Midfield: Amrabat or McTominay?

Amrabat is a bad midfielder. Scott McTominay isn't even a midfielder.

Awful options but you get your answer.
 
Ask the Spanish who they fear most.

Anyone or McTominay.
 
What kind of joke question is this? Amrabat every day and twice on Sunday. A better question for me is what would be our best midfield if everyone is fit, unpopular I guess but I would go for Mainoo-Amrabat-Mount midfield three.
 
Neither if we have any aspirations.I'd keep McTominay as a sub option if I had to, Arambat no thanks.
 
Maluco said:
McTominey is like playing with ten men. He doesn’t show for the ball, usually has a very low number of completed passes because of this and has poor positioning.

He shouldn’t be starting in any functional midfield.
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Interesting that people think it's like playing with 10 when he was the player who won most duels yesterday.
 
Grylte said:
Interesting that people think it's like playing with 10 when he was the player who won most duels yesterday.
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That is literally all he offers, some physicality and running. Is that where we are as a team? The stats clearly show how little he in involved in the majority of games when the team has possession. You just can’t build a cohesive midfield with such limited players. We won’t get any better until we stop playing players like him.
 
Maluco said:
That is literally all he offers, some physicality and running. Is that where we are as a team? The stats clearly show how little he in involved in the majority of games when the team has possession. You just can’t build a cohesive midfield with such limited players. We won’t get any better until we stop playing players like him.
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I'm not saying he's good enough, but the "it's like playing with 10" is just stupid.
 
Seriously none of them. If Amrabat is that good, you would good clubs queuing to sign him instead he "waited" for United. Amrabat had a few good games in the world cup and everyone thought he will help United. McTominay is a shit midfielder, he has no 3rd gear at all. Once the defender goes pass him, he cannot recover. He can't pass, create or dribble. The only thing that he does well is score, he would find himself with 1 or 2 chances to score in each game. Come this season, McTominay should be sold and Amrabat can be sign as a backup. Erik needs to be another target in mind as Amrabat is not our solution.
 
None of them. Once Casemiro comes back and Eriksen then I expect them 2 to play more games together. I’d like to see a midfield 3 of Casemiro, Mainoo and Eriksen further forward.
 
r0663664 said:
Seriously none of them. If Amrabat is that good, you would good clubs queuing to sign him instead he "waited" for United. Amrabat had a few good games in the world cup and everyone thought he will help United. McTominay is a shit midfielder, he has no 3rd gear at all. Once the defender goes pass him, he cannot recover. He can't pass, create or dribble. The only thing that he does well is score, he would find himself with 1 or 2 chances to score in each game. Come this season, McTominay should be sold and Amrabat can be sign as a backup. Erik needs to be another target in mind as Amrabat is not our solution.
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I think a lot of us wanted Amrabat just so we wouldn’t see much of Mctominay again but with the injuries we have. We’re seeing them both play together which is appalling. We have the worse midfield out of the top teams in the prem. we need Casemiro back to last years level, next to the up and coming Mainoo. Then rotate Bruno and Eriksen for the number 10 role depending on opponent.
 
Grylte said:
I'm not saying he's good enough, but the "it's like playing with 10" is just stupid.
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If he hides from the ball, and can’t pass it when he does receive it, that’s as close to 10 men as your are going to get in possession.

If he was even good positionally defensively, i wouldn’t think that, but it ruins the cohesiveness of any system he is played in.
 
I like Mctominay's attitude in this team of bottlers. But, I never want to see him start again. His technical ability is Championship level. Amrabat is not a great option of course, but better than McT out there blowing up every counter we get.
 
mav_9me said:
For anyone who says McT, let me ask you which of the following teams would take him for their starting X, which is where he is right nowI?

City, Liverpool, Arsenal, Spurs, Barcelona, Madrid, Bayern etc.

