Manchester United midfielder Fred has given Ralf Rangnick a winning start to life at Old Trafford and has come out to state that he feels “very blessed” to be the one to do it.
Ralf Rangnick’s side played some very different football in a 4-2-2-2 formation which showed lots of promise as they dominated the game from start to finish. The narrow scoreline betrays the fact that Manchester United played some of their best defensive and attacking football this season on matchday 15.
It took Fred’s right-footed effort to break the deadlock in the 77th minute as Crystal Palace also magaed to stave off Manchester United’s pressure in the game.
The 28-year-old’s goal was celebrated by his United teammates who were really happy to see the much criticised midfielder get his moment in the spotlight, and Fred feels blessed to be able to have such a moment.
The Brazilian spoke to Manchester United media after the match. “It’s always good to score in a game, but today we win 1-0 and it’s nice that my goal can be so important,” a happy Fred told Stewart Gardner of MUTV.
“Of course, above all, the most important thing is the win to help the team. It was a good performance, we played very well and kept a clean sheet too.
“With it being the first game with our new coach it is so important for us to keep things moving day after day and be ready for the next game.”
Fred also gave some insight into his goal. The midfielder is a left-footer, but tries to make plays and shoot quite often with his weaker right foot.
“With me being left footed, sometimes I try (to shoot) with my right,” Fred explained. “Mason gave me a good ball and in that moment I just looked for the goal and it happened.
“I’m very blessed and so happy to score one more goal here at Old Trafford, in front of our fans.”
Rangnick praises team after impressive display
Interim manager Ralf Rangnick admitted after the match that he did not expect his team to play so well after the events which he witnessed in the past week.
The Red Devils’ impressive performance and win over Crystal Palace came after just one training session under Rangnick who assumed command of the team after caretaker manager Michael Carrick led the team to a 3-2 victory over Arsenal on matchday 14.
In his post-match comments to journalists, Rangnick claimed that he was “surprised” by his players’ performances, who looked like a different team compared to recent weeks.
“I’m more than happy,” the 63-year-old told Sky Sports. “First of all, most importantly, we won the game. Second, we had a clean sheet, third I think we no doubt deserved to win, because we had control of the game.
“I suppose it (the Red Devils’ possession) was more than 60 per cent, and we didn’t give them that many chances to score.
“To be honest I was positively surprised by the performance of the players.
“I didn’t expect us to play at that level after only one-and-a-half training days together with them.”
Rangnick also mentioned the weather from the day before the match, calling it ‘disgusting’ as it afforded the team little chance to train.
“We didn’t have a full training session ahead of this game, yesterday was disgusting weather,” the German said. “It was not even Manchester weather. It [training] was 45 minutes.
“The rest was video footage. I didn’t expect them to play at that kind of level after such a short time.”
Manchester United fans hail Fred
Fred’s goal comes on the back of superb performances in the past eight days, where the Manchester United midfielder showed signs of redemption.
Fred was a mainstay of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s Manchester United but barely got any praise and barely had any positive things said about him every time he played. Michael Carrick, in his short term as United’s caretaker, pushed the right buttons and Fred began to show the quality which Brazil’s national team have come to rely on in the middle of the park.
Manchester United fans took to social media to praise the 28-year-old for his performance and his goal after the midfielder grabbed the first goal of the Ralf Rangnick era.
Fans have witnessed the many shades of Fred on the pitch and now hope that his recent good form continues as the games start to come hard and fast.