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He fits that mould but lets hope to God the reports in the Scottish press that Ole wants to build the team round him aren't true.
Those people should ask why Fergie valued the likes of Fletcher, O'Shea, Phil Neville so highly. They were not big names who could wow you with their youtube compilation but they understood their roles and took pride in them,. Utd linked with brats like Dybala, icardi and co would just be making the same mistakes, bringing in huge ego's who are thinking about what the club can do for them first.
Squads are built on your players that would die to stop a last minute goal going in the back of your net.
Fergie was an anomaly and Klopp has a system he’s spent the better part of two decades building and optimizing. I’m not saying the Dybalas and Icardis are the way to go, but we have a manager who is years and years away from Fergie and Klopps peak and whose system we can’t even decipher yet.
Phil Jones then?
If he could stay fit and was less clumsy there's no reason why not.
You can't compare those players to McTominay to be fair. Hendersen and Milner were highly rated (you could say overrated) at 22. Milner made his PL debut at 16 and has the record of being one of the youngest players to score in the PL (at the same age). Hendersen made his Sunderland debut at 18 and was strongly linked to United for a while and was known to be a United fan growing up.
They might have had better potential as youth players, but the way their careers have gone, and McTominay's recent form, you look at him and think he could reach that level. A few years ago, Henderson looked to be on his way out of Liverpool, now he's invaluable. He's got high energy, good enough in the tackle, very good at recycling the ball, shown himself to be good in tight spaces, seems to be quite good at popping up in attacking spaces. He's only 22 and becoming a very solid midfielder, we honestly have no idea how he will crack on, but he could definitely be a very good foil to two more creative midfielders. And I'm more than happy having him as a stop-gap next season while we look to bolster other parts of the midfield, attack and defence.
Whilst all that may be true, were they significantly better players than him at 22 based on what he's shown this year? I don't think so.
To be fair, I don't think Jose picked him solely based on his height. His mentality, confidence, and physicality were always lauded by many.
Lauded by many like who? Reading the youth forums, even the most avid youth watchers were surprised at his inclusion at the time. Any links to this praise during his time in the ranks before his first team debut?
Those sweet 3+ interceptions he made, and forward passes. There's also that one-touch forward pass he did from Cardiff players clearing the ball, nice.Good points. Im not sure he should be starting regularly though, the effort is definitely there but they're still questions on the quality for me, whether its good enough for a team of this stature. He's still young and as you say, there's no telling how he will build on what he has achieved thus far. There will be no hiding next season so his performances could be an indication of what to expect in the long term. I think he'll end up being a solid squad player like Phil Neville but it would be great if he ends up having the kind of impact Fletcher had.
I'd say Milner was better at 22, it may be harsh to say because McTominay is just making his mark now but Milner was a regular for Newcastle and Aston Villa on loan at the same age, and he impressed on that loan spell, earning him a permanent move to Villa and he kicked on to become one of their main players. Henderson already had 92 apps for Liverpool at age 22 with 8 goals, also already well established so you'd have to say he was better/ahead of the curve. At age 22 Wijnaldum had 95 apps for PSV and 34 goals. Clearly better
I'd agree with you on Milner although I do seem to remember his most impressive time at Villa was 23+ and he'd been playing first team football for years.
34 senior goals for a midfielder at age 22 in top flight football is impressive, and he played in the Europa league and was instrumental in PSV qualifying for the champions league for the first time in 5 seasons
Probably when we are already deep in the realms of mediocrity. I dread to think of where we'd be that McTominay would be our most important midfielder or that we'd even consider making him captain. This lad is no better than TC23 as a footballer.
They've all flocked from Rashy Cay and Lingz Pointe to McTominay Island now. They'll be happy enough there til the resources are depleted and it's time to swim over to the next one.
May be he was rested for Tuesday game.
I think that says more about the Scotland team than it does about him.
He is not a starter for Scotland. He's only started two of his eight games for them, and those were his first two games. In one other game, he didn't leave the bench.
Did not see the game but this does mot surprise me at all.
Great news. Encouraging stuff.
