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Heart Missed Fred Influence

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Melbourne Heart FC coach John van ‘t Schip admits his side missed the influence of midfield talisman Fred during yesterday’s 1-3 loss to Adelaide United at AAMI Park.

Melbourne Heart FC coach John van ‘t Schip admits his side missed the influence of midfield talisman Fred during yesterday-s 1-3 loss to Adelaide United at AAMI Park.

With a strong crowd of 8,272 on hand, Heart was made to rue its profligacy in front of goal, failing to grasp upon a series of chances either side of half time to allow United to maintain its unbeaten run under the reign of new coach John Kosmina.

While Heart looked lively, the absence of club captain Fred was obvious to see, as the Red and White struggled to cover the substantial void his injury has left in the centre of the park.

As the team-s creative fulcrum, Fred is pivotal to Heart-s attacking forays, combining brilliantly with Matt Thompson to form arguably the competition-s premier central midfield partnership.

But as the Brazilian was forced to watch from the sidelines yesterday, Heart faltered, prompting van ‘t Schip to acknowledge Fred-s sizable influence.

“He’s a very motivating player on the pitch for the whole team,” van ‘t Schip said.

“He’s a player that all the players look up at and missing him is always going to make the team play different.”

“When we got into difficult moments, that’s when a player like Fred can help the team through a difficult period and today we didn’t have that kind of player so we couldn’t do it altogether as a team.”

“In that circumstance you can say, ‘yeah, a player like him is important’.”