I think in most of our views he's just not enough of an upgrade (if he'd be considered one by some) to Longstaff to justify the kind of outlay it's going to take.
fecking hell, relentless
Will put a dent in the HG quota though.
Scott doesn't normally have a particularly good work rate. Occasionally in a big match he'll turn it on and he will be a workhorse all over the field, but in most matches he's very average (if not below average).
I don't see how can we demand such fee because we have already missed a good moment to cash in, just like we always do. We could have got £40m or so like 3 years ago when he was still considered a good prospect, although his limitations as a player were obvious right from the beginning. Good luck getting anywhere close to that now when he is clearly out of favour, haven't played much this season and looked very average when he did. Yet another missed opportunity to earn some money.
He's better than Longstaff. It'd be Longstaff he replaces.
He isn’t. It’s not even particularly marginal either, Longstaff is comfortably better.
Mctominay definitely doesn’t walk straight into the current Newcastle team and you’d imagine competition will only increase there. When you look at the starting midfielders of each team in the league there aren’t many he is an upgrade on.
To be fair, majority of matches he has to be a screen in front of the back line. He's switched on for the most part, but he can struggle with quick transitions and positioning where he gets caught out. His recovery runs are then most likely ending in a foul.
For the last 12 months yes. But before that he was in a more box-to-box position, and his workrate (both defensively and when we had the ball) was poor for someone who is generally talked about as being a hard worker. Once opposition get in behind him he just lazily jogs back without any real effort, and his general pressing was closer to the likes of Pogba and Matic than it was to Fred. The occasional big match where he did work his arse off really was the exception. If he's going to succeed in another decent team he will have to take those exceptions and do it all the time. Which he might do, but of course that will then raise the question of why didn't he do it here.
I see this as a likely route too. Although maybe one notch less than you perhaps - he MIGHT level out at the bottom end of the PL. The main concern there is that even lower down the league now all the clubs are trying to get progressive coaches in and rebranding the football they have traditionally played. Even they may not see any use for a centre midfielder who has a penchant for passing to opponents and ball-boys.
He’s not good enough to be a regular starter here but he’s above Championship level, if he leaves United he will spend his career comfortably in the PL let’s not go too far
This isn’t the 90s, midfielders who do feck all and hide from the ball aren’t good enough for the championship either.
So he’s league 1 level? don’t be daft
He's played at a higher level for longer - so "Yes".
I’d say it’s far more laughable that Newcastle would be upgrading their midfield by replacing longstaff with Mctominay. Both poor players IMO not anywhere near the quality for teams challenging the European places.
The stats tell a different story. They don't suggest highly competent or especially integral. Neither is McTominay of course but he probably has other qualities if you release him for a DM role.
Fair enough. I’m not a stats man personally, and have not formed the view that McTominay is a poor passer based upon any numbers that may or may not suggest this. My impression of Longstaff has always been that passing the ball is one of his strengths, which is of course helpful for a CM. Even when we were linked there were a lot of comparisons to a young Carrick.
What you described in the second paragraph is spot on. One of the easiest ways for me to determine if a player is good enough for United is whether or not we would sign them if they played for someone else, or if the fans would want us to them if they played for someone else. McTominay fails both those tests.
I'd probably take Cleverley over McTominay, all Cleverley did was recycle the ball with short little passes, but at least he was available, Scott passes the ball, the ducks behind the closet opposition player.
I think he's a good squad player and is in his rightful place for a team like United and where they're trying to go. I agree with you 100% about his work rate and just overall movement when United have the ball.
Would Garnacho and Mainoo not count as HG?
I don't agree, he'd go to Legoland, bye.
I don’t think it is a case of underrating him, Southampton are bottom of the league but he doesn’t improve their midfield, he looks very ordinary playing for Scotland in midfield, you wouldn’t pick him out as playing for a top side of watched him play.
Southampton's only (relatively) strong area is central midfield so I think that was quite a cute way of unfavourably associating him with a certain level.
