I agree with a lot of what the OP post said, although some things to bug me, i agree that a lot of people can sometimes go overboard with criticism, but it’s not like alot of criticism hasn’t been without merit.
This whole “give local lads more leeway” thing is ridiculous, i think surely you mean give youth players more leeway, unless you mean give 28 year old Lingard more leeway than 28 year old Johnny Foreigner even if Lingard has been turning in worse performances? Just because he’s a local lad? Come on, every youth player should be given leeway everybody should agree with that, but there will always be people who have a go at them regardless, thats not unique to our club. The main issue with this is that over the years we’ve been absolutely spoiled by the likes of Giggs and the Class of 92 etc, the main issue being is that things like this rarely ever happen,we have to have the balance of playing youth players and giving them chances, whilst also toeing the line and recognising that they just aren’t good enough, unless your standards have slipped so far and all you care about is sentimentality, at which point we become Liverpool of old.
McTominay is a good squad player, but he is not anywhere near good enough to be a starter for the levels we aspire to get to, Jesse Lingard isnt even a good squad player in my eyes, and they should get the same treatment as anyone else of their level, regardless of ‘local lad’ status or not.
Its fantastic that we give local lads a chance, but you cannot persist when they clearly arent good enough, there’s no, ‘ah well we didnt win anything but at least we played youth players!’ competition. It just reeks of ‘Manchester United are superior because we play youth’ complex crap and if pointing this out apparently makes me less a fan or just me not supporting them the right way then so be it.