Man United player Fred claims it's 'fake news' that the dressing room is divided

Fred has responded to reports claiming there is a divide in the Manchester United dressing room between Portuguese-speaking players and those who don't, labelling them as 'fake news'.

Reports last week sensationally suggested that Portuguese trio Cristiano Ronaldo, Bruno Fernandes and Diogo Dalot had formed a clique with Fred and Alex Telles, segregating themselves from the rest of the group.

The news came in a rough patch of form for United, who had taken just five points from their three games against Newcastle, Burnley and Wolves, heaping huge amounts of pressure on interim boss Ralf Rangnick.

It also came after Ronaldo's explosive interview where he condemned many of his younger team-mates' mentality and urged them to up their game in order to finish in the top three.

But when asked about the reports of cliques forming behind the scenes, Fred moved quickly to rubbish those claims by saying there were 'lies' and that he enjoys a good relationship with all of his team-mates.

'The news here, they like fake news. There's too much here. It's a lie,' Fred told ESPN Brasil.

'It's obvious that we speak Portuguese, we communicate, we have a nice friendship. I'm a good friend of Alex Telles, both on and off the field. I've known him for a long time. So obviously I'm going to be a little friend of his.

'But that doesn't mean I won't talk to Lingard, Rashford, Greenwood, Maguire, the other English people here. On the contrary. We have a super cool friendship here, a super cool dressing room, they're all team-mates.

'We're always dancing in the locker room, whenever we have the team dinner. Now we're not doing that because of Covid-19.'

While Fred insists there is harmony among the players, Saturday's result against Aston Villa seems to suggest otherwise after they dropped two points against Steven Gerrard's side, throwing away a 2-0 goal lead and seeing them fail to make ground on the top four.

United face Brentford on Wednesday evening, a match that was postponed during the Covid-affected festive period.

They have two games in hand on West Ham who are currently sat in fourth having played just 20 matches,  although Tottenham, who are three points above them, have played just 18 times this season.