Scott McTominay’s Napoli were excellent but I DIDN’T like watching them and here’s why, says Rangers boss Russell Martin

NAPOLI may have been one of the feel good stories of Italian (and Scottish) football this season.

They overcame the odds to win Serie A and breathed new life into the careers of Scott McTominay and fellow Premier League castaway Romelu Lukaku.

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But new Rangers boss Russell Martin wasn’t all that enamoured by watching them in action.

And that’s despite him and his family actually having a soft spot for the Partenopei.

Scotland hero McTominay joined the Naples side from Manchester United for £25.7million in the summer and finished the season with Serie A Player of the Year honours.

Tartan Army pal Billy Gilmour played a crucial role too, as did another ex-Chelsea star in Lukaku.

The Belgian was the team’s top scorer but it’s hard to argue with McTominay being the linchpin of the side.

Indeed, the mercurial midfielder forced manager Antonio Conte to deviate from his usual formation to ensure he made the most of the Scot’s qualities.

However, for new Gers head coach Martin, it was Conte’s pragmatism that left him somewhat unimpressed whenever he turned the TV on to see Napoli play.

The veteran coach is known for his defensively-minded approach and it showed, with Napoli conceding the fewest amount of goals in Serie A last season.

But despite topping the table, five teams scored more goals than them across the campaign (runners-up Inter Milan scored 20 more, with third-place Atalanta scoring 19 more).

In an interview for Coaching Club, Martin acknowledged the importance of winning but said he would prefer to see it done in a different way.

While Conte’s Napoli excelled on the counter-attack, Martin likes his teams to be much more on the front foot, both in possession and in the press.

It gave a deeper insight into how Martin’s Rangers side will play, with him having previously outlined his desire to be “dominant” on and off the ball in his introductory press conference.

Martin said: “My family are all Napoli fans, I’ve tended to watch a bit of them as well when I watch Italian football.

“That’s been really interesting because they’ve changed their style a lot over the last couple of years because they’ve changed their manager a lot.

“I don’t particularly enjoy watching them at the moment under [Antonio] Conte.

“But they are excellent at certain things and my son was excited watching them win the league.”

He later explained what he prefers in a team saying: “My philosophy has been shaped by teams I enjoyed watching the most.

“So [Pep] Guardiola’s teams, Barcelona mostly, and then recently [Roberto] De Zerbi’s stuff. I love the way his teams play football so I watched a lot of him at Sassuolo and then he came to the Premier League with Brighton, and I’m from Brighton so that was exciting for me.

“I like teams who try to be as dominant as possible and try to do things in a different way by trying to dominate possession.

“I think over five years I’ve found a way to adapt but the one constant is to try and dominate territory and the ball, and be aggressive with the ball in the opposition pass.

“And sometimes that can take just one pass, sometimes it takes 20.”

He added: “We won’t always do patient build-up.

“If the opposition comes with a high press, we’ll try and play forward quicker.

“It’s about where is the spare man, are the opposition paying us respect or coming too high, so can we hit them in behind?

“However you play, as a coach you need to try and guess the problems that the opposition will have.

“My job is to prepare the players for that.”

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