Firstly, let's be under no illusion, our squad is nowhere near as good as it should be.
Can I ask what your credentials are to justify a comment that mctominay has unimpressed his way through the youth academy?
Secondly, you question his quality? What exactly is your definition of quality? A player that can keep the midfield of Barcelona and PSG in his back pocket?
What do you want from him? He is a young and improving professional. Everybody expects kids to be world beaters instantly. That's the problem with alot of supporters. He is doing very very well in a bang average team. He is providing drive, encouragement and leadership in a team that desperately needs it.
Is it a coincidence that both Jose and Ole have him as one of the first names on the team sheet?
He is a not comparable to KDB because they are completely different players who play in completely different positions.
He is not a playmaker, he is there to run, break up play and find the players who can create. Every team needs one of those. You need to be patient and let these players develop. Attitudes criticising players who haven't done anything wrong is unacceptable. Get behind the team and stop comparing them to teams who are years into their transition.
I’ll take your questions/assertions one by one.
My credentials for saying he ‘unimpressed his way through the academy’ are no different to yours if you said Lingard has unimpressed in the first team. A set of eyes. I not only watched him in the academy, but have watched the academy for more than enough years to be able to assess which players were considered impressive and future first teamers. Scott McTominay was not considered one of them by most youth football watchers. When he was brought into the squad, it was much to the confusion of most fans. The same fans that told people to lay off him, as he was clearly ‘being used as a pawn’ by Mourinho to make some point to either his board, or apparently some sort of point to Paul Pogba.
The definition of ‘quality’ is complicated. In the particular case of Scott McTominay, I believe he has more qualitIES than he has qualitY. Quality is intangible, but it is what separates teams at the top level. The most dangerous aspect of analysing a players level of quality is that a lack of it doesn’t necessarily mean that the player does something ‘wrong’. For example, Paul Pogba coming back against Watford and playing a ridiculous pass to split the team within minutes is a moment of quality. However, another player NOT playing that pass, and instead laying it off to a teammate 10 yards away, has done nothing wrong. Just that, you multiply that minor analysis over 90 mins then over 30 odd games, you start to notice the difference of having more quality.
At the top level, quality makes the difference. If you can only do what is expected, you will not get criticised. When Bernardo Silva cut in from the right against us two weeks ago, he would have been within his rights to play a square pass from the right to the left then make a run. He instead dropped one in our top corner. He’ll do it again this season a few more times, and similar, because he has quality.
So many times I watch football, and I just think ‘bend it in’, ‘if only he just played a back heel there, we were in’ etc. These things are not things you will criticise a player for not doing, but things you would expect of a high quality player, and this is why they make a difference. In a team as a whole, we do not have enough of it. We have the most of it in our front line, but precious little in our middle third, particularly with no Pogba. It is apparent. We are poor in possession, we lack ideas, and for a top side, are miles off it when it comes to keeping possession under pressure, circulating it and making chances consistently. The idea that we should leave all of that to some #10 and be done with it is incredibly outdated in itself.
He is not comparable to KDB for two reasons. One, because he is a ‘different type of player who plays in a different position’. Yes. He also has far less quality than him. Frenkie De Jong, Marco Verratti, Thiago, Luka Modric are examples of other midfielders who are ‘different’ to KDB, but don’t have less quality. And even then, nobody is even saying McTominay needs to have as much quality as KDB, who is likely the world’s best midfielder. That isn’t the bar.
I am aware Scott McTominay isn’t a playmaker. Sadly, he is a central midfielder. He sees a lot of the ball, by default, because when you play for a supposed top team, most of the game you will have nobody to run around tackling, as you put it. ‘Finding the players who can create’ requires good passing ability, unless you are going to run the ball to their feet. At the top level, it requires even more than that, it requires the ability to drop a shoulder and take a player or two out to beat a press, then release your creator or forward to do them. You don’t HAVE to do that, it’s difficult, and you won’t be chastised if you don’t. You could just pass it to your centre half. Again, in isolation, it’s fine. Over 30 games, these details all add up, you create less chances than the other top teams and are easier to defend against. If you are not good enough on the ball, but better off it, then perhaps you will shine more in certain games and scenarios. But I’m tired of being the team that needs to have the extra ball winners when we play any half decent team. The whole purpose behind that is an acceptance that you guys can keep the ball better than we can, so let’s not try and do that against you. Why does that forever need to be the case for us?
You saying it is ‘unacceptable’ to criticise a player who has ‘done nothing wrong’ says a lot in itself. I don’t see ‘doing nothing wrong’ as the bar. And I don’t just blindly criticise McTominay, I usually just provide my opinion when I see the conversation saying that he is some sort of great midfielder and one who must be a mainstay in our XI. It’s not an opinion I share, for the reasons I have just explained, and I don’t see us as a team who will keep the ball well enough to the expectation of what I PERSONALLY consider a top side should, and that is down to what I consider a quality deficiency. Not an effort one, not an attitude one, not an encouragement one or all the other adjectives used so frequently in this thread. That stuff does not help you keep the ball as a midfield at the top level. It helps you win it a bit more perhaps, bit when are we going to ask our opposition to start worrying about that more?
As for ‘getting behind the team’, I think I am one of the posters on here who does that most. I hate the fact that every conversation is ruined with negativity. I am very much a ‘support the team’ poster. But at some point, we’re going to need to do what we need to do to become a top side again. I think we need more quality in midfield to see is start taking hold of games better, moving it at a high tempo and with precision.
I’ve said before, I don’t like Scott McTominay AT ALL. Firstly, he’s a United player, and secondly, he’s one who tries hard too, and has many qualities, as you have said. In the absence of top quality midfielders, I fully support him playing for us. I would prefer that, at some point, he is replaced in the XI by a player who can run and tackle, but also use the ball better than he can. That is an opinion I am perfectly entitled to, and one that is not at all unreasonable. I have nothing against young players, young midfielders or whatever. If I think they are ‘United quality’, great. I’ve said before, if we were talking about Phil Foden here, or a 20 year old Wilshere, my view would be totally different. Just because I see them of growing into players of the right calibre to take us on. Not some sinister motive!
