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Scott McTominay Proves Man Utd WRONG After Fantastic Napoli Start (Clip From Q & A Pod)
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Scott McTominay has enjoyed a brilliant start to his Napoli career after his €30 million summer transfer from Man Utd. His impressive stats already read one goal, one assist and a number of impressive performances under Antonio Conte. Did Manchester United and Erik ten Hag make a transfer mistake selling McTominay and replacing him with Manuel Ugarte from PSG for €60m?
The Italian Football Podcast patron Jeremy sends in a question wondering what Nima Tavallaey and Carlo Garganese think of the troubles the new Juventus signing is having.
This is an extended clip from this weeks Q & A episode of The Italian Football Podcast available only to patrons on Patreon.com/TIFP
To send in your questions as well as listen to this & all other full episodes of The Italian Football Podcast (with no ads), go to Patreon.com/TIFP OR Spotify to become a Patron for only $2.99 USD per month (excluding VAT).
Transcript
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to the Italian football podcast. Last question, um Jeremy says, great potters always guys. Scott McTominay has made a great start to his career at Napoli. Do you think Man United made a mistake selling him?
00:00:20
Speaker
Well, I'm not so sure. Well, I think it depends how you look at this because, I mean, there's an, I watched the Tottenham game. I've watched most of Man United ah this season. Their midfield is is still awful, but it looks even worse this season than it did last season against Tottenham. They had, they had Tottenham had 62% of possession before the red card for Bruno Fernandez. And then it stayed around about the same um after that. And so, you know, they brought in,
00:00:49
Speaker
For a financial point of view, I don't think it was a good decision, because they sold McTominay for 30 million, which is decent money. But they then signed Manuel Ugarte, who was a backup. He was a PSG backup. They paid 60 million for him. So they've they've spent double the money. Now, it's still early days for Ugarte. I'm not going to write it off. it He was terrible in the game. I mean, he's a very good ball winner.
00:01:11
Speaker
But he can't use the ball. He's not a he's not a ball player at all. He can't help Man United control the game. And that's why they they're continually getting dominated in the centre of the field because they don't seem to have players that can control the game. Now, a nominee is not that kind of player either, to to be to to be to be honest with you.
00:01:29
Speaker
But so but you know if you are going to get rid of McTominay, you have to bring in players that can make the midfield better. And so far this season, and looking at the players that United have in midfield, they they're not the midfield doesn't look any stronger at all. Casamiro is still there. Minou has had a really bad start this season, having been a big kind of a big hope last season. and So they have really, really big problems. Then you look at how McTominay started for Napoli,
00:01:58
Speaker
and and he's been you know he's been he's been great i mean conse seems to love him conse was was really speaking really highly of him before the game against monza at the weekend and and you know saying that he's got goals in his blood and that he's He's, you know, he's very, very, very complete tactically. I mean, Conte changes formation to claims. That tells you, you know, he changed from a back three, which is Conte really wouldn't be very, net very rarely does. I haven't done it for years. He's changed to a four, three, three, four McTominay. So that shows how much he's appreciated by Conte. So, so, yeah, I think he probably suits Napoli's type of game.
00:02:36
Speaker
ah maybe at United probably his best role is more in a role that's a more of an attacking midfielder and that's a position that's occupied probably by Bruno Fernandes and if you're going to play him in his right position because sometimes United were playing him like in a double pivot which is not his role really in my opinion and you know maybe the the presence of Bruno and then you've got Mason Mount who's been ah who's been a disaster there but he's also kind of like a backup to Bruno um kind of yeah maybe there wasn't tactically there wasn't a place for him um but i don't think united have done very well in terms of how they've replaced him to spend twice the money on ugate and the midfield still looks a disaster then yeah i think um
00:03:25
Speaker
a that a bit dumb I think McTominay is a typical Conte player and he knows there are certain players that are good decent players but they work perfectly in a specific system and you have a coach like Conte who is a master at turning non-sexy names into winners he's done it with with someone like with Victor Moses, Ashley Young, he's especially wide players, mediocre, wide players. Arturo Vidal was an obsession of his. I mean, if you look at, okay, Arturo Vidal at Juve was a monster, but before content and after content at that Juve, it's not been very impressive, has it? um
00:04:09
Speaker
he He is, I think it's it's more an issue of that. um I don't think Man United made a mistake. I think Napoli was smart to give Konté what he wants.
00:04:22
Speaker
it's It's really that simple. Yeah, it's possible that he suited more. But you know, you look at his record, I mean, he he did score, he scored 10 goals for United last season from midfield. And that is, that is very impressive. 10 goals in a really struggling man United team to score that number of goals. And since 2023,
00:04:40
Speaker
He's scored for for for for Scotland. He's scored 10 goals for Scotland since 2023 as well. um You know, so he's the like Conte says, he does have goals in his blood. um And you know, it's love when Conte makes these statements about people having things in their blood. and Is that another of his... yeah Yes, he makes these kind of, you know, he's so... Oh, that man is just quite a character. I don't think that Tominee is a top player, like a top, top player. He's a good player, good, very good player, but he's he's obviously...
00:05:21
Speaker
Conte, he fits the Conte system. and That's what I mean. like the um players seeing and him do that sister yeah I think he's going to score, I do think he's going to score goals this season because you see in the positions he's taken up, like in the penalty area, like we saw just against Monza, he had two two big chances, you know, if he keeps getting these positions every game, he's going to end up with with quite a few goals this season.
00:05:43
Speaker
I'm very, very inclined to agree. Right. um That's all the time we had for this week on the Q and&A pod. Please do make sure to send in your questions via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram um or email, but preferably via DM on Patreon.
00:06:00
Speaker
ah We'll be back next week for another Q and&A pod. There's lots of content coming out this week, so please do check out that. um But until next time, take care of yourselves and each other. Ciao ciao.