The manner in which Scott McTominay’s emergence as a Premier League midfielder of note has been widely perceived – particularly beyond the more appreciative confines of Old Trafford – can be viewed as unfair given that it is too closely linked to the circumstances that led to his promotion into the Manchester United first team.

The imposing Scotland international was given his first top flight start against Crystal Palace on the final day of the 2016/17 season and began to pick up regular game-time thereafter. But this breakthrough from the United ranks coincided with Jose Mourinho’s turbulent decline of both himself and his club, so the sums were just too easy to make even if two and two added up to five.

Here’s what most of us thought: Mourinho had fallen out with Paul Pogba so had turned to a lesser talented young disciple he could carve into his own ultra-cautious image; Mourinho resented the accusation that he never played kids so McTominay fit the bill there; McTominay was, in the great scheme of things, bang average.

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Since the Portuguese coach scowled off into the night the midfielder has established himself ever more as a regular fixture in United’s starting XI but as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s revolution imploded the perception that McTominay - valued at £18m by Transfermarkt - is somehow symbolic of that malaise has not gone away. In fact it has only intensified.

A series of terrific displays throughout September saw the player given the club’s Player of the Month award. The news was received by a Manchester United blogger thusly: ‘If McTominay is your best player, your team isn’t very good’.

In short, the lad can’t win. In short, he seems forever destined to be regarded as a place-filler in a time of crisis.

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This frankly is not just unfair but wrong. In the opening two games of this campaign he covered more ground than any other player in red while implanting an authority in the centre-circle that has been sorely missing in recent times.

He has started all eight league games and often been the best player by a country mile, enjoying a transformation that borders on the startling. Prior to Liverpool's visit to Old Trafford, the statistics revealed that he had doubled his tackles from last season while completing six times the number of successful dribbles.

At the end of September he smashed home a stunning opener against Arsenal while elsewhere in this crucial encounter he was the standout performer: dominant, winning 13 of his duels, and regularly stationed advanced of Pogba seeking to make things happen.

While Fred flounders, and Pogba toils only when the mood suits, and Matic remains as immobile as an armchair, it is McTominay who is taking the fight to the opposition. Does that make him the best of a bad bunch? No, he deserves better than that damned, faint praise.

Regardless of his club’s struggles he is becoming one of the best midfielders in the Premier League.