Is putting McT at centre-back a good idea?

Strelok

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He's really tall, fast, pretty quick, very strong, brave, agressive, good in the air, good tackle. If you've played any football you'd know it's much easier to play as a CB than as a CM/DM. Any CM/DM with good physical attributes could be a very good CB, like Fernandino or Fabinho. McT is not top top on the ball but definitely much better than many CBs.

All he needs would be some experience there. He has played as CB for Scotland I think. And imo it'd be very difficult for McT to become what we need in the midfield. If he could be what we need in the back it'd save us a lot of money and would be great for his career as well.

What do you think?
 
If we retrain him as a LCB we can make Fred our LB and they keep their partnership alive.
 
Just as he has started showing some development as a midfielder in terms of his positioning, along with a desire to get in and around the box and contribute a few goals per season, you'd want to move him to CB to solve our issues there?

Not for me. Would much rather see us signing dedicated defenders and continue to see Scottie develop into a crucial squad player in the midfield who can chip in with 5+ goals a season.
 
Strelok said:
He's really tall, fast, pretty quick, very strong, brave, agressive, good in the air, good tackle. If you've played any football you'd know it's much easier to play as a CB than as a CM/DM. Any CM/DM with good physical attributes could be a very good CB, like Fernandino or Fabinho. McT is not top top on the ball but definitely much better than many CBs.

All he needs would be some experience there. He has played as CB for Scotland I think. And imo it'd be very difficult for McT to become what we need in the midfield. If he could be what we need in the back it'd save us a lot of money and would be great for his career as well.

What do you think?
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Don’t act on every thought going through your mind. Most of them are just that, thoughts.
 
Strelok said:
He's really tall, fast, pretty quick, very strong, brave, agressive, good in the air, good tackle. If you've played any football you'd know it's much easier to play as a CB than as a CM/DM. Any CM/DM with good physical attributes could be a very good CB, like Fernandino or Fabinho. McT is not top top on the ball but definitely much better than many CBs.

All he needs would be some experience there. He has played as CB for Scotland I think. And imo it'd be very difficult for McT to become what we need in the midfield. If he could be what we need in the back it'd save us a lot of money and would be great for his career as well.

What do you think?
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He's a good midfielder though.
 
Bubz27 said:
If we retrain him as a LCB we can make Fred our LB and they keep their partnership alive.
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I don't know why the caf always find retraining players to new positions is funny. Especially if said player is average in his current position but shows signs that he could be great somewhere else. Lucky for those players below their coaches didn't have that same mindset.

https://www.planetfootball.com/quic...ed-after-changing-positions-henry-bale-pirlo/

I really like McT and very happy with his recent developments. Just think he'd achieve more as a CB than a midfielder.
 
McTominay defends quite differently when he's in the last line of defence vs. ahead of it. When he's ahead of it, he's more aggressive and willing to stick a foot in. That's where his tackling and physical traits come to the fore. However, because of his aggressive style, he tends to get drawn towards the ball a bit too easily and loses awareness of what else is around him. Having said that, he's also getting better at defending the midfield spaces and cutting out passing options in the midfield areas. I'd rather this not get disrupted, though this isn't why I'm not comfortable with McTominay at CB.

Whenever McTominay is the last man/in the last line of defence, he becomes way more passive. He drops off way more, and he's less willing to put a tackle in. On top of that, there's his issue with getting tunnel-visioned towards the ball, and as a CB, that's suicidal. He'll have to change up his defensive instincts to be able to play properly in a back 4 (less so in a back 3). Honestly, he'd be a better full back than a centre back simply because he can focus more on winning the ball than defending a larger area.
 
No. He is an excellent box to box CM who can score goals.
 
Bubz27 said:
If we retrain him as a LCB we can make Fred our LB and they keep their partnership alive.
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No play Fred as goalie. They can chat when the opposition has corners and when we pass it 10 times in our box when playing it out from a goal kick.
 
