This is just bollocks. He has the odd purple patch for a few months and people think he’s “immense”. He isn’t. He never has been, he’s always been a mostly lazy player who is far too streaky to be considered a top talent.
People need to stop believing this myth that until this year he’s been a top performer, it’s just not true at all.
I’m starting to question if you actually watch football or not. McTominay is the definition of one-dimensional. He’s not a PL standard player, and just watching him for longer than 5-10 mins on the pitch will tell you that.
I don’t want to appear to be picking on you here, but the stuff you’re saying here just isn’t consistent with reality.
If they are facing a significant rebuild, he is the sort of player they can have on the fringes of the squad while they concentrate on bringing in starting quality players, and not kick off about it. He’ll also not be on the big contract that the majority of that squad are on.
Perhaps they can bring in a decent starting midfielder this summer, but if not It’s unlikely they will be looking to bring in 4 midfielders in next summer’s window, particularly if that is when they may have to be rebuilding their defence.
This is the scale of the task ahead. They need a complete rebuild from back to front. GK, the whole backline, the entire midfield except for Mainoo, and all forwards except for Hoilund and Garnacho (I’m not sold on Garnacho). Everyone else in the squad is either bang average, or an actual liability, and the liabilities are the likes of Casemiro, Bruno, Rashford, Maguire - all players on massive contracts that they can’t shift - and I found McTominay as a liability. He’s literally invisible on the pitch, get forward too much exposing their backline, and literally can’t complete simple passes.
He fools casual observers because he pops up with goals, but he literally can’t and doesn’t do a single thing other than that. It’s like fielding 10 men if you include him in the matchday squad. There’s a reason why McFred was such a meme for years - he literally looks like he won a contest to play for Man United.
Obviously they can’t replace the entire squad in one go, but signing him to a new contract would be a massive mistake. So here’s hoping they do it.
Judging him solely by his goals and assists: respectively 128 and 74 in 390 appearances (300 games’ worth of minutes according to Transfermarkt). If Nunez, Diaz or Gakpo reach those numbers while playing for Liverpool, I’ll be over the moon, not to mention any youth prospect of ours that plays in a forward role.
I don’t consider him a world beater, I simply think that he’s a useful, horses-for-courses football player who’s very capable of doing a job that is given to him by his manager. @redfanman understood my point, he’s a good squad player (who seems to care about his club, too), even if he is limited. I imagine that some other manager, a bold, progressive one, might change his position altogether.
I really don’t think for Utd it is precisely because of the scale of the job they have in replacing virtually the rest of the squad and which you have detailed above. If they make good signings from this summer on, then he can always be moved on in a future season.
This is the problem with judging players by stats alone. These goals and assists all come in tight clusters, and he has lengthy barren periods in between. The issue is that outside of pace, he doesn’t offer much to a team that wants to have consistent patterns of play. He was prolific under Ole because they just sat back, hoofed balls over the top and asked him to run in behind the defense. This isn’t a sustainable method for winning top honors, as you’ll get found out against teams that sit back - which is exactly what happened. His purple patch last season came when ETH switched to counter-attacking football when it became obvious the squad he had couldn’t play his style from Ajax.
Rashford isn’t an intelligent footballer, but he is a pacey and opportunistic one. You take away his ability to leverage those traits and he’s a nothing footballer, just a mopey, lazy player who won’t track back and mopes around the pitch all the time.
I’m yet to see Rashford put two high quality seasons together. Inconsistency is his problem. Okay, it’s not totally black and white, but he’s 26 now and he should be providing for longer periods. It’s now a pretty valid question whether he’d be worth going for from PSG’s point of view, or better to say, if they have more talented players already or more creative solutions on the market. McTominay probably needs to drop a level. He’s a squad player at best at United and we’re not even talking about a successful United. Probably to a Moyes/Frank/Dyche type of team.
I’m not sure that you can get any lower than playing for this current Man U side. 
