Scott McTominay a new Napoli 'idol' as Antonio Conte rips up signature formation to build team around him

McTominay is fast making an impression at his new club

Napoli have a new 'idol' in Scott McTominay - and now won't be able to do without him.

That's the view of the Italian media as the Scotland hero makes an almighty impression in his early days in Serie A. McTominay and his international teammate Billy Gilmour made the move to Naples on deadline day, and both got off the bench in a 4-0 rout of Cagliari, showing hints of what is to come with impressive respective cameos.

McTominay in particular impressed in that one - so much so Conte used him to spring a surprise on Juventus at the weekend. He ditched his longstanding love affair with the 3-4-3 formation to go four at the back, McTominay playing as one of the advanced two in a midfield three. And didn't it just work.

The end result was a 0-0 draw which hardly grabs the headlines on paper but SportMediaSet said McTominay provided 'a bit of what was missing' from Conte's midfield, and say after a strong performance, they will now 'hardly be able to do without the former Man Utd player'.

Calcio Mercato meanwhile said Napoli fans have found themselves a 'new idol' in the Scotland star while other outlets called him 'dominant' and a 'luxury' for Serie A. And it seems Conte sees things the same way, all but admitting that McTominay's arrival was the reason for him veering away from the formation he has famously favoured in the past.

Conte told DAZN: “The idea came to me because on the last day of the transfer market we got McTominay and Gilmour, plus brought Folorunsho back into the squad. The midfield then became a pretty strong group of players and we had to make the most of that.

“We had already started working on it last week against Cagliari, alternating between the systems, and 3-4-2-1 will be useful, but I also concentrated on this tactic. It fits this team, they can do it, let’s say I was a little concerned about our defending with this approach, but we did very well.

“Instead, we can do better upfront with the channels to get those one-on-one situations. I realise the difficulty of getting a draw away to Juventus, a team that was 18 points away from Napoli last season. I had asked for consistency and it was a good performance in terms of focus, but we can and must do better when we have the ball, as there were some favourable situations.”

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