I'd say yes in December, but now I think we should rather upgrade on Fred and be better both offensively and defensively. And I rate Fred.
 
mazhar13 said:
McTominay defends quite differently when he's in the last line of defence vs. ahead of it. When he's ahead of it, he's more aggressive and willing to stick a foot in. That's where his tackling and physical traits come to the fore. However, because of his aggressive style, he tends to get drawn towards the ball a bit too easily and loses awareness of what else is around him. Having said that, he's also getting better at defending the midfield spaces and cutting out passing options in the midfield areas. I'd rather this not get disrupted, though this isn't why I'm not comfortable with McTominay at CB.

Whenever McTominay is the last man/in the last line of defence, he becomes way more passive. He drops off way more, and he's less willing to put a tackle in. On top of that, there's his issue with getting tunnel-visioned towards the ball, and as a CB, that's suicidal. He'll have to change up his defensive instincts to be able to play properly in a back 4 (less so in a back 3). Honestly, he'd be a better full back than a centre back simply because he can focus more on winning the ball than defending a larger area.
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Nail on the head. He also does this hop thing every time he changes direction, it would become a vulnerability when trying to defend against nippy strikers.
 
Excellent idea. We need more people thinking outside the box. Speaking of going outside the boxes, maybe we should make DDG a CM? He needs to learn some foot play, and Hendo won't be unhappy . What do you think OP, maybe we should present both of these ideas to Ole?
 
He is our second best midfielder so No that is a ridiculous idea.....Pogba is a tall strong bloke so we would be better off giving it a go with him.
 
He would have had to play the CDM role well in my eyes to even play as a CB.

As a CDM he cant hold his space that well. When the attack is heavy then he can be too easily beaten, when players are circulating around him he gets a bit lost during the attack trying to stop it and make a decision.

He is better at targeting the ball than necessarily targeting the various attackers around him and that's better further up the pitch so he can make a quick ball winning tackle before he makes a short releasing pass for an attack or for him to go on runs himself.

As a CB I dont think you can be ball watching like a box to box midfielder can.
 
Why would we make our main goal threat from cm a cb. He used to be a striker for gods sake.
 
Considering McTominay has decided to become a scoring threat playing as a box to box midfielder, that's going to be a hard pass.
 
GMoore23 said:
Why would we make our main goal threat from cm a cb. He used to be a striker for gods sake.
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He's popped up with a few goals, but I'd say Bruno is probably our main goal threat from CM :wenger:
 
No to McT, but I’m surprised we’ve never played Matic at LCB, he seems like he’d be suited to it.
 
No, nothing in his game, except his physicality, reminiscent of centreback. His skillset is actually better suited to striker than CB.
 
Considering his best work in midfield is more as a #8 and he's not a good DM, I don't think moving him to CB would be the best idea.
 
He needs to be slightly higher up the pitch, if anything.
 
Fast, pretty quick?

He gets run by quite a lot, too much for a CB.

Much better suited to the role he’s in now.
 
He's already been mostly playing as a CB for Scotland, but it would be stupid to "retrain" him for another position, when he has developed into a very good midfielder for us.

Could do a job in defense if absolutely needed, so that's always a positive.
 
He would be in the top 3 players at the club in terms of getting power into their shots on goal. He's too much of a goal threat to revert to a defender. This is why Ole will never try to mold him into a deffender.

As a young teenager he played as a striker so he has goals in his locker.

Ole will be thinking he can become a complete central midfielder if he can improve his decision making, range of passing and learn to pass through the lines more.
 
Gopher Brown said:
No to McT, but I’m surprised we’ve never played Matic at LCB, he seems like he’d be suited to it.
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Only in games where we're playing some very negative lowly team and he has acres of space and loads of time.
In games he could get turned over, or have to deal with aerial onslaughts I'm not sure.

I think McTom would be an ideal emergency centre back, but for now he's needed further forward.
 
Champagne Football said:
He would be in the top 3 players at the club in terms of getting power into their shots on goal. He's too much of a goal threat to revert to a defender. This is why Ole will never try to mold him into a deffender.

As a young teenager he played as a striker so he has goals in his locker.

Ole will be thinking he can become a complete central midfielder if he can improve his decision making, range of passing and learn to pass through the lines more.
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That game v Leeds he was like a prime Robbo. A supreme performance.

Hitting anything like that regularly, and he'd have a shout for best of his type in the league.
 
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