Gilmour and McTominay made solid debuts off the bench
Everything went to plan for Billy Gilmour and Scott McTominay on their Napoli debuts - with Antonio Conte deploying them in full Steve Clarke style.
The Partenopei cruised to a thumping 4-0 win over Cagliari on Sunday, continuing Conte's impressive start and leaving them top of Serie A with three wins out of four. 3-0 up with 20 minutes remaining, Conte had the luxury of throwing on his new Tartan duo, as Gilmour and McTominay, signed from Brighton and Manchester United respectively, came off the bench.
Costing a combined £37m, the Scotland duo are expected to become key players after a settling-in period and it was hardly high-pressure stuff with Napoli already cruising to a victory. But it gave fans a glimpse at how Conte plans to use his new midfield men. And if he hasn't been watching Scotland, then it's at least clear he and Clarke see eye to eye.
Replacing Stanislav Lobotka and Kvicha Kvaratskhelia in a 3-4-3 shape, Gilmour slotted in to one of the No.8 positions while McTominay was deployed as one of the 10s, off the shoulder of striker Giovani Simeone who had come on to replace Romelu Lukaku. A widely shared clip doing the rounds on social media showed the pair running the show, albeit they will have bigger tests to come than cameo appearances in a game that's already won.
Football Italia note that McTominay had an indirect hand in the fourth goal, however, bursting forward to win a corner, which David Neres placed right onto the head of Alessandro Buongiorno to score. Gilmour finished the game with 14 completed passes out of 15 while McTominay made 9 out of 10.
Billy Gilmour Scott Mctominay Scotland Football Team Serie A Steve Clarke
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