No top team would sacrifice midfield/ general midfield ability for occasional goal scoring. We have been doing that for 10 yrs now, first with Fellaini, now with McT. Sigh.
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I agree. But we haven't any other option it seems. ETH doesn't like Mount even when fit (which is nuts seeing that he signed him). Bruno is a liability and needs to be given a license to just create.. he doesn't tie our game together, giving us tempo etc, like Modric.. or even a Maddison does a bit at Spurs. And this Bruno issue is significant, because it informs who else plays in midfield. I would take Bruno out. We need three midfielders, who are midfielders. We haven't the talent, nor stability to dominate teams through posession or any game strategy in fact, because we still haven't a game strategy under ETH.

So until things resolve themselves, I say we play SMT, Amrabat, Mainoo. If Casemiro comes back and looks ready and committed, then you can rotate three from those four. But Bruno should be taken out of the equation. We need to look and be more solid. It will not be pretty, but that's how it is I'm afraid. And that really p****es me off.
 
In an ideal world it would be neither. Both are utter shit and no way near the standard of a United midfielder.

ETH has preferred a single pivot for most of the season, so given that:

Mainoo
McT Bruno
​
would be my preference. Although, Mainoo is quite slow too but I would still prefer him over Amrabat. Mainoo is more press resistant, can pick up the ball from the GK or the defense and is a better passer of the ball with a good vision.
 
Firstly, the idea that Mainoo is going to play every week for the rest of the season as a first choice midfielder seems "brave", he's still very young and will have bad games and will need to be taken out of the team for his own good at some point. Neither Amrabat or SMT are really what we need right now but Amrabat makes more sense playing alongside Casemiro than SMT. Longer term Mainoo replaces Casemiro and we either play Hannibal alongside him, or much more likely sign another player to do so. Amrabat returns to Italy in May I think.

Secondly I don't accept the idea that Bruno is undroppable, he's a flawed footballer that was great for Ole-ball counter attacking but probably not suited for Ten Hag style possession based football. I think that Mount may be a better longer term option at number 10 if he can get a run of fitness.
 
hobbers said:
If we want to actually control games and dominate midfield the ideal trio is obviously Casemiro, Mainoo, Eriksen. With Bruno on the right.

Or at least Casemiro and Mainoo in a double pivot with Bruno further forward.
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This couldn't be more obvious, but I'm concerned ETH has his idea of how he wants the team to set up and we will never see this midfield.

That midfield 3 would be amazing. A proper midfield, with Casemiro told to sit and not try and be something he hasn't been throughout his career.
 
We need to play two deep lying midfielders at all times going forward. The player that best fits the description to play alongside Mainoo in tgis team right now is Amrabat. Simple as.
 
I can clearly see why no one was that interested in Amrabat in the summer, and sort of made the point a few times that it should raise a few alarms. Passing is disastrous and he just seems oddly unathletic for a modern day footballer. Maybe he'll kick on in the second half of the season?

But he's an actual midfielder who gets involved in midfield operations, so its an easy choice for that role over Mctominay.
 
One of the biggest issues here is the non existent goal threat from our attackers. Garnacho is probably the only attacker we have that defenders are a bit scared of atm.
That is the reason we(EtH) feel we need to play Scott to help our chances to score. That is the reason Bruno is always playing 90 minutes, he offers some sort of threat at least.

But we should probably think outside the box here. If the attackers can`t offer a goal threat and Bruno and Scott can, play Bruno and Scott higher up instead of two attackers and fill the midfield with 3 cms. That is probably whats needed to get some balance to our play and not get overrun all the time.
Something like below perhaps? Eriksen and Mount could rotate up front as well. Höjlund with Garnacho.


Kobbie-Amrabat- Casemiro
Bruno- Scott
Garnacho
 
The question is already answered isn't it?

In the summer we tried to get rid of McSauce and we only brought in Amrabat because Mainoo was injured.

I don't expect either to be here this time next year.
 
