Antonio Conte claims he's 'transformed' Scott McTominay into a 'complete player' at Napoli & heaps praise on 'important' Man Utd loanee Rasmus Hojlund

McTominay had been associated with Manchester United since the age of five but left Old Trafford for Napoli in the summer of 2024. The midfielder hit the ground running and went on to enjoy a spectacular debut season, scoring 13 times in 36 Serie A appearances as Conte's side won the title. The Scotland international is not the only former Manchester United player enjoying life with the Italian side. Hojlund moved on loan last summer after a tough campaign at Old Trafford and has gone on to score nine goals already in all competitions for his new club. The striker's deal includes an option for the transfer to be made permanent, with Hojlund said to "already consider himself a Napoli player."

Conte has now claimed he's helped improve McTominay, while talking up Hojlund's importance to the team. He told TNT Sports: "In this year and a half, (McTominay) became a complete player. When I was in England and faced him as an opponent, I always saw his quality, but always one part of his quality - especially to attack the box and score. Instead, we worked with him on the build-up and construction, and I tried (with) difficulty also to transform him into a complete player. He now plays with (Stanislav) Lobotka as two midfielders, and he has improved a lot in the build-up. At the same time, he has never lost the possibility to attack, to be a box-to-box player. Now he is, in my opinion, a really, really top player for an important club. He has improved a lot – it’s the same for Rasmus Hojlund. In six months, we have worked a lot with him. He is only 22 years old; Scott is 29, so he is more mature as a player. Rasmus is a player who has a lot of space for improvement, he’s only 22, but we are talking about two important players. We’re lucky to have them in our team because they are helping a lot, Scott last season and this season Scott with Rasmus."

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McTominay is currently preparing to face Chelsea in the Champions League and is looking forward to the match. He said: "We’ve let a few slip. We should have beaten [Eintracht] Frankfurt at home (a 0-0 draw), and should have beaten Copenhagen away (a 1-1 draw). We had a red card in the first few minutes against Man City (a 2-0 loss), so that changed the game dramatically there. For us, it’s been a little bit of a roller coaster, and we’re not quite sure where we’re at in this competition. To cement that and get our feet on the ground, to go through and beat Chelsea would be something where we could look at the next round with great pride and say we can attack this competition from here. That is fundamentally the first thing we all say as a group, we have to make sure we qualify in the Champions League. For us, it’s do or die tomorrow. We have to make sure we give our best."

Napoli's poor form in the Champions League this season means they are facing an early exit from the competition. Conte's men must win and hope results elsewhere go in their favour in order to secure a place in the knockout stage play-offs. Meanwhile, Chelsea start the game in eighth place in the standings and know that a victory could be enough to secure automatic qualification to the next round.