Longstaff or at best very slightly better. If we're looking for an upgrade on Longstaff, McTomminay ain't it.
I'm not sure why so many are so set against it? Forget Maddison/Alvarez/Patrick Viera (he's on a free now)/Pirlo etc. - whoever it is, we're probably looking to bring in a quality CM and someone like McTomminay. Forget about the money - we are rich as... and can be buying squad players even if it's £20-30m on a player to "compete" for places and who isn't a guarantee starter. If we make Europe we'll have even more money to spend thank most are thinking and more commercial pulling power. There is a space to fill, even with another, top end, CM coming in and it's no good not having a player there to fill it? The other options are Hendrick, Hayden, Matty Longstaff or youth... If we are playing in Europe you are looking at 46 club games minimum next season (if you went out at the group stage and first round of the cups) possibly up to 60-70 if you progress through the cups (potentially 12-14 games - excluding replays) and Europe (potentially 9 games after the group stage) and you need a squad to play that many games. Plus a lot of our players are now internationals, Pope, Trippier, Schar, Botman, Bruno, Miggy, Isak from the starting line up alone so some of them will be looking at 40+ games in a season in a high intensity pressing team for the majority of the year. If we get another serious injury like and ACL to someone like Bruno and have only bought in one CM we are back to the same situation we are in now, worrying about a pulled hammy or a sending off.
Because he’s not a first team starter and not any better than those who would be back up. That simple
That's irrelevant! We have 4 CM's, if we sign another we have 5, we play with 3 starting, the squad has space for 6, with one first team player signed you still need one more. Because whoever the starter is you still need one more...
IF we are to move forward, McTominay isn't the signing we need. We need to upgrade from Longstaff, so why do we need another one worse if not better? I'd rather go for Palhinha from Fulham, for example. The options are endless....
The problem i have with McTominay is that he appears to operate better as a Box to Box midfielder (See Scotland performances) But when limited to CDM as he is at Man U he doesn't have the presence to protect the back line well enough. B2B mids we have Willock, Joelinton & to a lesser extent, Longstaff who will do that. If we want a proper CDM then get one, don't try to make one out of McTominay