Manchester United's decision to sell Scott McTominay to Napoli may have seen like a good deal at the time, but with the Scottish international now on the cusp of a Serie A title in his first season, Matt is asking just how has he done it? How has this Man United reject transformed into one of Napoli's best players, and what does another former Old Trafford team mate have to do with it?
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00:00In years gone by, Napoli's footballing icons have all had a certain quality about them.
00:04A dazzling touch of flair, a rhythmic fluidity in their dribbling, an eye for the spectacular.
00:09It's the stuff that dreams are made of and that kids have attempted to emulate in the
00:12parks and playgrounds across Naples since.
00:15So why is it that a box-crashing 6'4 Scottish international has become their most recent
00:20hero?
00:21You're about to find out.
00:23I'm Matt from 442 and this is how Scott McTominay became Napoli's best player.
00:30So let's back up ever so slightly to last summer, where McTominay leaves the Premier
00:34League for Serie A after 22 years involved with Manchester United.
00:39He'd just been a part of their FA Cup winning side, but a spot in Eric Ten Hag's plans moving
00:43forward wasn't guaranteed.
00:45So when Antonio Conte finally convinced his bosses to splash 30 million euros on McTominay,
00:50it seemed like a good idea at the time for Man United, especially considering he was a
00:54homegrown talent and therefore the profit made from his sale was all posted positively against
00:59the club's financial records for that year.
01:01As much as McTominay had come off the back of his best season in front of goal, including
01:05some stellar performances against Chelsea and Liverpool in the FA Cup, he seemed to be wasted
01:10when playing in a deeper role as one of the two midfielders as he was far too far away
01:14from the goal-scoring action, nor was he going to replace Bruno Fernandes as the number
01:1810 or focal point, let's say, in the attack.
01:21There's plenty of things McTominay can do, as I'll dive deeper into during this video, but
01:25saying he's a better choice than Bruno is just not one of them.
01:29It seemed to me that anything McTominay did was always put into the sort of there-when-you-need-him-tries-his-best-cut-in-some-slack-homegrown-hero
01:36category, but was never the big name, first-on-the-team-sheet sort of player that you'd expect Man United
01:42to buy in the transfer window.
01:43Like, if Ten Hag or any manager came out and said, we don't need to sign a new £70 million
01:48midfielder, we have McTominay, there would have been absolute riots among the fanbase.
01:52Sort of like when Jack Walker said Blackburn Rovers don't need Zidane in the 90s because
01:57they had Tim Sherwood, and I'm still talking about that 30 years later.
02:01Despite this, though, Ten Hag actually did say he wasn't pleased with the sale of McTominay,
02:05stating that these were the rules the club had to deal with, obviously referencing the
02:08financial fair play rules that I mentioned earlier.
02:11I mean, you could argue that plenty of players didn't fulfil their potential under Ten Hag.
02:15Probably one of the reasons why the Dutchman got sacked, but that could be a whole other
02:19video.
02:20The question is, would McTominay still have done well under Ruben Amorim?
02:23Well, I'm not totally convinced.
02:25I think the build-up play is still too slow, and the emphasis on getting it to the wide players
02:29and using overlapping wing-backs doesn't suit McTominay's end-to-end style.
02:33But whose style of play does it suit?
02:35That's right, counter-attacking extraordinaire Antonio Conte.
02:39Now, I know you're going to be saying, Matt, hold on, Antonio Conte is also well known
02:43for his use of wing-backs for a 3-5-2 formation, for utilising triangles out wide, and direct
02:49pacey counter-attacks.
02:51But this year at Napoli, things have changed ever so slightly, and it may be due to their
02:55new Scottish powerhouse.
02:57The Napoli boss has often switched things up in play this season, with his 3-5-2 system
03:01reverting to a back four when in possession in what resembles a 4-3-3, with McTominay playing
03:06as the furthest midfielder forward, closest to Lukaku.
03:10As the full-backs are in a four, not a back five, they get forward in support, but don't
03:14attack the box as much, knowing they have left two defenders behind instead of three.
03:19Because of this, they hold the width, create triangles with a centre-back and deep-lying
03:22midfielder, and allow the wingers to move centrally.
03:25Here they join McTominay and another midfielder, whichever one hasn't dropped deep to pick up
03:29the ball, to form a central attacking unit that, when anything is held up by Romelu Lukaku,
03:34joins the attack or runs in behind the opposition defence, as long as the ball is direct and
03:39the movement is sharp.
03:40And I know we're talking mainly about McTominay in this video, but I think we've got to give
03:44a shout-out to Romelu Lukaku as well, another player often maligned in the Premier League.
03:49You could argue this is classic Lukaku under Conte, I mean, we saw him under the Italian post
03:54a brilliant 24-league goal and 9-assist season as Inter romped to the Serie A title in 2021.
