Scott McTominay - The Path Of The Gods

Whilst watching Napoli’s comfortable 5-0 Coppa Italia win over Palermo, I was reminded of the feelings when visiting the southern city a few years ago. 

Child-free, we had been ten years married, and celebrated with the best of long weekends; eating pizza in the home of pizza, walking the beautiful streets of Sorrento, and spending a day in Pompeii, whilst Vesuvius lurked ominously in the background. 

Our highlight, however, was hiking over to the Amalfi Coast via the ”Path Of The Gods”. 

Never has a place been more appropriately named.

It is hard not to be inspired and refreshed by the beauty of what you are seeing. It is harder still not to let your mind wander, like the ancients, to think of ethereal beauty - of giants, gods and wonders, of religion, heroes and myth.

It is impossible, however, to describe accurately what you have seen.

Now, the path of two more Scots has landed in this ancient, football-mad, one-club city, and if Billy Gilmour’s arrival seemed slightly less-heralded (I’ll get to that in another piece), that is only due to the heroic presence of his colossal countryman, Scott McTominay, being welcomed to the Diego Armanda Maradona Stadium, like ‘a god’.

Just put the statue on hold, for now…

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When Alba\Matter began, four years ago on a hospital bed, I began writing out of a need to be distracted from the tubes and wires plugged into me. It was Gilmour’s incredible first few games that made me start typing, and, a few drafts later, I had bought a domain and launched a site.

Full article available at albamatter.com

The first series of articles were on “Scotland’s midfield”, casting a generously long view on three players of outstanding promise; John McGinn, Billy Gilmour and Scott McTominay - all of whom have had a fairly prominent four years since.

Now, I’m not saying “I told you so”. My ego is firmly checked. This is a wee blog for Scotland fans to read.  However, stick with me and I’ll explain the history and rationale of this article.

I received a whole host of feedback, most of which with very kind critique attached regarding my claim that McTominay could, should, and probably would, score more goals. 

In 2020, they could have been summed up by “Naw, he wilnae”.

Hands up - I have a habit of being excitable, and optimistic. This can be easily hyperbolic if not checked. So I took the criticism onboard, and waited. We all did.

The immediate short-term lens of McTominay made my view very easy to knock as naivety, or over exuberance - as if I’d been gazing too long atop the mountain path overlooking the white cliff tunnels of Positano, and was trying to describe it all to someone who had been scrolling “X” on their phone in a darkened room. Impossible.

However, I always tried to couch such claims in reality. If I felt I saw something, I pointed it out, and the long-view lens has proven a bit kinder.

Simply put, this wasn’t Nostradamic hot air - it was hopeful prose, based upon what I could observe from watching him play, and hearing him talk. Which is not to say he was, or is now, the finished article - yet, crucially, in 2020, I was looking for areas of strength that could grow, over time.

One thing I relied upon for this was a training in what has been described as “professionally noticing”, which is based upon “now” and “next”, which, in this case was then filtered through an obsession with football tactics and a layman’s history of playing, and coaching.

In 2020, if you listened and watched closely, Scott McTominay, observably, had the mindset, physique, skillset and power, to become a handful for opposition defences. 

He was not a “6”, or a DM, nor was he a RCB, because players aren’t positions. What he was, and is, is a fusion of all the above characteristics, which is being increasingly refined through one key aspect which explains the recent potency - timing.

McTominay’s timing is immaculate.

To dip into myth once more, “he is never late, and arrives precisely when he means to”.

Through his incredible scoring return over the last couple of years, he has since proven that time and again, for both club and country.

But how does he do it?

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Here we find another key component, athleticism.

Let’s be frank (Can I still be Garth?) ; we’re talking about an elite athlete here - one that is elite even amongst other elite athletes.

For evidence of this importance, look at his contribution to Scotland’s late win in Oslo, which basically guaranteed their qualification.

For both goals, he is prominently featured, and it is that athleticism, matched with a lovely technique in ball-striking, which results in crucial runs and passes, through the lines (in each instance to McGinn), before then the goals.

If he doesn’t have that professionalism towards the unseen things - that dedication to training and that mindset of what can happen “now” and “next” - even the latter minutes when other professional athletes are tired - we don’t score those goals.

See it again for Manchester United versus Brentford. Timing and athleticism; waiting for his chance and seizing it, twice. Turning a defeat into a win within a few minutes.

Imagine the mental attributes needed to stay more  alert than your opponents in each instance. More alert than Odegaard, or Rodri.

Now, imagine being a Napoli fan and seeing these highlights.

This can help to explain the furore surrounding his arrival in Naples. It has been so seismic, that you could be creatively allowed to picture him in leather sandals, donning a golden wreath around his temple.

Can he back it up?

Only (perfect) time, and athleticism, will tell. Yet the final key, and herein different to myth, is that such suppositions are now based upon solid, real foundations.

He’s done it repeatedly, because he is elite in the fine details that translates to a repeated edge on the pitch.

The Path Of The Gods? Nah… “The Path Of The Scots”, mair like.

(Sorry)

A\M is back, for now.

“X” has worn me out, multiple times, but please give our IG and YT channels a follow.

All the best!

Andy