Fred

Fred abuse is simply unacceptable

Tuesday 23 March 2021 11:20

On Sunday, Fred under-hit a pass to goalkeeper Dean Henderson as Manchester United's 29-match unbeaten domestic run away run, spanning back to the loss at Liverpool long before lockdown, came to an end.

To say some of the reaction to the Emirates FA Cup exit to the third-best team in the division, in Leicester City, has been hysterical would be an under-statement and Fred, for that part in Kelechi Iheanacho's opening goal, has been singled out, in particular.

The depressingly familiar tale of racial abuse on social media swiftly followed and this simply cannot be allowed to continue. The club is working extremely hard to address it and, clearly, it is totally unacceptable.

So it was encouraging to see Fred post a response on his official social media accounts and acknowledge this "hate" that came his way in the wake of the King Power Stadium clash.

Only a couple of weeks ago, I spoke to him for United Review, the official matchday programme, and obviously our mood was extremely positive. It is easy to see why the cheerful South American is so popular at the Aon Training Complex, not only because of his work ethic and the fact he is very much a team player.

After doing some research for our chat, it is apparent how much influence he has on our defensive solidity. In the last 20 Premier League games he has started, we have conceded only 13 goals, and it is now three in his last 10 outings in the league.

Any observer can see how Fred's work has helped United keep things tight at the back and his physical output in every game is also impressive.

When asked about these figures, our Brazilian midfielder replied: "I’m really happy about this because it’s a great statistic. Our objective when we get on the pitch is obviously not to concede. It’s really satisfying to be able to contribute to the team on the pitch with this. Unfortunately, I haven’t been scoring many goals but I’ve been able to help the team in not conceding many goals. I hope to continue working hard and doing my best, that’s the most important thing for the team.

“I think this [defensive work] is important across the whole team. It starts with the attackers working hard defensively and marking so that we don’t concede. I think if the team continues working hard together and united it will be important for us in keeping clean sheets. Our attack is really quick and strong, so if we don’t concede at the back we know we’re going to score goals.”

Fred helped set up the goal and keep out AC Milan at the San Siro last week.

Probably one of the most basic stats in football is merely looking at how the team performs while a player is on the pitch, in terms of goals scored minus goals conceded. When we spoke to Fred, he was joint-top for United in this regard, with Bruno Fernandes.

At the time, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side had a goal difference of +38 when Fred was on the field, the same as Bruno, with skipper Harry Maguire in third on +36.

Perhaps indicating his selfless nature, the South American's response to this information was to shine a light on Fernandes, explaining: "Bruno is a brilliant player and we’ve got a great relationship, both on and off the pitch. He's a great player, I’m really happy about how successful he’s been. That’s a great statistic as we’ve been working hard together whenever we’re together on the pitch we score and we’re also defending well. 

“I hope we can keep this up as the team can only benefit from this and that’s important."

And this is the crux of the matter, as Ole stressed after the game at the weekend. It's a team game - we win and lose together.

Only a few days earlier, Fred had been a key part of the effort in the San Siro that secured progress in the Europa League on the back of a clean sheet against AC Milan, a side currently sitting second in Serie A, on their home turf. The midfielder had been involved in setting up Paul Pogba's winner and the squad returned to Manchester in the middle of the night with a sense of satisfaction.

Leicester was always going to be a difficult test and Leicester scorer Youri Tielemans acknowledged afterwards that the full week's preparation, compared to United's journey to Italy and back, had helped the Foxes. It is not an excuse, it is a fact. The team lost, not Fred. We even hit back to cancel out that opening goal before half-time, through Mason Greenwood.

Believe me, as somebody whose first experience of glory with the Reds was winning the FA Cup in 1983 and then again two years later, no-one is ever more upset to go out of the competition than I am. Yet the general response to the exit at the weekend has been pretty shocking. Of course, negativity generates online clicks and it is easy to target United given our huge fan-base and popularity. However, some of the reaction is, in my opinion, well over the top.

None more so than seeing the abuse Fred has been subjected to. Of course, the terrible racial comments must be condemned, first and foremost. But some of the criticism of individual performance could also benefit from taking things into context and not rushing to knee-jerk judgements, nor seeking out scapegoats every time a loss occurs.

The opinions in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of Manchester United Football Club.

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