Should I use "will have" here or "would have"?

Question

In response to "Michael said in a meeting last week that this is an easy task", my gut feeling is to respond like this:

"That sounds like something Michael would have said. But I don't agree with that"

But looking at this, this is "looking back from the present", so it should be:

"That sounds like something Michael will have said. But I don't agree with that".

The latter sounds weird and unidiomatic to my ears. I find that I often use "would have" to imply uncertainty even when looking back from the present like this example. Am I wrong?

GeoffAtkins · Answer

Both you and the page you link to are correct. The confusion is that you're talking about a conditional. This might not be clear because the first sentence of your quote leaves that condition unsaid but implied by the context (which is perfectly fine and idiomatically correct).
If we include what unsaid part might be:

"That sounds like something Michael would have said if he had been there. But I don't agree with that."

We see that it is obviously bound by the rules for conditionals and uses would have instead of will have.

Should I use "will have" here or "would have"?

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