Alves: Fred is not a "problem" because he is better than all of United's midfielders

Former Barcelona defender Danny Alves said Fred was not a "problem" because he was "better" than all of United's midfielders.

After representing Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League, Fred signed with Manchester United in 2018.

City have shown interest in him before their opponents pay around £47m to bring him into the Premier League.

The Brazilian has been a regular for the Red Devils since his move. Still, his performances have been criticized at times.

The 28-year-old has made eight appearances for United this season. Their recent performances have been terrible because they have only won one of their last five games.

As quoted in The Mirror, Alves said he didn't understand why people complained about Fred:

"Every Brazilian becomes a world-class player after putting on the national team jersey. I've heard a lot of people complain about Fred, but when he's playing for Brazil, he's better than all of their [United] midfielders," Alves said.

"The problem is with the club or the coach, not Fred."

Elsewhere, Peter Schmeichel said it could take "two to three years" for Sancho to thrive at Manchester United:

"You're a young player from that team, like someone like Sancho. It's a big, big, big price tag for him, and it feels a bit heavy for him at the moment.

"But he would look at this guy [Ronaldo], and he would say, 'If I do something in these ways, I can be as good as he is.'" I have all the basics, but I can be as good as he is.

"It could take him two or three years to understand. But it gave him the possibility of ten or twelve years from now.

"That's what Ronaldo gave. I was celebrating when I heard he was back, and even though I couldn't run, he was running around frantically in my garden. But I did.

"Cristiano Ronaldo is 36 years old and is now 37 years old. But he seemed well-defined, and we saw that the week before he scored that late goal in Europe.

"He's very fit, he's healthy because he takes his football very seriously. He ate, slept, drank and practiced football, and that was his life. ”