Brazilian football legend Roberto Carlos has revealed Manchester United star Fred is the player from his country he would have most liked to play alongside.
The much-maligned midfielder has often caught flack for his performances at Old Trafford, but clearly has an admirer in former Real Madrid favourite Carlos, who claimed Fred and his new United teammate Casemiro are the Selecao stars he'd get the most joy out of playing alongside.
When asked why he chose Fred, Carlos replied: "He is a player that would provide amazing coverage for me to go forward, I'm very offensive so these players are going to cover well for me." Fred's United career has certainly been a turbulent one, with some putting his past poor performances down to lack of ability while others claim the system didn't suit him.
The 29-year-old is yet to play the full 90 minutes in any of the Red Devils' six Premier League games under new boss Erik ten Hag. His lion's share of league minutes has come in the two defeats by Brighton and Brentford on match days one and two.
Since then, Ten Hag has often overlooked Fred - with the midfielder playing a combined total of 46 minutes across the four league games that have taken place since. Perhaps more troubling for the former Shakhtar Donetsk star is the fact that United lost the two games he started and have won every fixture he hasn't.
In the recent wins over Southampton and Leicester City, Fred was introduced with less than four minutes to play on both occasions. The opening exchanges of life under Ten Hag have been drastically different for Fred compared to his time under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and interim coach Ralf Rangnick.
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Eased in during his debut campaign, the two seasons after saw Fred feature 48 times across all competitions. Last term saw a slight decline to 36, but certainly still enough to be deemed a 'regular' - especially considering that decrease is mainly due to injuries and a spell on the sidelines with Covid.
Ten Hag has deployed summer signing Christian Eriksen in the number six role, with the Denmark international taking to the new position seamlessly and offering an entirely different edge to United's creativity.
Eriksen's superior ability to break lines with eye of the needle passes alongside a more resilient back four with Lisandro Martinez and Raphael Varane at the heart of it has reduced the need for Fred to be in the side.
The Brazilian was handed a rare start under Ten Hag against Real Sociedad on match day one of the Europa League, but delivered a performance so disastrous he was dropped for the next game in the competition against minnows Sheriff Tiraspol.
* Brazil 2002: The Real Story produced by Entourage Sport & Entertainment and Collective Media and co-produced by Roberto Carlos and Juliano Belletti will be available on Sky Documentaries from the 13 November
