The stats highlight McTominay's hard work

When Scott McTominay sat down in front of our cameras in July, after the second day of training in Australia, he was noticeably still sweating from the intense session that had just finished.

Rather than waiting to cool down, or brushing away those beads of perspiration, the midfielder appeared unperturbed and proceeded to conduct his interview in a typically confident fashion.

He spoke about Ole Gunnar Solskjaer organising a tough pre-season camp that few of the players had experienced before and how it was being embraced by a squad that was hungry for change.

McTominay was in his element, enjoying an environment that was all about focus, hard work and improvement, attributes that are defining his fledgling career.

The tall central midfielder spoke with so much conviction and belief that it was easy to forget he was merely a 22-year-old Academy graduate with 47 appearances to his name.

But as a lifelong United fan, McTominay is playing for his club and it means everything to him: that much is evident in his words and, more importantly, in his performances on the pitch as well.

McTominay has started both of United’s Premier League matches against Chelsea and Wolverhampton Wanderers so far, playing in central midfield in a disciplined but combative role that has allowed team-mate Paul Pogba to get forward to flourish in more advanced areas of the pitch.

The beads of sweat were still pouring from his head after the final whistles.

It’s very easy to understand why, too.

Match data recorded by Opta shows that McTominay has topped United’s distance charts in both of the matches.

He covered more ground than any Chelsea player at Old Trafford, and only Ruben Neves and Leander Dendoncker registered greater distances at Molineux.

McTominay is determined to cement a place in Solskjaer’s starting XI this season and, on Saturday, the Scotland international will hope to retain his place in Ole’s team. That will mark his 50th appearance for the club, which is a fine achievement for the ever-maturing midfielder.

As he explained to us in an interview earlier this month, Scott is adopting a short-term view to impressing the manager and his staff this season.

“You have to look game by game and look to try to keep impressing the coaches,” said Scott.

“And training is a big part of it. I feel like the game is the end result of a big training week and, obviously, we don’t get too many long training weeks like we’ve had the last couple of weeks. Obviously, it’s important to show the coaches you are capable of being in midfield every week.”