Manchester United’s Fred enjoyed a useful debut in the centre of midfield last Friday night, as he made his Premier League debut for the club in a 2-1 win over Leicester City. The Brazilian, purchased from Shakhtar Donetsk in June, lined up alongside Paul Pogba and Andreas Pereira at Old Trafford last week, and the trio frequently linked well with each other.
Fred’s path to United only became clear towards the end of the last season, with Manchester City heavily rumoured to be close to securing his services in January of this year, but for his part, the player seems content with his current surroundings, and happy to have moved to the club.
“There were options in England and in Europe,” Fred told ESPN in quotes carried by the Manchester Evening News. “Manchester City, PSG, but I chose United. I spoke to my agent Gilberto Silva, who played for Arsenal. He told me that United was a huge club. I spoke to my family and friends.
“When I said United, I saw their faces. I’m sure that I made the right choice. I want to play in and win the Premier League, the best league in the world. I had a proposal from China too, but I didn’t want to go there because I wanted to join United.”
Pogba, who took the captain’s armband for Friday’s game was happy to praise his new teammate at full time, too:
“We started OK,” said Pogba after Friday’s game. “I wouldn’t say it was the best game, but obviously it’s normal. We just started to play together, we started training together, I can feel he is a very, very good player, I know he will really help us. And with Andreas as well, very young, he showed his ability today.
“But to be honest I feel very comfortable with [Fred] and with the rest of the other centre mids. I feel we will be very happy with Fred this season.”
