Scott McTominay grabs spotlight in final audition before Man United’s main cast return

It may be of scant consolation but Everton are in good company. The thorn in their side was the scourge of Spain. Scott McTominay’s renewed taste for goals proved timely for Manchester United on a day when Marcus Rashford lost his duel with a defiant Jordan Pickford.

As United were dominant and amassed 29 shots, they just needed someone to provide the finishing touch and McTominay and the substitute Anthony Martial obliged. But with Casemiro’s latest suspension now served, with Christian Eriksen making his comeback as a replacement after 16 games out, the McTominay interlude in the midfield may reach a sudden end.

In contrast, Martial’s role in the attack should increase: a first goal in over two months came in his third cameo after his latest injury. It was supplied by Rashford, giving him a tap-in, and by Everton: among a host of errors, Seamus Coleman failed to control Lisandro Martinez’s long ball, freeing the Mancunian to centre. It gave United the rare luxury of a 2-0 lead, something they had not enjoyed in the league since 19 February. But given the paucity of strikes, McTominay’s had an added importance.

If he retreats to the bench now, to be replaced by classier players, at least he is now in the enviable position of being the architect of victory in his most recent outing for both club and country.

A brace against Spain had an incongruous feel but McTominay is a suitably unglamorous figure to make him a fitting slayer of the kings of tiki-taka, honest endeavour trumping perpetual passing. An opener against Everton was the sort of goal many a United central midfielder used to score, a well-timed late run into the box – in this case to meet Jadon Sancho’s pass and slot a shot under Pickford – that could have come from Roy Keane or Paul Ince but also serves for McTominay as a job interview for the role he wants more often.

Often United’s defensive midfielder in the years before Casemiro’s arrival, and demoted after Erik ten Hag was right to prioritise the centre of the pitch in the summer recruitment drive, McTominay sees himself as more of a box-to-box player.

While he has four goals in his last two games for Scotland, this was his first in the Premier League since 2021. Perhaps he has lacked opportunity: while they are used to seeing a youth-team product score at Old Trafford, it just tends to be Rashford.

But he benefited from a role reversal in midfield, with Bruno Fernandes often the anchorman, acting as the regista showing his passing range with 40- or 50-yard balls from his own half, and McTominay as the runner ahead of him. His athleticism remains his greatest attribute; if he lacks the talent of many a United midfielder past and present, he tries to compensate with effort and enthusiasm, and it gives him an ability to get into the box if he has cover behind him.

His goal came from the sort of run Joe Willock and Sean Longstaff are making for Newcastle, and there is a certain logic to Eddie Howe’s interest in him. It may not be as a defensive midfielder.

Ten Hag has recast McTominay. Using the Scot in a more advanced role backfired at Newcastle; against Everton, without the running power of the suspended Abdoulaye Doucoure and when United had a numerical advantage in the centre of midfield, it worked rather better.

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Fernandes was genuinely creative: in the hour or so before Eriksen’s return, he illustrated that the Dane is not the only potential deep-lying playmaker in the United ranks. More accustomed to opening up defences from rather higher up the pitch, he showed his incision while shielding his centre-backs. Seen as a specialist No 10 before Ten Hag’s arrival, he showed his versatility by finishing the game on the right wing: that United finished it without Rashford, who hobbled off, offered a cause for concern.

Yet while Fernandes opened Everton up time and again, he was aided by their unexpected laxness. The excellent Marcel Sabitzer and even David de Gea also fashioned openings with balls over the top, exploiting space behind their defence.

Sean Dyche’s decision to play his favourite 4-4-2 formation, for the first time in his reign, backfired. Everton lost solidity and looked shambolic while individual mistakes abounded – Coleman was punished for his. Aaron Wan-Bissaka skewed his shot wide when given an open goal from six yards but more often than not United were simply denied by Pickford, who was terrific. Everton could only reflect on the early chance Ellis Simms scuffed wide.

Yet as 44 shots rained in under the Old Trafford sun, the best came from Scott McTominay, the man who wants to be a goalscoring midfielder.