Fred could turn into Ngolo Kante with Casemiro alongside him, says South American expert

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Fred started alongside Casemiro for the first time in a Manchester United shirt this past Thursday night.

But rather than feature together in a similar set up to the Brazil side they are used to playing in, Fred played as a number 10, with Christian Eriksen sitting deeper alongside Casemiro.

This was because United wanted Fred to press high, to compensate for Cristiano Ronaldo leading the line, and it is more likely we see him playing a deeper role next time he starts.

South American football expert Tim Vickery believes Fred could be highly impactful next to Casemiro having witnessed it for Brazil.

‘Fred could turn into Ngolo Kante’

Speaking to United’s club website, Vickery talked up Casemiro’s arrival and suggested he could help Fred reach a new level for his club.

He said: “With the lung power that he’s [Fred’s] got, he could certainly be running forward more and I’d expect Casemiro to facilitate that.

“There could be some parallels with what Thomas Tuchel did with N’Golo Kante at Chelsea; rather than just holding in midfield, he had him running with the ball, committing defenders and then slipping passes through and creating space that way. 

“I think United could do something similar with Fred. Casemiro has a good understanding with him already and you know which of the two will do what: Casemiro will hold, Fred can go up and back.”

The comparison to Kante is an optimistic one where United are concerned, it’s a best case scenario we would be very fortunate to see happen.

Yet you only have to look at the remarkable improvement shown by Scott McTominay and Marcus Rashford in recent weeks, to see that Erik ten Hag’s coaching staff are already managing to help United’s players reach new levels.

The difficulty for Fred is that to play in his preferred role, United would have to leave out Christian Eriksen, who has simply been too good for Erik ten Hag to want to leave out.

Fred really will have to turn into Kante 2.0 if he is going to be good enough to displace the in-form Dane.