Nemanja Matić recently signed a new three-year deal at Manchester United, which keeps him contracted at Old Trafford until 2023.
Around the same time as Matić signed his renewal, Scott McTominay also sealed a new deal, extending his stay with the Red Devils until June 2025.
There has been quite a bit of debate among United fans and soccer pundits as to whether or not McTominay is capable of playing the role that the Serbian left-footed midfielder has played throughout his three seasons in Manchester.
Certain commentators have urged Manchester United to scout a new replacement for Matić, who is on the wrong side of thirty years of age.
A player along the lines of Wilfred Ndidi or Thomas Partey would be a fitting replacement for the Serbian.
However, a large chunk of the Manchester United fanbase believes that Scott McTominay would be a perfect replacement to gradually pick up the baton from Matić over the Serb’s remaining years at the club.
This article will be a tactical analysis, trying to settle this debate.
Using data analysis as well as match footage, it will examine whether Scott McTominay is really capable of taking over Manchester United’s demanding defensive midfield role and succeeding Nemanja Matić.
Scott McTominay build-up Role
The midfield pivot player has been an essential part of Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s tactics at Manchester United.
Far more important than it was in his predecessor’s tactical system, José Mourinho.
Solskjær deploys a 4-2-3-1 formation, which means that the Red Devils play with a double pivot in central midfield.
Many top sides, including Man City and Liverpool, only use a single pivot.
The double-pivot relieves the pressure of a single pivot and shares the responsibility, whether offensively or defensively.
In attack, Matić is essential for Manchester United build-up play using their possession-based style of football.
Paul Pogba operates in the space between the opposition’s midfield and forward line.
Matić sits alongside Pogba in this space, however, if two centre-forwards are marking Manchester United’s centre-backs, the Serbian will drop and become a third centre-back.
This prevents United from being outnumbered by the forward press.
Matić dropped in as a third centre-back in this footage, as Brighton have marked both of United’s centre-backs.
This also allows the left-back to advance further up the field.
In contrast to Matić, Solskjær doesn’t entirely trust in Scott McTominay to fulfil this role on his own.
During the 2019/20 season, the Scottish midfielder has predominantly lined up in the double pivot next to Fred.
The Brazilian is generally the player tasked with dropping into the area beside the centre-backs and sometimes between them.
This is due to his vast experience in fulfilling this role during his spell at Shakhtar Donetsk.
Nemanja Matić usually stays in the space behind the forwards to act as the passing option to split the opposition forward line.
However, he also can push up beyond the opposing midfield line to act as a progressive passing lane.
McTominay has an excellent ability to take a pass on the half-turn and drive with it.
Scott McTominay Offensive Role
The Scottish midfielder is clearly a far better option for Manchester United going forward, notably in the final third.
Over the course of the season, he has compiled a shot tally of 55 shots on goal, compared to Matić’s 12.
McTominay has also completed 3.75 dribbles per game and has a success record of 62.5%, similar to James Maddison.
Matić has completed just 1.72 dribbles per 90, with a success rate of only 48.48%.
McTominay plays a box-to-box midfielder role for the Red Devils.
This means that even if United loses the ball high up the pitch, he is primed to counter-press and put the Manchester side on the front foot again.
By doing so, he covers a substantial amount of ground per 90 minutes and is more efficient in terms of his ball recoveries than Matić.
In the final third, he has completed 56 recoveries, 36 of which are in vital Zone 14.
Ten have led to shots, which includes one goal.
38 of these recoveries were counter-pressing recoveries.
McTominay is crucial for Manchester United defensive transitions, boasting a total of 170 counter-pressing recoveries, which can be seen below;
Scott McTominay Recoveries Map
However, Nemanja Matić is far more important in possession for Manchester United than McTominay.
As stated before, the Serbian is deployed as part of United’s double pivot.
He drops into the backline to become a third centre-back.
This is because of his excellent ability to progress the ball through the thirds, particularly from the first to the middle third.
He ranked number eleven in average completed passes p/90 made by Premier League midfielders during the 2019/20 season.
Matić averaged 63.71 passes per 90 minutes and a pass completion rate of 88.27, which is vastly similar to Manchester City’s David Silva.
His progressive passing statistics are even more impressive for a defensive midfielder labelled as overtly defensive.
He averages precisely 8.78 progressive passes per 90.
He is also capable of making a pass into the final third that splits the opposition’s defensive line, too.
This can be seen in the following image, in which he sets Anthony Martial in behind Leicester City with a split pass.
Nonetheless, these passes predominantly move United from the first phase into the second phase.
The phases of play are crucial for Solskjær’s tactics due to Manchester United possession style of play.
The first phase occurs when the backline circulates the ball, searching for an opening through the opponent’s first line of defence.
This is where Matić is key.
He has an excellent passing range, allowing him to progress the ball into the second phase, preferably through Pogba.
However, the Serbian can also use the fullbacks in the wide areas if needed.
Once the ball is with Pogba behind the opposing forward line, United can look to commit players forward.
In the footage above, Nemanja Matić has the choice of playing a progressive pass in the wide areas.
However, he instead opts for a progressive run in order to push past Leicester’s forward press.
This is another area where the former Chelsea midfielder surprisingly excels, as he is an excellent ball-carrier.
