02 Jul 2021 10:13:56
I have often read on hear lately that Declan Rice will do the job that Mctominay and Fred do. Freeing up a role for a more attacking player. I can't get my head around it. It has to be the greatest load of scutter I ever heard. You only need to watch any utd game to see how much nonsense that is. I also think a lot are seriously underestimating the player Mctominay is.

1.) 02 Jul 2021
02 Jul 2021 10:39:00
McTominay is a great player, but his natural instinct is to chase the ball down. While one of his biggest assets is the ability to shoot from range, or break into the box to finish off moves. He doesn't have the passing range or the reading of the game to be a sitting holding midfielder who can dictate play. He is a classic box to box player, who can make tackles, use his physicality to pressure opposition, his stamina to get up and down the pitch and his shooting ability by breaking forward and getting nearer/ into the box.

He is wasted and not playing to his strength by being tasked to sit in front of the defence and shuttle side to side to protect the back four.

That is a job a player like Rice excels at. While Rice's passing is underrated.

A player like Rice would allow someone like McTominay to play and be able to break forward more often and play to the best of his ability. Or we could play someone like Pogba or Donny alongside a player like Rice, players who could use their passing range or intelligence to move the ball quicker and into more dangerous areas making us a greater attacking threat.

Currently because we don't have a natural holding midfielder we are playing two box to box players in McFred in the hope that while one chases the ball down the other is marking the space. For the most part this works, but it can mean that at times both players have gone with their natural instinct and left the space in front of the back four unguarded. While neither really have the passing ability to control the tempo of the game.

Signing a player like Rice means we can play round pegs in round holes and square pegs in square holes. Meaning everyone is doing what they are best at.

2.) 02 Jul 2021
02 Jul 2021 11:23:01
Mctominay is not a great player.

3.) 02 Jul 2021
02 Jul 2021 11:32:44
Both Fred and McTominay are not "special-ist" defensive midfielders.
We have conceded plenty of goals with the midfielders not tracking players.

Both of them need to massively improve in positioning and anticipation of danger.
Fred although brings energy, he simply lacks the first touch to pass out from the back and concedes possession far too often.

Just have a look at Ed001's glowing review on Rice in the Chelsea page.
A top class defensive midfielder has to be a priority for us this window.

4.) 02 Jul 2021
02 Jul 2021 13:41:27
DDG, McTominay has scored 7 goals from deep midfield this season for us. The last player to score 7 while playing as part of the double pivot was Scholes.

Seven goals from defensive midfield, while playing in a system that doesn't get the best from you suggests that there is a great player in there.

I think if you put McTominay in a double pivot with Rice then he'd be getting 10-15 goals a season, most likely scoring some crucial goals to break teams down.

I think he is potentially a great player, not a world class player, but someone who we could look back on and say they were great for us.

5.) 02 Jul 2021
02 Jul 2021 16:36:34
Lol really Shappy. He scored 4 in the league and 2nof those were against Leeds when he played the best game of his life, never to be seen again.

The other 2 was a long range strike against Southampton to make it 6-0…. So no defence, and a header against Everton when they decided to camp out on the goal line (they were that far back lol) . His other goals were 2 more headers in the cup and a nice finish against West Ham in the cup.

Personally can’t see him scoring 10 in the league ever.

6.) 02 Jul 2021
02 Jul 2021 20:08:57
The only chance Rice would have of scoring double figures at Utd is by converting 10 of the 50 penalties we get each season….