Scott McTominay - Enigma

If he were a Pokémon he'd be a Shadow type.

Scott McTominay’s nickname should be Marmite, for he is a footballer that to say the very least, divides opinion.

Some view him as a future Manchester United captain. Others say he wouldn’t be capable of having a successful career at a Championship side. And it’s not just his quality as a footballer that’s regularly questioned. Many believe where he is positioned on the pitch is a matter for debate also! McTominay is a Centre-Midfielder by trade but has played consistently for his National Team as a Centre Back, and as a young United academy player he played as a Striker. Discourse surrounds him like he’s another questionable tweet from Elon Musk.

So, let’s get some things clear about the Lancaster-born Scot, and let’s finally settle this talk of whether a player like him should even play for Manchester United.

Scott holds his own when in possession of the ball and can be dynamic in motoring up and down the half-spaces. Built like a tank with the engine included, the midfield man is difficult to stop in full flow, and frequently intermixes his imposing frame with an underrated ability to wiggle his way out of danger. The Scotsman ranks in the 88th percentile of dribbles completed within the past year, illustrating a keen awareness of when to take players on, and how to avoid intense pressure that comes his way. He holds the intelligence to be selective in choosing his moments to venture forward and contribute to the attack, looking for spaces to exploit the opposition’s back-line, especially in those right-half-spaces as an 8, before receiving a progressive pass. He can combine in some beautiful overloads forming down the right between the typical right sided duo of Antony and Dalot, and he has the mobility to immediately race back in transition and occupy passing spaces when possession changes hands.

He’s improving upon his level of disguise when receiving the ball, and his close control is also growing with his confidence under Erik Ten Hag. The central midfielder has the unique advantage of being abnormally tall (6’3). This allows him to hold off opponents, where he understands how to smartly use his arms to shield the ball and hold off unwanted attention. You can guarantee he’ll never have the ability of true close control masters with a lower centre of gravity, like Marco Verratti, but being tall isn’t to blame for that. The problem McTominay faces is a clear distrust of his weak foot. While he’s not as bad as teammate Antony, who seems almost incapable of using his right at times, McTominay does tend to almost entirely rely on right-footed attempts when dribbling, decreasing the variety of dribbles he can attempt.

Beyond that, surprisingly to many I’m sure, McTominay is also borderline exceptional when taking on long passes. His passing percentage from range ranks within the top 12% of footballers in Europe’s top five leagues, with a success rate of 75.5%. Now it’s important to take into account here that he doesn’t try these on a consistent basis (4.75 per 90), but based on his statistics, he should be.

Peculiarly, he’s almost as successful with his long passes as he is with the simpler ones. This is the key hole in his game that many will pinpoint as a major weakness. As United legend Paul Scholes has brought up on a multitude of occasions, he’s not an elite level scanner. That fault in his game manifests itself on two key issues. The Scot’s first touch can sometimes be directed towards pressure rather than away from it, an issue which he sometimes makes up for with his dribbling. On other occasions this causes him to run straight into traffic, losing possession of the ball. When that happens it can cause him to panic under pressure when he is then swarmed by several players rather than one, which in the end results in him misplacing passes when other players may opt to go backward and reset. Think of him as a classic video game protagonist (My mind floats to Ezio in Assassin’s Creed II here), well able to handle opponents one-on-one, but when they decide to gang up, he really starts to struggle.

When it comes to his defensive abilities we must remember those warrior-like qualities we spoke of in the attacking sense of the Scotsman’s play. These hold all the truer in defence, where McTominay throws his body in the way of any situation. Again, the natural lack of elegance in his lanky frame and uncultured style of play makes some believe he’s not a solid option when it comes to the defensive side of the game, but that’s anything but true. In those individual battles, you’ll see McTominay use his strength to great effect and excel. It’s the greater aspects of awareness where he sometimes falters, sometimes shifting too far wide or too far up the pitch to adequately respond in transition. Mobility does not always translate into speed, particularly when needing to change direction.