DWelbz19 said:
Both have gigantic flaws but Amrabat is a closer representation to a central midfielder.

placeholder until Casemiro is back to play beside Mainoo.
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Casemiro's on his way out pretty soon, plus looks to have put in a string of pretty average performances this year in any case
 
Mehn...the slander that Amrabat gets is absolutely surprising. Amrabat is absolutely class when we have the ball. He actually allows us to consistently play out from the back even against high-press teams...something Casemiro and Pogba failed to do. Defensively, he needs help but which DM doesn't need help in this transition football (or the 2 number eights) system that ETH has implemented this season? Even Casemiro looked bad when he played there alone.

There is no world where Mctominay is comparable to Amrabat on the ball...Amrabat is really good with the ball. I think people only rate you when you spam through balls like Bruno or Casemiro rather than know that you need different skillsets in different phases of the game (build-up vs final third). It actually explains why Carrick took forever to be rated by England...when you are not out there playing the final pass or running around like Kante/Fred...you don't get the same respect

Amrabat is not a Casemiro replacement(Kante kind of DM)...he is just playing there as cover...but rather it's supposed to be him and Casemiro plus Bruno...or him, mainoo and Bruno, or him, mount, Eriksen, etc. Mctominay is just straight-up bad...he is neither good in possession nor out of it.

Mctominay should actually be tried out as a backup striker or something because the only thing he has going for him is scoring...the idea that Amrabat is soo bad is like people who say De Gea was better than Onana...for every world-class save he made, he gave away in GK errors and not being able to play out from the back. Amrabat may not be the final answer in that position but he is miles better than Mctominay...same thing with Onana vs de Gea
 
Grylte said:
I'm not saying he's good enough, but the "it's like playing with 10" is just stupid.
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On the ball, it's entirely correct. Without the ball, he offers some physicality but his positioning is really bad. He's a nothing player in midfield.

Amrabat clearly isn't suited to the PL (or doesn't look like it at the moment, who knows if he can discover another level of intensity), but at least he's a midfielder and has the basics globally correct. He's not good enough for us in the long run, going by his current performances, but he's a much better MF than McTominay.
 
Fortitude said:
Bruno isn't getting dropped. Mainoo offers things nobody else in the squad is capable of and I think we mostly agree should be a lock in the team. We're left with a fight for the third spot between Amrabat and the seeming staple in the side, McTominay.

The former sits deep and offers a double pivot next to Mainoo making us harder to play straight through. He is bumbling, slow and has very poor levels agility. On the flip side, he gives everything he has, always shows for the ball and is capable of solid forward passes.

The latter offers goals and finds himself further forward. He often plays ahead of Bruno and his real strength is timing runs into threatening offensive positions. Is poor at reading the midfield battle, which means he's often on the outside looking in and being seconds behind the play, particularly defensively and also when tasked with showing for the ball to progress play before marauding. McTominay turns us into a single pivot, but supposedly offers us more offensive threat.

Both players are not of the required standard, but both contribute in their own way. Between the two, who would you rather occupy that 3rd midfield spot? Do you want a double or single pivot?
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I think it's hard to argue we have a #6 right now who is good enough to make do with a single pivot, so that question answers itself, more or less. EtH seems to think otherwise though.

McTominay or Amrabat? They're both liabilities in that role and on this level. I honestly don't know.
 
Jeffthered said:
I agree. But we haven't any other option it seems. ETH doesn't like Mount even when fit (which is nuts seeing that he signed him). Bruno is a liability and needs to be given a license to just create.. he doesn't tie our game together, giving us tempo etc, like Modric.. or even a Maddison does a bit at Spurs. And this Bruno issue is significant, because it informs who else plays in midfield. I would take Bruno out. We need three midfielders, who are midfielders. We haven't the talent, nor stability to dominate teams through posession or any game strategy in fact, because we still haven't a game strategy under ETH.

So until things resolve themselves, I say we play SMT, Amrabat, Mainoo. If Casemiro comes back and looks ready and committed, then you can rotate three from those four. But Bruno should be taken out of the equation. We need to look and be more solid. It will not be pretty, but that's how it is I'm afraid. And that really p****es me off.
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We need Bruno or Mount, these 2 should rotate. McTominay should never start for United, he is only thrown on when we need a goal or defend corners.
 
