Manchester United are a club with a fine history of goalscoring midfielders. Scott McTominay is making his name in this way lately.
What Scott McTominay lacks in passing and technical ability, he makes up with effort and his newfound eye for goal.
McTominay is now Manchester United’s leading goalscorer after a brace against Chelsea in midweek.
His performance has been widely praised, with John O’Shea telling MUTV’s Matchday Review that he should be a ‘definite starter’ in the team going forward.
Scott McTominay praised
Another former academy talent, Ben Thornley, went a step further, comparing McTominay to two greats.
Speaking to MUTV’s The Debate, Thornley explained: “The header, both the one that he scored and the one that he should have scored in the first half, were reminiscent of Bryan Robson and Roy Leane who come into the box late and, I think it’s really important that you have goalscoring midfielders anyway in your team.
“You need that, to supplement the goals the forwards are scoring. We obviously know that Manchester United’s goal difference at the moment isn’t what it should be, equally, more so, important you’ve got people weighing in with goals from elsewhere. He scored two last night, he could easily have had a hat-trick, maybe even a fourth.”
If only the rest of McTominay’s game was as polished as Keane and Robson. But we will take the goalscoring for now.
As Thornley points out, Manchester United’s goal difference is poor. It currently stands at zero, which is worse than last night’s opponents Chelsea, who are four places further back.
Another midfielder tipped to finish top scorer
Thornley was asked who he thinks will finish the season as top scorer for Manchester United.
He did not go with McTominay, picking out another midfielder, Bruno Fernandes.
He explained: “I’m going to go with Bruno. He’s an ever present in the team and that has to be taken into account.”
Fernandes is only one goal further back than McTominay, and is also on penalty duties, uncharacteristically missing one last night.
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