United would have been happy to sell the Scotland international in the summer, but his late heroics have snatched them 12 priceless points
Sometimes results in football are the fruit of thousands of hours of scouting or a manager's faith in a player finally paying off. On other occasions, they can feel like an accident.
Scott McTominay's incredible season with Manchester United feels like the latter. McTominay fired the Red Devils to a priceless win at Aston Villa which has shaken up the race for the top four in the Premier League and revitalised what has been an otherwise harrowing campaign for the team.
It is far from the first time he has bailed United out, and Villa were just his latest addition to a list of victims that also includes Brentford, Chelsea, Wolves and Sheffield United. Every time McTominay has scored in the league in 2023-24, the Red Devils have gone on to win by a single goal, his efforts worth a stunning 12 points.
Yet it should not be forgotten that McTominay was on the long list of players United were looking to sell last summer. Erik ten Hag had decided that the midfielder did not meet his criteria for a regular starter, and while the club was by no means desperate to offload him, they would have happily parted ways had the right offer come in. Only West Ham showed real interest, but their £30 million ($37m) bid was ultimately below United's asking price of £40m ($50m), and the Red Devils decided to keep McTominay on as a squad player.
Ten Hag and the club's hierarchy should be thanking the football Gods that David Moyes' side did not bid any higher. They have discovered the merits of having a player who is always ready to come off the bench and make a difference. And McTominay keeps on making the difference…
Getty No fluke
McTominay's season really began with his stunning late cameo against Brentford in October, when he was introduced in the 87th minute with United trailing 1-0, heading for a seventh defeat of the season and a third consecutive home loss. He equalised in the 91st minute with a right-footed strike and then buried a header in the 96th minute. His cameo may well have saved Ten Hag's job.
There was an element of madness and luck to that logic-defying moment at Old Trafford, but McTominay proved it was no fluke by scoring in his next game against Sheffield United. Six weeks later, he bagged a double against Chelsea, a left-footed opener and a close-range header to win the match 2-1.
The emergence of Kobbie Mainoo reduced the number of starts he got, but McTominay has continued to prove the most useful of substitutes, scoring just two minutes after coming off the bench in the wild 4-3 win at Wolves and netting the winner at Villa Park within 13 minutes of replacing Marcus Rashford.
Advertisement(C)GettyImagesHighly efficient and priceless
McTominay's sensational substitute appearances have turned him into United's top scorer in the league on seven goals, two ahead of Rasmus Hojlund. And just as the Dane was threatening to catch up with him after netting for the fifth consecutive Premier League game at Villa, McTominay felt the need to strike again.
It is quite the feat for McTominay, who has spent most of his career as a defensive midfielder, to out-score a £72m ($90m) centre-forward, plus Rashford, who struck 30 times in all competitions last season, as well as Bruno Fernandes. The fact McTominay is United's best source of goals does say a lot about the team's recent struggles and paint top-earner Rashford in a bad light. But he is also leaving the rest of the Premier League in the shade.
McTominay is the joint-top scoring midfielder in the league alongside Douglas Luiz, who netted for Villa on Sunday and gave a provocative celebration. He is far and away the most efficient goalscoring midfielder, netting every 172 minutes, comfortably bettering second-placed Abdoulaye Doucoure of Everton (255 minutes per goal), Luiz (282) and Villa's John McGinn (341).
McTominay is also highly efficient when it comes to earning points. His seven strikes have won United 12 points, accounting for 29 percent of their total of 41. That also puts him top in the Premier League, above the 10 points Son Heung-min has earned Tottenham with his 12 goals, the nine points Dominic Solanke has given Bournemouth with 13 strikes, and the eight points Erling Haaland has won for City with his chart-topping 16 goals.
Getty Much better off the bench
Each McTominay goal has effectively been worth 1.7 points to United, and without his efforts they would, in theory, be all the way down in 12th in the Premier League table. Instead they are sixth and still in with a shout of sneaking into the top four and returning to the Champions League.
There is an intriguing paradox whereby United have come to rely so heavily on a player who has started only half of their league games and who ranks seventh in the squad in terms of minutes played.
After the midfielder's match-winning cameo against Brentford, Ten Hag understandably tried to give McTominay more opportunities and handed him 10 consecutive league starts. But that ended up weakening the team overall, and it has become clear that United are much better off bringing the Scotland international off the bench than starting him.
Of the 12 league games in which McTominay has started, United have won six, lost five and drawn one. But in the nine matches when he has come off the bench, United have won seven, drawn one and lost one. That's a 50% win rate with McTominay in the line-up compared to 77% with him as a substitute.
Getty 'Ready for every minute'
It takes a certain type of personality to be a super-sub, and while the moniker might offend certain players, it is a description which suits McTominay, who has spent most of his life with United.
He grew up in the county of Lancashire and joined the club's youth set-up when he was five years old. He has remained with United ever since, not spending any time away on loan before making his debut aged 21 under Jose Mourinho in 2017.
"I don't take it personally, I just want to come in and try and do the best I can for this club," McTominay said when asked how he felt about his new found role as a substitute. "I feel like as long as I'm fit and healthy, I can come onto the pitch and perform."
Ten Hag added: "He is a super-sub but he can also start. You have to credit a player like Scott. He is an example for many players these days. There are not many players anymore who are ready for every minute they can be on the pitch. Today we have seen another example. He is always ready to come on and make a difference."
