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.
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