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Most of the writers at The Peoples Person remain firmly “Ten Hag in” but some of the curious team selections and tactical decisions lately do give us pause.
One of these is surely the re-invention of Scott McTominay as a box-to-box midfielder. This is a player heralded as reborn, United’s leading goalscorer this season, a star who, when you picture him in your mind, you see him screaming with passion and pulling the badge on his shirt into the air in wild celebration.
McTominay, along with Harry Maguire, has even been held up by manager Erik ten Hag to Marcus Rashford as an example he should follow in terms of finding his form and turning his Old Trafford career around.
On top of that, the likeable Lancastrian is the hero of Scotland right now as he has almost single-handedly dragged his national side into Euro 2024.
We have even seen Patrice Evra liken him to Frank Lampard and journalists liken him to Steven Gerrard this season. Ally McCoist writes in The Sun this morning that “McTominay is a key part of Man Utd.”
However, there are problems here.
First, as Carl Anka of The Athletic points out, giving the Scotsman licence to make those late runs and score those vital goals leaves massive gaps in United’s midfield, leaving them very vulnerable to the counter attack.
“In the 3-3 draw with Galatasaray in the Champions League last month, the home side’s first goal came from Bruno Fernandes fouling a player after making a long recovery run to protect the midfield space that McTominay had vacated,” Anka notes.
“And on multiple occasions against Bournemouth at the weekend, United found themselves under pressure after passes directed towards McTominay resulted in lost balls.
“Ten Hag is pushing McTominay forward to try to help the team score more goals. But in doing so, the United manager is contributing to his team’s porous issues in midfield and heaping further pressure on the defence.”
Anka also notes that there is also a problem in possession with McTominay’s new role. The reporter remarks that “his reduced role when the team are in possession means United are down a passing option until they reach the final third,” and this is clear for all to see. Especially when the midfield lacks a deep-lying playmaker such as Christian Eriksen and the defence has no good ball-playing defenders such as Lisandro Martinez, there is simply not enough passing ability to build attacks from the back.
The result is that United tend to lose possession far too easily and struggle to control games.
Anka’s colleague at The Athletic, Adam Crafton, seems to agree, referring to “the McTominay thing” as “pure Fellaini”.
The McTominay thing is pure Fellaini. Evidently makes the team function in a worse way as a collective, hinders control of a match, turns over the ball too often, but individually will stand out with goals and application.
— Adam Crafton (@AdamCrafton_) December 9, 2023
But wherever McTominay plays, there is a major flaw in his game, to which Anka also alludes. Noting that the 27 year old now occupies the same area of the pitch as Bruno Fernandes, he observes that “while the United captain had 74 touches of the ball [against Chelsea] and contributed to many facets of United’s possession, McTominay’s tally was almost half of that (41).”
But this tends to be true in general for Scott. He just does not get on the ball enough. He seems to have an unerring ability to be unavailable for a pass and as a result, ghosts through games all too often. An average of 35.3 touches per game this season is shockingly low for a central midfielder. Last season in the Premier League, it was even worse (28).
Compare that last-season stat with those of other United midfielders – Casemiro (65.3), Christian Eriksen (60.6) or Fernandes (68.4). The difference is stark.
And McTominay’s contribution to midfield battles has been virtually non-existent. Only 43% duels won and an average possession won figure of just 0.2 per Premier League game both last season and this (a fifth as effective as Casemiro) are stats that do not make for good reading.
To be fair to Ten Hag, with Casemiro, Eriksen and Mason Mount injured for much of the season, there have not been many alternatives available and he has, at least, found an area in which the Scotsman can contribute. But the simple fact is that for all the plaudits that have been coming his way this season, Scott McTominay is not good enough to play for Manchester United.
Our own stats courtesy of sofascore.com.
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