Manchester United legend Rio Ferdinand has heaped praise onto midfielder Scott McTominay after his fine recent form and his winning goal in last night’s FA Cup win over Watford.
The Scotland international looks to have raised his game for United, and also plays with a heart and determination that is bound to go down well with the club’s fans.
Ferdinand has clearly been impressed with McTominay, naming him now as a surprise player that manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer could build the team around.
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This is high praise indeed from Ferdinand, who also seemed to hint that the 24-year-old could be a future captain for Man Utd as well.
“You can see in the way he conducts himself but more importantly the way he plays out on the pitch he’s wholehearted. He covers the ground well, he takes responsibility in situations and you need all that as a captain,” Ferdinand said on BT Sport, as quoted by Sport Bible.
“You need to be somebody who people can look at and he seems to have those sort of traits.
“He has the credentials to be a mainstay in this team and be an important member of this team for years and years to come because of the way he applies himself.
“It’s not just about footballing ability sometimes, there’s more to it than that, your mental capacity to take things on board but also the ability to accept responsibility and be the man that people look to for inspiration.
“He’s almost certainly now become one of the main players in that midfield area and he’s someone I think Ole could build around.
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“He’s not the one who you’d say is the most imaginative or the person you’d say has got the most skills, but there’s other things that he brings to the game that other players don’t bring, that intensity, that work rate, the effort, and importantly the responsibility he takes on.”
Few would have predicted that McTominay would become so highly regarded just a few months ago, with the midfielder not always a regular in the starting XI in the last few seasons.
Now, however, he’s truly worked his way into making himself one of the first names on the team sheet and deserves this recognition.