I don’t know how serious the rumours are but I’m not all convinced that PSG would seriously be considering replacing Mbappé with a player like Rashford. The only thing they have in common is that they are both quick , but there the similarities end. They would have to fork out a small fortune on a fee and wages to accomodate a guy who can’t even be arsed playing for his hometown club. Do they really imagine his attitude is going to change by playing in France alongside another bunch of overpaid galacticos ? Rashord to me looks like he lost all interest in playing football the day they decided to pay him £350,000 a week. I hope he stays where he belongs and continues to drag that club down with his half-arsed performances and his petulance.
The issue with Rashford probably is that he’s reached his peak. He wasn’t coached well enough in his early days to track back and put in an all-round shift. Any coach expecting him to do those basics now is going to come in for disappointment.
That’s what happens when you keep changing your coaches without having a coherent footballing structure under a competent football director. And then these lot had Ole in between who did much more harm with his pampering of the divas and their behaviour.
He cannot play any different now. He’s 26 , his bad habits can’t be unlearnt. He’s probably going to get bit more experienced in finishing which does come with age. But once his speed goes , his effectiveness as a footballer comes to an end.
3-4 years ago , if there was a chance for Liverpool to get him , I wouldn’t have minded him. Klopp would have turned him into a beast of a player. For all accounts , despite being a manure ,he’s a good person , that matters in the not an asshole bit.
At 26 he’s far from a young player anymore, but it’s impossible to say whether he’s peaked. You can control certain individual things, but you’re also dependant on circumstances around. A few years ago I thought Rashford to PSG would be ambitious from their point of view. Now, even if he might reproduce another season like last one at sort of 27-28, he’s at a stage now when you’re not sure if it’s worth it anymore. He’s basically earning Mo Salah type of money and he’s simply not that consistent. PSG have some new talents or quality like Barcola, a matured Dembele, Xavi Simons is still their player, Leao might be their first wish to “replace” Mbappe, etc.
A coach like Klopp would have forced Rashford to play more like a false #9(more to force him to pass the ball more and more to his team mates , gotten him involved with the game and then rotated him across the forward line once he’s happy with the teamplay by Rashford.
It could have been done when Rashford was 22-23. But now , Rashford is a pampered footballer on 350k which makes him think that he’s one of the best footballers around.
He could very well score loads of goals in the farmers league. Unless PSG reckon he’s going to move the needle in terms of merchandise sales , don’t see the point in buying him.
Nah, I think he would’ve still used him on the left. It would only depend in which way, in more of a Mane way or Salah way. He’d be more suited to the latter, but that would depend on the rest we would have at the time. Rashford’s natural skill is to face the goal more. If he would be a more rounded player, he could be a more complete player, but it’s been a while now since basically many football people agreed (and probably himself included) that he’s not a lone striker (a two up top is different and wouldn’t be too dissimilar to playing a Salah role wider in a 3).
Rashford is a salutary reminder of the idea that just because you can pay young footballers huge wages, doesn’t mean you should. The other one is signing Sancho at 20, and putting him straight on 350k pw. That’s not doing the player any favours, never mind the catastrophic effect on your own club.
I’ll say again, that had he got a manager like Klopp at 21, he’d be a great footballer now.
Woodward’s brilliant idea of keeping assets at exorbitant salaries so that they didn’t go on a free. Started with Pogba and David De Gea , and then filtered down to the likes of Rashford , Martial and then Sancho being the icing on the cake.
Their Salaries this season on their payroll
Sancho’s at 195k (more likely the other aspect of it is Dortmund paying the rest of the wages).
Casemiro’s at 350k (till 2026 , good job trying to fob him off to any other club)
Varane’s at 340k (till 2025 again someone who’s got all the incentive to see out the last year of his contract because no one’s offering that money to someone who’s injured pretty often)
Rashford’s at 300k(till 2028)
Martial’s at 250k(He’ll be off this year. what a shame. Woodward would have signed an extension)
Bruno’s at 240k(Cunt. Possibly the only one among the list so far who can be termed as a moderate success. He’ll probably get the upgraded contract to 350k etc which should get him to down tools totally)
Mason Mount at 250k
And…
Drumroll
Antony at 200k
JK makes players better.
Erik the Bald prolongs their misery.
(posting from the loo)
Darren Bent on TS last night was going to town on how shit Antony is…
Was great listening.