Rooney in Paris said:
On the ball, it's entirely correct. Without the ball, he offers some physicality but his positioning is really bad. He's a nothing player in midfield.

Amrabat clearly isn't suited to the PL (or doesn't look like it at the moment, who knows if he can discover another level of intensity), but at least he's a midfielder and has the basics globally correct. He's not good enough for us in the long run, going by his current performances, but he's a much better MF than McTominay.
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I don't think it's intensity he's lacking - he's showing that constantly, sometimes to a fault. He just can't keep up with the pace, mentally or physically. He is, at best, right on the edge, all the time. Gets played past because he can't read it quickly and correctly (what a contrast with Mainoo), and doesn't have the speed to recover. Can't make good decisions quickly enough. Can't execute passes efficiently and precisely with regularity when he's under pressure. Looks like he simply doesn't have the level - a shit version of Fred. That is a massive scouting error. As bad as McTominay is, I'm not sure I'd rate him as better.
 
IMO Amrabat is significantly better than McT but is also significantly inferior to what we need.

If we want to play possession based dynamic football, we HAVE to play single pivot. Look at City, look at Arsenal - both looking for control, both utilising a single pivot. Arsenal moved to this only this summer and they have transitioned well - it is possible to do so and we should (when all are fit) see a midfield 3 of Casemiro, Bruno, Mount. Bruno has to play deeper than he has recently, similar to how he played deeper a number of times last year, and looked class!
 
justsomebloke said:
I don't think it's intensity he's lacking - he's showing that constantly, sometimes to a fault. He just can't keep up with the pace, mentally or physically. He is, at best, right on the edge, all the time. Gets played past because he can't read it quickly and correctly (what a contrast with Mainoo), and doesn't have the speed to recover. Can't make good decisions quickly enough. Can't execute passes efficiently and precisely with regularity when he's under pressure. Looks like he simply doesn't have the level - a shit version of Fred. That is a massive scouting error. As bad as McTominay is, I'm not sure I'd rate him as better.
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Yeah sorry, maybe intensity wasn't the right one, it's the pace and physicality I was referring to. But I think most of his failings are due to the intensity of the league - why I used that term.
 
R0nald0 said:
IMO Amrabat is significantly better than McT but is also significantly inferior to what we need.

If we want to play possession based dynamic football, we HAVE to play single pivot. Look at City, look at Arsenal - both looking for control, both utilising a single pivot. Arsenal moved to this only this summer and they have transitioned well - it is possible to do so and we should (when all are fit) see a midfield 3 of Casemiro, Bruno, Mount. Bruno has to play deeper than he has recently, similar to how he played deeper a number of times last year, and looked class!
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In short, exactly how I feel.
 
For now, I'd rather us play with two 6s to bring more stability as we're way too open otherwise. So, let's say we have everyone fit, I'd always want us to play two of Casemiro, Amrabat and Mainoo behind one of Bruno, Eriksen, McTominay or Mount. Whoever is in form. I don't mind Mejbri either but I really don't know where he fits in.

I don't think we will, though. EtH has his heart set on this one sitting midfielder behind two attack minded ones. In that setup, I don't think it's a case of either Amrabat or McTominay. Amrabat is an option for the 6 and McTominay is as the 8/10 hybrid.
 
Amrabat/Casemiro-Amrabat/Mainoo
Bruno(10 role)

Is what we should play going forward. Mctominay can jump in when we are pushing for a goal or trying to defend a lead and setpieces late on.
 
Arambat moves like his pockets are full of change and he's afraid it will all fallout.
 
JagUTD said:
McTominay. Anyone saying Amrabat should be asked if they've ever even heard of football.

They haven't.
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We have seen enough of McTominay to know he shouldn't be at the club. Amarbat is still relatively new and has a higher ceiling than Scott when it comes to playing g in midfield.

The real question is why either of them are here at the this football club.
 
Casemiro is obviously a better player than Amrabat but he wouldn't be much better in a one man midfield.

That's the crux of the problem, rather than the limitations of the midfielders. Anyone whom we play there is on a hiding to nothing.
 
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