinch the deal to bring in the star before the World Cup kicks off next month. The Portuguese boss has to believe that Fred can become that consistent performer that can start attacks and defend valiantly beside Matic in the middle of the park.

It also shows that Manchester United aren’t waiting around in their pursuit of glory for next season.

Posted on May 24th, 2018 by scott
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