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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
Sport
Daniel Murphy

Fred explains how Manchester United will cope without suspended Bruno Fernandes vs Aston Villa

Fred is relishing the battle for a place in Manchester United's midfield and believes the club are brimming with quality in the position.

Which is just as well as United will be without one of their best and most relied-upon players on Sunday for their trip to Aston Villa in the Premier League. Bruno Fernandes will miss the match through suspension after he picked up his fifth booking of the season last week and was handed a one-match ban as punishment.

Though there is competition from Scott McTominay and Donny van de Beek, Fred is the most likely candidate to replace the Portuguese and join Casemiro and Christian Eriksen in the middle at Villa Park. The Brazilian believes it's great to have so many options for Erik ten Hag to choose from.

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"So good because we have great players in the midfield in our team," he told United's in-house media. "Particular in midfield we have great players.

"It's a good battle with us, every time but it's important when you are on the pitch to play well and help all to win and bring the victory. That's the most important."

Fred is expecting a tough game from Villa who will be managed for the first time by new boss Unai Emery, an old foe that United know all too well.

"It's a tough game, we know about Aston Villa," Fred added. "It's a good team, have good players. It's not too easy to play against them, we need to be careful of course but we need to play our game.

"Play well, the last games we played so good we need to keep this and bring the victory back to Old Trafford to keep on top of the table. They have time to train [with Emery] a little bit [before Sunday] and we of course need to expect a good team,” the Brazilian said in an exclusive interview with club media.

“We know about this coach; we lost to him in the Europa League. He is a good coach, and we know they have a good team. We expect a tough game, and we need to win this game.”

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