04:00But don't forget between that, there's been a poor spell at Chelsea and in different seasons,
04:04let's say, back at Inter and then at Roma since then.
04:08This seems to be a feature of Lukaku's career.
04:10No matter how much he gets knocked down, ridiculed or memed all over the internet, he still finds
04:14a way to pick things back up and deliver when trusted, and we've seen it this season.
04:19Inter double figures for both goals and assists, it's no surprise that the others around
04:23him like McTominay and Anguissa from central midfield are having good seasons in front
04:27of goal.
04:28In my eyes, it's equal credit, the players on the pitch and the tactical tweaks from
04:32the genius off of it.
04:33So what's the result of this tactical tweak?
04:35Well, McTominay is now showing off all of his attacking prowess.
04:39He's had more shots and more shots on target than anyone else in the squad, and his goal
04:42scoring tally is right up there with striker Romelu Lukaku.
04:46In fact, Scott McTominay now holds the record for the most goals scored in Serie A by a Scotsman,
04:51and he's hit double figures for the first time in his career.
04:54But goals aside, he has not neglected the other side of the game either.
04:57I mentioned McTominay playing in the most attacking of a midfield three, but his defensive
05:01stats show that he's putting his foot in two, with just as many tackles as fellow midfielder
05:06Frank Anguissa, more interceptions than other midfielder Stanislav Labodka, and way more
05:10duels attempted and won than both of those two.
05:13In fact, it was pretty obvious from the off that McTominay was adapting well to a new league,
05:17in a way that would suggest it wasn't really that big of a deal to move abroad in the first
05:21place.
05:22Early wins versus Palermo, Monza and Como were heavily influenced by McTominay's performances,
05:26and it was actually around this point where Conte started to ever so slightly tweak his
05:30tactics, signs that the Italian was rather fond of his new midfielder.
05:34We all know what Conte's like.
05:36He has his favourites, and for good reason, because they carry out exactly what he wants
05:40on the pitch.
05:41And it's this willingness to carry out instructions that has placed McTominay firmly in the Italian's
05:44good books.
05:45It's become a real habit of Conte, taking the unsung hero or the undervalued player
05:49at a club to refine their career and create a whole new monster.
05:54For reference, check out Victor Moses circa 2017.
05:57Unbelievable.
05:58Anyway, halfway through the season, Napoli are looking pretty good.
06:01They are definitely in the title race, and given Conte's experience in these situations,
06:06you'd be actually a foolish person to not back Napoli to go ahead and make the rest of
06:09the season a successful one.
06:11But into the back end of the campaign was where Napoli and their fans really saw a huge
06:15return on investment from their new number eight.
06:18Five goals and three straight victories over Monza, Eppoli and Torino moved the club into
06:22pole position and gave cause for McTominay to be in the conversation amongst the best players
06:26in the whole league.
06:27He's definitely up there with the best signings.
06:30In this day and age, a match-winning midfielder who does everything for just £27.5 million is
06:34an absolute steal.
06:36Like I mentioned earlier, McTominay doesn't necessarily fit the bill of someone who writes themselves into
06:41Napoli folklore, but maybe that's part of it.
06:44Maybe the uniqueness of McTominay and his style of play, combined with his abundance of passion
06:48and effort, actually make him ready-made for a club who themselves sit in the underdog world
06:52of Italian football, with the us-versus-everyone-else mindset.
06:56Sure, he's the complete opposite of Diego Maradona.
06:58He won't score as many as Marek Hamsik, he won't play like Dries Mertens, nor bring
07:02the stadium to its feet like Kraut's Ghelia.
07:04But, who cares?
07:05He's the driving force in Napoli's success and that's clearly good enough for them.
07:09Besides, it's not completely out of this world to think that he could succeed away from the
07:13Premier League.
07:14He's hardly the first Brit to go and find some success abroad in recent seasons.
07:17Jude Bellingham's an obvious one at Dortmund and Real Madrid.
07:20Bayern's Harry Kane finding the net in any league comes as a shock to absolutely nobody.
07:24And Conor Gallagher has made a decent go of things at Atletico Madrid.
07:27But in Serie A especially, there's been somewhat of a successful influx of players that for some
07:32season really suit the style of football in the league.
07:35Alongside McTominay, you've got his international teammate Billy Gilmore who's done okay, although
07:39he looks underwhelming compared to what McTominay's done.
07:42You've got the scot, Lewis Ferguson who has just captained Bologna to their first Copa
07:46Italia final in over 50 years.
07:48And in the last few seasons, you could argue that Chris Smalling and Ficayo Tomori have
07:52played their career's best football on Italian shores.
07:55So was it a mistake for Man United to sell McTominay or are we just looking back at this
07:58with a pinch of hindsight?
08:00Maybe he was always suited to Napoli anyway.
08:03Let me know your thoughts in the comment section down below.
08:05Hit the subscribe button for those more 442 content and I'll see you in the next video.