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A thread on why Scott McTominay is not good enough for Manchester United Football Club.
McTominay is a tall, imposing player, and does a good job of making his presence felt. However, very little often comes out of his actions.
McTominay often gets exposed when opponents let United have the ball. The numbers back that up too.
When McTominay is in the starting XI and United have 55% or more of the possession this year, United pick up 1 point per match. When he’s not in the team that number rises to 2.3 points per game.
Everyone's numbers seem to go down when McTominay is on the pitch, even Bruno. The scoring dries up, and the creativity drops as well.
Why McTominay hardly gets called out is because he's composed on the ball and rarely tries anything fancy. Therefore, what people see him doing don’t look like problems that are holding back United’s attack.
One of the biggest examples of that is the time McTominay takes on the ball. To break down tight defenses you need to move the ball quickly. You need to pass it between the lines. This is where McTominay struggles. He prefers square balls.
Playing passes like this doesn’t move defenses around. In fact, they give them more time to adjust and get themselves set.
Here McTominay tries to pass to Shaw as United break but the pass takes so long to reach Shaw that when it finally does, United’s break is over as Watford have had time to get set on defense.
Here Zaha runs at the United defence McTominay can't catch up. Knowing how shit M*guire is against pacy forwards like Zaha this could be very dangerous for United. Fortunately Zaha passes it wide and United have time to regroup.
McTominay takes entirely too long on the ball, and often just plays a simple ball out wide when he’s ready to pass it. The ball often ends up coming right back to him. It’s like passing just for the sake of passing. McTominay struggles at progressing the ball up the pitch.
Just look at how teams are practically begging McTominay to have the ball. Palace are focused on making sure Paul Pogba and Bruno Fernandes are completely covered while no one is covering McTominay, forcing United players to pass the ball to McTominay.
Palace couldn’t care less when McTominay has the ball. (Because he's of NO THREAT to them whatsoever).
This also helps to explain why Bruno and/or Pogba’s numbers go down when they play with McTominay. When teams let McTominay be, they have an extra defender to mark Bruno/Pogba.
Another reason for his struggles is that McTominay doesn't take the ball on the half turn or turn with the ball. That means he often simply plays the way he’s facing.
Pogba in the exact same situation as McTominay turns and dribbles away.
McTominay struggles to turn on the ball even when he’s in space, leading to more sideway/back passes. As soon as McTominay gets this ball, Greenwood breaks to the middle of the pitch, but McTominay never even turns to look at Greenwood, despite not being under any pressure.
McTominay could have played a straight pass through the lines to Greenwood but he doesn't turn and passes sideways to AWB. (As usual).
Here Pogba wins the ball back and plays it quickly to McTominay. Winning possession off a turnover is a chance to hit Palace before they can get organised. Instead McTominay plays it backwards.
McTominay isn't very disciplined either. Post lockdown, United had been running rampant against teams by switching to a back three and a front five when in possession. The key to that was a midfielder splitting the 2 CBs to form a back three.
Here, United begin launching an attack but McTominay never drops back. As a result, the fullbacks can’t push up and United don’t have any passing options.
However, a few minutes later McTominay DOES drop back to form a back three, but only after being told by Maguire.
Towards the end of the Villa match McTominay wasn’t very disciplined in staying in the back three either.
Or he was dropping back when Fred had already done so, creating a back four again and completely missing the point of playing this way.
There’s a difference between being too slow on the ball and being patient on the ball. It’s something Matic is exceptionally good at.
You don’t need to pass it for the sake of passing, when you’re trying to catch a defense out you need to be quick, but other times holding on to the ball for an extra second can help create that pass.
The timing — knowing when you have to play quick, knowing when to be patient — is what McTominay needs to develop. Unfortunately that’s a skill that isn’t really taught. It’s more instinctual. McTominay’s instincts don’t seem to be that good. He seems too eager to play safe.
For the Palace match away last season McTominay made seven progressive passes in the match, all in the first half. He made three line breaking passes, also all in the first half. When he came off after 63 minutes United had nine shots for an xG of 1.00.
Over the next 27 minutes United took eight shots for an xG of 0.90... nearly the same output in half the time. Same story all the time. United seem better when McTominay is off the pitch.
It didn't take Matic long to show the results of playing the ball quickly — even if your initial pass doesn’t connect, you give the forwards a chance to press, win the ball back, and go on a break.
Matic again.
It’s easy to look back on McTominay’s first half of 2019/20 with rose-colored glasses after outstanding performances against Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City. But he followed those up with poor performances against Everton and Watford. Two steps forward, two steps back.
Towards the end of 2018/19 and pre-lockdown McTominay’s effort and passion really stood out in a team where most players lacked effort and passion. But the team that McTominay returned to post-lockdown was a far different team then the one he was playing in before.
Since lockdown,Young had departed. Maguire was named captain and thus became a massive leadership presence. Bruno and his large personality and leadership joined the squad. Rashford had come into his own as a leader.
Even Anthony Martial, whose attitude and effort levels had previously been questioned, was now running around leading United’s press and providing tons of energy. (Precisely what McTominay used to stand out for)
This is no longer a team with an attitude problem. It’s no longer a team with a passion problem. That void that McTominay was filling no longer exists.
On a technical level the team is far more talented than they were pre-lockdown 2019/20. They no longer need passion and energy to mask a lack of talent. Rather, now that the energy and talent is there, the gap between the top players and McTominay stands out even more.
That’s especially true when his passion ends up HURTING United.
If passion is not controlled it could do more harm than good. Here McTominay’s eagerness to press Spurs drags him out of position, and when he doesn’t get there in time it allows Spurs to go right through United’s midfield for their first chance of the match.
In the second half McTominay goes in hard to a challenge and “wins” the ball, but he wins it right to Lo Celso. The rashness of his challenge takes him out of the play and opens the pitch up for a Spurs break.
That’s another thing you need to use your head for — when is it better to go in for a challenge and when is it better to just continue to be in an attacking player’s way. This is another mental/instinctual thing, but it’s something that needs to be developed.
For McTominay it’s not just the physical attributes on the ball that he needs to improve on, but the mental side too, and the pace of that development is starting to get worrying. (He's already 24).
Most United players came back from lockdown having developed something. Martial learned his new position over the course of 2019/20. (LW to ST). Greenwood came back from lockdown a completely different and more advanced player. McTominay is... still McTominay.
He doesn't seem to have advanced the mental side of his game either this season
In short: simply not good enough for a club like Manchester United.
