Ole Gunnar Solskjaer says Fred‘s new confidence is the reason behind his start against Arsenal in the Premier League.
The Brazil international has retained his place in the Manchester United starting line up after he starred during the Champions League victory vs Paris Saint-Germain earlier in the week.
Fred has struggled for regular football since he joined from Shakhtar last summer but looks to have finally turned a corner after his recent appearance in midfield.
Nemanja Matic and Paul Pogba have both returned to the United side after they missed the win against PSG, and Solskjaer explained why it was Fred who remained in midfield rather than teammates Scott McTominay and Andreas Pereira.
“He was fantastic over there,” Solskjaer told Sky Sports.
“You can see after 30 seconds he gets up to (Marco) Verratti, or whoever it was, and wins the ball for us, never a foul, and he just grew in confidence after that and I think he will show that again.
“We had to find a balance, of course we had Paul (Pogba) being available again, that’s a given, a no-brainer. Nemanja (Matic) has been training well for the last few days so him and (Diogo) Dalot staring again, he did well when he came on, so we have some fresh legs out there.
“It’s confidence, it’s energy enthusiasm, adrenaline too of course because when you win games you want to keep playing and it’s been going well for us, we’re catching teams up and now we’re in with a chance for third.”