McT has done more in one game this season than Donny in his whole time here.
I recall people giving McT horrendous abuse for that Chelsea game last season, yet even in that he had 41 touches.
Donny had 13 touches in an hour, that's embarrassing.
He has hit rock bottom, yet still people still find a way to back him up whilst simultaneously sticking the knife into McT.
This place is really really baffling me at the moment.
Unbelievable. When any fair assessment of the strengths of McTominay are amassed there isn't one aspect of his game United could do without. Is he?
A great defender? No
A great reader of play? No
A great passer? No
A great dribbler? No
A great header of the ball either in defense or in attack? No
A creator? No
A destroyer? No (unless one means a destroyer of our own attacks)
A leader? No
Would McTominay get anywhere near the squads of Arsenal, Chelsea, Spurs, Liverpool or even Newcastle? Emphatically, no. (No need to ask about City, of course, but that could be said about most of our players). Would McTominay start for Fulham or Brighton? Not likely.
Fred is an interesting case. He does have incredible athletic range, by which I mean he can brilliantly press and dispossess in the middle third (but you don't want him defending in his own third), but his passing is shockingly poor, he can't dribble past an opponent and he's definitely not a midfielder one can rely on to create scoring chances. Yet Fred does have something about him that makes him a useful asset for a club like United which is undergoing the transition from the bottom of the Top Six Club to hopefully a PL contender next season.
Anyone who wants to beat up Donny for his performances with United has a case, but it's also undeniable that he's been given so few chances that he's never had a chance to develop any kind of rhythm. You can't expect someone who gets one start every other month, or is brought on in the 85th minute once every two weeks, to make any kind of high impact.
This stands in stark contrast to Fred and McTominay, who have been given more than plenty of chances to demonstrate their footballing prowess at this level and they have been consistently shocking. When Fred and McTominay get 5-10 straight starts and still perform poorly and continue to get starts (which, mercifully, has ended with the recent acquisitions of Eriksen and Casemiro), they have to be held to a higher standard than a player who gets one start and performs poorly. Casemiro didn't look all that great for us in his first two starts for United, but ETH stuck with him and here we are now. Donny of course is no Casemiro but the point is you you can't judge a player on the back of one start every few months or being subbed on in the 85th minute once a month.
I have no problem with selling Donny, but if we're going to sell Donny but keep Fred and McTominay -- for footballing reasons, as it's pretty clearly the case there isn't much demand for Fred and McTominay -- questions would appropriately be asked.