Massimiliano Allegri has been confirmed as Napoli's new head coach, replacing Antonio Conte and inheriting a squad that finished second in Serie A with 73 points from 37 matches. Among the players he must now assess is Scott McTominay, the 29-year-old Napoli midfielder who delivered ten goals and three assists across 32 league appearances this season, averaging a rating of 7.10 — numbers that place him among the more productive central midfielders in the division.
The coaching change is the central fact of McTominay's summer. Conte built his system around energy, verticality, and midfielders willing to arrive late into the box; McTominay's goal return was, in part, a product of that architecture. Allegri's historical preference runs toward more conservative midfield structures, where box-to-box runners are asked to do less attacking work and more positional holding. Whether McTominay fits that template, or whether Allegri adapts his approach to the personnel he inherits, is the defining question of the Scot's immediate future at the club.
The squad around him is also shifting. Eljif Elmas and Juan Jesus have both departed on expired contracts, and André-Frank Zambo Anguissa has been linked with a move away, with Besiktas among the clubs reportedly interested. If Anguissa leaves, the midfield balance changes considerably, and McTominay's role — whatever Allegri envisions it to be — becomes harder to predict without knowing who fills the gaps alongside him.
There is also the matter of Napoli's reported interest in Mario Gila, a defender, which signals that Allegri and the club are prioritising defensive reinforcement first. That sequencing tells you something: the attacking output McTominay generated under Conte may not be the primary currency Allegri is shopping for this window.
None of this diminishes what McTominay produced in 2025-26. Ten goals from midfield across 32 Serie A matches is a concrete contribution, not a statistical anomaly inflated by a single purple patch. His average rating of 7.10 reflects consistent involvement rather than occasional brilliance. The question is not whether he performed — he did — but whether the new manager's system rewards that particular profile.
Allegri arrives with a mandate, according to club president Aurelio De Laurentiis, to compete at the top of Serie A and in the Champions League. A midfielder who scores ten league goals is an asset in any system. McTominay's task this pre-season is to make that case directly to a coach who has never managed him before.