It is quite common for the Serbian international to bypass the opposition’s first line of defence.
Matić ranks 18th in the league in progressive runs per 90 for midfielders, with 2.51 per game.
His average progressive run distance is also substantially high, boasting a 97.12-metre distance with each progression.
Above is one example of Matić completing a progressive run, driving from the backline into the area beyond Leicester’s forwards.
He is an excellent ball carrier despite not being a particularly mobile player.
He uses his body extremely well, shielding the ball if he is being closed down to hold off the oncoming pressing player.
Scott McTominay, in contrast, is quite a way off Matić with respect to these statistics.
McTominay completes under 1 progressive run per game despite having an excellent ball-carrying ability.
The exact statistic is 0.98 per 90 minutes.
He also only accumulates a total of 6.71 progressive passes per game.
In addition, the Scot falls short of the Serbian in terms of forward passes per 90.
Matić is averaging 20 forward passes per game, whereas McTominay is only averaging 14.
If McTominay is to take over Matić ’s role as Manchester United’s defensive midfielder one day, he will have to improve significantly his passing stats, particularly in relation to playing more progressive passes and trying to help United play through the opposition’s lines with split passes, in order to progress them higher up the field.
Scott McTominay Protecting the backline
If McTominay is to become Manchester United’s new defensive midfielder, he will have to be very defensively sound and cover the backline exceptionally well.
Nemanja Matić excels in this role.
His defensive ability and presence allow Pogba to advance further up the pitch and link up with Bruno Fernandes.
Solskjær trusts the Serbian to sit and screen the backline as the defensive midfielder, which allows the Red Devils to commit men forward.
On average per 90, Matić wins 6.53 defensive duels, for Manchester United, with a 55.2% success rate.
Extraordinarily, Scott McTominay actually boasts a higher number of defensive duels than him.
The Scot wins 7.27 defensive duels per 90 minutes.
Even more impressive is his 60% success rate.
However, sometimes statistics can deceive us.
As I stated before, McTominay’s role as a box-to-box midfielder means he is tasked with counter-pressing the opposition.
He is also quite a combative midfielder who presses the opponent into more advanced positions, hence his higher number of defensive duels than the former Chelsea player.
As a defensive midfielder, Matić has a higher defensive duels rate in the area just in front of the backline.
He has won 28 defensive duels this season from Zone 14.
In comparison, McTominay has only won 21.
When it comes to protecting the backline from danger, the Serbian is far superior to the Scottish midfielder.
In terms of defensive intelligence, there is no competition between the two.
Nemanja Matić has been influential in plugging the gaps in Manchester United’s defence.
In a defensive block, when one of the fullbacks or wingers has to push across to close down the ball carrier, gaps are left behind them.
One of two things can happen.
Firstly, the entire defence can shift over to plug the gaps.
Secondly, one of the defensive midfielders can drop into the space.
The images above are examples of Nemanja Matić plugging the gaps in Manchester United’s defence successfully.
Instead of forcing the centre-backs to come across and cover the area, he uses his football intelligence to drop into the space.
This is to make sure that the defender he is covering is not vulnerable to a run-in behind on their blindside in the halfspace.
Scott McTominay is not quite as astute in these areas.
He is still young and learning his trade, so he may improve his defensive duties in these areas.
However, when he was deployed as a centre-back before, under former manager José Mourinho, McTominay struggled massively to cover the half-spaces and plug the gaps for his teammates.
In the footage above, the Scot is unsure whether to close down the centre-forward or the winger.
The obvious choice was the centre-forward, who was clean through.
However, he stalled and failed to cover Chris Smalling, who had to push across to cover Luke Shaw, and United conceded.
One area that he does have an advantage over the Serbian is in his aerial duels.
Both players are roughly the same height, with McTominay standing at 193cm and Matić at 194cm tall.
McTominay is ranked 10th for Premier League midfielders in the average number of aerial duels, winning four per 90.
His success rate is 51.76%, in contrast to Matić, who only averages 2.93 a game.
If the homegrown talent were to be deployed as a holding midfielder, he would be excellent for Manchester United at protecting their backline from long balls, particularly Victor Lindelöf, who is nowhere near as physically gifted as Harry Maguire.
He is also far more mobile than Matić, so he would be fantastic at winning the second ball as well.
Conclusion
The point of this analysis article is not to make a biased decision over whether or not I believe Scott McTominay is capable of fulfilling Matic’s duties as a holding midfielder.
The article’s purpose is to set out the facts and footage so that the reader can make an informed decision about this debate.
From the tactics and statistics, it is clear that McTominay has quite a long way to go before he reaches Matić’s defensive capabilities.
However, this does not mean that he will never be able to learn and grow into these capabilities.
The Scot is an excellent young and energetic midfielder.
He offers the Red Devils a lot, particularly, with his defensive transition abilities.
However, his decision-making is still quite raw.
If he is to permanently replace Nemanja Matić, his decision-making and defensive intelligence will need to be improved over time.
Only time will tell whether or not United will look for an internal or external replacement for the Serbian international.
At the moment, nobody in their squad is good enough to perform Matić’s roles as well as he does, and Solskjær will be hoping to squeeze at least one more top-performing season out from him before being forced to look for a player to replace him.
