Former Manchester United ace Owen Hargreaves has described Fred as the ‘complete midfield player’ and believes the Brazilian can improve further by adding goals to his game.
The 27-year-old had an average debut season last term following his move from Shakhtar Donetsk and he was restricted to just 13 starts in the entire Premier League campaign.
That trend continued during the first few months of the current season but the midfielder benefited from the injury setback for Paul Pogba to command a regular starting role from October.
Fred has since improved on his performances on a game-by-game basis and he has particularly caught the eye with the defensive displays from the centre of the park.
As per whoscored, the Brazilian has averaged more tackles (2.2) and interceptions (1.4) per game in the Premier League than any other United midfielder.
Speaking to Premier League productions, Hargreaves stated that he has been impressed with the progress made by the South American, who was out-of-favour under Solskjaer at the start of the season.
He added that Fred can be the ‘perfect midfield player’, provided he can contribute more goals for the team, he told, as relayed by Goal.com:“He’s a complete midfield player but if he can add goals to his game then he’ll be the perfect midfield player.
“In possession he’s very good, out of possession he’s really aggressive. I think because they paid £50m for Fred and he’s Brazilian that people thought he was a No.10 but he isn’t. He’s not a goalscorer and he’s not really creative but what he is is a really good midfield player.”
Over the past few months, Fred has played alongside Nemanja Matic in the centre of the park and that has brought the best out of him, considering he has been able to join his teammates on the attack with the assurance that the Serbian will hold his position.
Fred has bagged two goals and four assists for United this season but those contributions have come entirely in the Europa League. In the top-flight, he has been in a number of good scoring positions throughout the campaign but his efforts on goal have mostly been wide of the target.
