Fred Praises Manchester United Pair for Restoring His Confidence After 'Hard Months'

Manchester United midfielder Fred has revealed that manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and coach Michael Carrick have been crucial to restoring his confidence after what has been a difficult first year in England after completing a £52m summer move from Shakhtar Donetsk.

The Brazilian international has only started eight Premier League games all season, but he has just completed a two full 90 minutes in the space of a week and claimed he now feels 'very, very happy'.

Jordan Mansfield/GettyImages

"It's been a hard few months. I have not been playing. There has been a lot of things going on in my mind," Fred told ESPN after helping United beat Paris Saint-Germain this week.

"Ole has helped me a lot. He had a lot of chats with me. [Carrick] also speaks to me a lot. That brings me calm that things will turn around for me. They trust me and I feel that trust," he added.

"And they were right to trust me because I showed [against PSG] that I can play against one of the best teams in the world and play well. I'm very, very happy. My confidence is getting better."

OLI SCARFF/GettyImages

Having started against Crystal Palace at the end of February, Fred appeared as a substitute against Southampton, before then being put back in the starting lineup in Paris.

"This was my best moment since I moved to Manchester United," he said of the comeback. "I felt had a great game. It's a long time since I played like this: two games in a row. I'm very happy. I want to continue to play like this, to play games.

"I wasn't surprised that we won. All the team played well. I played well. We knew it was going to be hard, but we are Manchester United. PSG knew that whatever happened in the first game, that we are still Manchester United. We have injuries but we are Manchester United. That is our name.

"Everybody knows us around the world. It was great that we got the win in a place like this."

Ander Herrera and Nemanja Matic are returning to fitness after recent injury layoffs and could be included against Arsenal this weekend, but Fred's improving form stands to give Solskjaer a positive selection headache in the final stretch of the season.