Who gets the 3rd midfield slot: Fred or McTominay

[Augustus Gloop]

McTominay.

He’s 23 and arguably better than both now. Why stifle his rapid development by playing him as second fiddle to Fred or Matić?

 

[Skills]

I trust Fred a lot more than McTominay. McTominay just lacks a lot of self awareness from what I've seen. He needs to realise he's the water carrier in a 3 involving Bruno and Pogba, so he's the one who needs to sit back and cover their asses rather than bombing ahead and making one of them stay deep for his sake.

 

[jamesjimmybyrondean]

I trust Fred a lot more than McTominay. McTominay just lacks a lot of self awareness from what I've seen. He needs to realise he's the water carrier in a 3 involving Bruno and Pogba, so he's the one who needs to sit back and cover their asses rather than bombing ahead and making one of them stay deep for his sake.

How many games have you seen these 3 play?

 

[Skills]

How many games have you seen these 3 play?

I've seen him coupled with Pogba enough and Lingard/Pereira ahead of them. Far too often he seemed to think he's the second coming off Stevie G or Frank Lampard, leaving Pogba to hang back to cover him.

 

[Regulus Arcturus Black]

AWB & Shaw stent good enough going forward to make that work. Would be way too defensive.

Romero

AWB
Bailly
Maguire
Shaw

Matic

Pogba
Bruno

Greenwood
Martial
Rashford

That is our strongest eleven.

bang on the money.

 

[Sandikan]

I've seen him coupled with Pogba enough and Lingard/Pereira ahead of them. Far too often he seemed to think he's the second coming off Stevie G or Frank Lampard, leaving Pogba to hang back to cover him.

He's probably given licence to be box to box rather than sitting like a Matic. It'll come with experience to learn when to go and when not to.

 

[jamesjimmybyrondean]

I've seen him coupled with Pogba enough and Lingard/Pereira ahead of them. Far too often he seemed to think he's the second coming off Stevie G or Frank Lampard, leaving Pogba to hang back to cover him.

I don't I think Ole fancies him to be good enough defensively. Even played CB last match

 

[berbasloth4]

mctominay is major overrated gives the ball away far too much. he should still be behind fred and matic

 

[Dr. McBeasty]

Neither Fred nor McTominay looked good at all vs. Spurs, but as the first match back, I'll give them a pass this time. I worry most about McTominay's technical ability, he just always seems to have such a loose touch and not much of a short passing ability (long range seems fine). Fred has plenty of ability in his feet, but for whatever reason just gets sloppy at times. At this point it almost seems like it's Matic's spot to lose, he definitely slots in naturally with Pogba and Bruno. Can't play him every match at this stage though, so chances will definitely be there. I kind of lean Fred at this point, but it's really close.

 

[hmchan]

Neither Fred nor McTominay looked good at all vs. Spurs, but as the first match back, I'll give them a pass this time. I worry most about McTominay's technical ability, he just always seems to have such a loose touch and not much of a short passing ability (long range seems fine). Fred has plenty of ability in his feet, but for whatever reason just gets sloppy at times. At this point it almost seems like it's Matic's spot to lose, he definitely slots in naturally with Pogba and Bruno. Can't play him every match at this stage though, so chances will definitely be there. I kind of lean Fred at this point, but it's really close.

True. Fred and McTominay gave the ball away far too easily against Tottenham. We could hardly send the ball into the final third in the first half.

 

[Class of 93]

I trust Fred a lot more than McTominay. McTominay just lacks a lot of self awareness from what I've seen. He needs to realise he's the water carrier in a 3 involving Bruno and Pogba, so he's the one who needs to sit back and cover their asses rather than bombing ahead and making one of them stay deep for his sake.

I think the bolded part is bang-on here. The challenge we have is we need to fit both Pogba and Bruno in, who are the players that will help us break down teams that sit deep with guile. Problem here is that Pogba is a bit unique (nominally box-to-box but what Italians would call a Mezzala, or roaming midfielder) and Bruno is clearly a #10.

This means the third player needs to be a sitting or holding midfielder with the positioning and tactical intelligence to break up play. Almost similar to Fernandinho at City. I think the closest we have is actually Matic (or a younger version who had the legs). However, Fred is our most press-resistant midfielder and has been fantastic in winning possession back.

Ideally, we could play a 4-4-2 diamond which would allow Matic to sit deep, Fred to win the ball back and give both Pogba and Bruno effectively free roles. It's actually very similar to the system Juventus played, which got the best out of Pogba as a left-hand side free midfielder. The main piece stopping that from happening is our frightening lack of attacking threat from our full-backs.