Ralf Rangnick says Fred produced one of his best performances since he took over as Manchester United manager three-and-a-half months ago.
Fred, a constant pick under previous permanent manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, has thrived under Rangnick, scoring two goals and creating another four.
The Brazilian flicked the ball into Cristiano Ronaldo's path for the opening goal in the 3-2 win over Tottenham and Fred seems certain to keep his place for the Champions League round-of-16 first leg against Atletico Madrid on Tuesday.
READ MORE: Rangnick jokes United might have to change Ronaldo's pre-match routine
Rangnick said Fred and Scott McTominay were the best 'ball-winners' in the United squad but a calf problem prevented McTominay from starting against Spurs and he could miss the Atletico tie.
"He's probably, together with Scott McTominay, one the best ball-winners if the other team is in possession," Rangnick said of Fred. "He also showed today in quite a few counter-attacks and transitional moments he can play perfect balls, he gave the assist for the first goal to Cristiano.
"So also, from Fred, it's one of the best performances since I was here."
United host Atletico with the scoreline 1-1 on aggregate from the first leg and are bidding to reach the quarter-finals of the Champions League for only the third time in the last 10 years.
Rangnick has enjoyed some vital home wins already and is optimistic United can get the supporters to create a partisan atmosphere: "It's up to us. The atmosphere is always like that if we play like that today, against West Ham it was similar and quite a few other games at home.
"But it's up to us to play on that level, maybe 10 or 20 per cent higher than that level than we did today. We know about the physicality of the Atletico team, we saw in the first-half in Madrid what can happen if you don't meet those demands physically and this is what we have to do.
"We have one day less in order to recover compared to them because they played last night. But the game today, the result, the way we performed will give us a boost."
Sign up to our United newsletter so you never miss an update from Old Trafford this season.
Catch up on all the latest Reds headlines in our United section
