Good news for City fans who might get the chance to see one of the most talented defensive midfielders on the market move to Manchester City. Fred, currently under contract with Shakhtar Donetsk, has impressed in this Champions League campaign with his impeccable dribbling abilities and equally efficient defensive skills. The Brazilian has caught the eye of many teams but that will not be a problem as he has specifically expressed his desire to work with Pep Guardiola.
The 24-year-old is extremely promising and kind of reminds us of Kante. He is a lot more attacking upside though as his dribbling abilities are way better than Chelsea’s Frenchman.
According to The Sun, Fred will cost £27million which is not that much for what it seems he has to offer. It’s always hard to tell if Brazilian players will meet expectations. On the other hand, a big plus comes from the fact that he is a product of Shakhtar Donetsk whose players always seem to improve after a spell with the club.
Fernandinho played for Shakhtar before joining Manchester City, as did Willian who joined Chelsea, Henrikh Mkhitaryan played there before his move to Borussia Dortmund (before signing for Manchester United and ultimately joining Arsenal in a swap deal) and Douglas Costa played for the Ukrainian side before playing for both Bayern Munich and Juventus. This says a lot about what kind of scouts and staff the Ukraine based club have.
Fred looks like a sure thing at this point as he will be brought in to take Yaya Toure’s place and offer back-up to Fernandinho as well offering something in attack. One other thing that makes this transfer the most probably of the winter is the fact that Guardiola loves a player who can both defend and pass – this is exactly what Fred does extremely well and protects the back four.
There’s little time until the end of the transfer window and Shakhtar tend to ask for a lot of money for their players. They seem to be worth it though and if the price that was rumored in the press is true, Guardiola should go ahead and make do the deal.