The time the concept of " McFred" was born was probably 10:34 a.m. on September 14, 2019 (UK time). That was when Paul Pogba was determined not to participate in the match between Manchester United and Leicester City. A Twitter account named @youwastingtime posted a status that followed just one word " McFred" with the symbol of the strong arm. In that match, Scott McTominay and Fred were placed together in the center of midfield. After playing with sad results rather than happy, from the 2023-2024 season, this pair may not repeat it. From there, the concept of " McFred" may no longer be a thing of the past.
During this summer's US tour, Fred will not join Man United. At the age of 30, the Brazilian midfielder has only 1 year left on his contract and is being valued quite low, only about 20 million pounds. Currently, only Galatasaray and Fulham are teams linked with Man United in this deal. However, if Fred wants to join the general trend in Saudi Arabia, he can also consider a moderate salary to move to this country to compete.
As for McTominay, he was just included in the "Red Devils" liquidation combo with West Ham when the Manchester team offered McTominay and Maguire for £77 million. In the end, only Maguire was able to sell it for £30 million, while McTominay is still at Old Trafford. Thus, if no transfers occur, the McFred pair will stay at Man United.
However, staying is another matter, but whether McFred can stand side by side together is not another matter. The answer seems to be no! Since Casemiro's arrival, Erik ten Hag has let the pair start together exactly twice and all in the League Cup arena. The Dutch coach only considered using this pair once when no one could play in that position anymore. When Christian Eriksen was out due to injury, Man United immediately welcomed Marcel Sabitzer from Bayern Munich. In the next match, Casemiro was sentenced to a 3-match suspension and Sabitzer was immediately added to the starting lineup.
Perhaps Fred's golden period was only when Ralf Rangnick was in charge. The German tactician especially likes to use the Brazilian midfielder. However, when paired with McFred in the first 6/10 matches, Rangnick also felt unwell. In the following 19 matches, this pair only appeared exactly 5 times in Rangnick's starting lineup.
Looking at the big picture, the golden period of this couple was during Ole Solskjaer's time. The Norwegian has started 61 of his 168/80 games in charge of McFred. Man United under Solsa were better with McFred but the results were not too impressive when they did not start them. Under Ole, M.U averaged 1.76 points with McFred as a starter and 1.68 points without them. This gap is wider under Rangnick when the figures are 1.82 points and 1.28 points respectively.
Whether McFred is good or not is still a 100% problem, but Ten Hag's assessment shows that Man United should not let them start from the start. This pair is not considered the main reason for the "Red Devils" going down together, they are considered the image representing the improvement in form to be more accurate.