McTominay is highly comfortable when advancing towards the defensive line to crowd and compact spaces. Most notably he facilitates this process to great effect on crosses into the box where he will position himself just in front of the defensive line so that he can make a crucial clearance or block should the chance arrive. He ranks in the top 4% of players in the top 5 European leagues on aerials won and the top 3% on aerial percentage won (67.8%), and finally he is in the top 1% of players in clearing the ball away from danger. This facet of his game goes beyond just intelligent positioning and understanding the areas worth compaction, to an incessant desire to throw himself in the way. He endeavours to get ball-side/goal-side at every possible opportunity, doing his very best in positioning himself in front of opposition danger men.

Should he continue playing in a slightly deeper position under Ten Hag, this placement affords him the advantage of being able to step up, when necessary, where he completed 52.8% of his tackles last season (in the top 4% of midfielders). In these moments, he can prioritize screening passes that the opposition may want to play in behind (such as toward the striker), before closing down dribblers with all his might when they begin to threaten.

For a team that over the past few years has been so often called out for ‘lacking leadership’, McTominay feels like a true leader. He’s incredibly hard-working, honest in his approach to life in football, and is in constant communication with the players around him. This level of leadership is absolutely vital in helping to shape a team on a grander scale and will end up inspiring a wider warrior-like mentality amongst other players. When Ralf Rangnick first introduced a true focus to pressing from the front in the second half of last season, McTominay immediately made his presence felt higher up the pitch. The 26-year-old is going to follow his manager’s instructions tooth and nail and give everything within his power for any coach he plays under. Perhaps above all else, that is why the Scotsman has been consistently selected by any manager that takes charge.

For the wider Manchester United fanbase, his limitations are often a point of contention, with many placing the entirety of the blame on him in the past for issues with the wider team. Scott is fully capable of completing more dribbling magic and holding more defensive stability than most people will ever really give him credit for. There is an issue though that a portion of the fanbase who will over-extend what his abilities are, in order to justify his continued selection in a team that possesses genuine superstars.

The man is not without his faults, of course. For instance, the negative effect he has on United’s build-up from the back when he plays as a 6 is incredible. McTominay has this outstanding tendency to wander into the space behind the players pressing his Centre Backs, into what’s known as the Cover Shadow. Former TIFO IRL analyst and writer Alex Stewart made a fantastic video about this issue for TIFO last season which goes into much more detail than I can here about it. The part of this that would make you cry as a United fan if you didn’t laugh about it is that if he were to step out of that cover shadow to receive the ball in space, he could consistently use that surprisingly fantastic ability to play the long ball that he possesses.

Scott McTominay is a limited player. Apart from possibly the boring aspects like positioning himself to clear the ball out of danger, there is not any one particular aspect of his game that you can turn to and confidently say that he’s better at it than any other midfielder in the world. He is a jack of all trades, a type of player that may not raise the ceiling of your team when he’s on the pitch, but will significantly raise your floor. The 26-year-old is a combative warrior, with a fabulous engine to venture box-to-box.

For the time being, he nicely performs that half-baked 6/8 role well for Ten Hag’s team, and could realistically fulfill either slot in any formation, whilst also possessing the ability to play centre-back if you’re in a pinch. His lack of elegance means that he’s not going to get it right 100% of the time, but Ten Hag and Steve Clarke know that. Both managers are fine with him getting it right 8/10 times, knowing that he offers enough to make his presence felt at all ends of the pitch and in a variety of circumstances.

Above all else, the fact that McTominay has been a consistent starter under four different managers at one of the most famous clubs in world football, objectively makes him an outstanding footballer. Very few make it through the Manchester United academy and even make one appearance for the club. Scott McTominay (At time of writing) has made 191 appearances for the club he has loved since his youth.

Where he falls on the scale of remarkable midfielders will likely be nowhere near to the likes of Casemiro, Declan Rice, or Rodri, especially while he’s being deployed as a DM, but McTominay deserves to be praised in his own right, as a player who has come out against all the odds time and time again.

Without floating his boat, the truth of it all is just that McTominay as a player is greater than the sum of his parts, especially when he’s surrounded with players who have specific skillsets to make the work he does do well truly shine.

(All statistics correct at time of writing, all taken from FBref.com)