Napoli: ‘McTominay just needed to be a protagonist’ | OneFootball

Napoli director Giovanni Manna shrugs off the controversy caused by Antonio Conte’s comments and points out Scott McTominay ‘just needed to feel he was a protagonist at the centre of the project.’

The visit to Monza kicks off at the U-Power Stadium at 17.00 UK time (16.00 GMT).

You can follow all the build-up and action as it happens from this game, Lecce-Como and Roma-Verona on the Liveblog.

The Partenopei are without a Serie A away victory for three months, but they’ll never have a better opportunity than this, visiting a Monza side who are practically doomed to Serie B already.

Conte expressed his frustration in a press conference, noting that he’d realised “there are certain things you cannot do” at Napoli.

“I would focus on what we can do today, which is to win this very important game. We can talk about the future at the right time,” director of sport Manna told DAZN.

“We are going into six cup finals, we are extremely concentrated on what happens today. Then we want to continue keeping the dream alive, which is to irritate Inter to the end. We know they are such a strong side that they are in the Champions League semi-final, so it will be extremely difficult, but we must focus exclusively on ourselves.”

Napoli eye another McTominay style swoop

Napoli director Giovanni Manna and coach Antonio Conte

Considering it is mid-April, are Napoli not already working on transfer reinforcements for next season?

“Certainly, this is work that every club is doing right now. We watched many players, talked to many agents, we need to wait and see where we finish. The Champions League qualification is fundamental, then we’ll have time to complete and improve this squad,” said Manna.

There were some injury problems ahead of this match, as David Neres, Alessandro Buongiorno and Juan Jesus are out of action, while Billy Gilmour steps in for Andre Frank Zambo Anguissa in midfield.

Leonardo Spinazzola is moved into a more advanced role on the left side of the trident attack, while Rafa Marin gets his first Serie A start after just two cameo appearances off the bench all season.

McTominay bagged a brace in Monday’s 3-0 victory over Empoli and Manchester United fans have expressed regret at letting the Scotland international leave in the summer.

“He is a great player who in my view only needed to feel he was a protagonist at the centre of a project. That is what we did and the coach got the best out of him,” noted Manna, who worked on the deadline day move.

“We enjoy him, we feel he is very happy too, and are keeping an eye out to take other opportunities this summer.”