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Former Manchester United manager, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, and his former teammate Roy Keane, were seen disagreeing over the importance and quality of Fred during a recent interview together.
The now Fenerbahce midfielder was a regular under the Norwegian coach and formed half of the much-maligned “McFred” partnership that had United fans tearing their hair out at times.
However, the former number 20 defended both midfielders and compared them favourably to United’s current batch of players.
While speaking on Sky Sport’s The Overlap YouTube channel, the former coach sympathised with manager, Erik ten Hag about his side’s lack of consistency.
Solskjaer asserted that it was a “horrible” feeling to not know what you were going to get from your players and claimed he was lucky to have midfielders who “would give you seven or eight out of ten every time”.
The former Molde manager labelled Nemanja Matic, Scott McTominay and Fred as such players.
Not famed for holding back, one of the panel members, Roy Keane, could not contain his disbelief.
Solskjaer claimed players like Fred would “give you everything, that’s the best feeling”.
It was at this moment that the former United captain interrupted and simply asked, “Fred? seven or eight every time? Not sure about that one”, while pulling a jokingly surprised face.
Clearly a bit irritated by the Irishman’s comment, Solskjaer launched a defence of the 31 year old.
“I really liked him in midfield. Legs, they needed them legs in midfield.”
Most fans would probably side with Keane on this one as there was no doubt that Fred could put in a great shift but he was wildly inconsistent and incredibly erratic with his passing.
What the Norwegian said also stands true in the sense that Fred would run all day and press and press for his side, but sometimes he would look like a dog chasing a plastic bag on a windy day on the beach.
Legs, yes, consistency, not so much. There would even be games where the midfielder would play completely differently in both halves never mind in other games.
However, perhaps Fred is having the last laugh as he is excelling in Turkey for his new side, as they sit just behind Galatasaray in the Turkish league and are fighting for the title. Meanwhile United flounder in sixth place in the Premier League.