The Napoli maestro and ex teammate Marcus Rashford were placed in the same boat when it came to their upturn in fortunes
Gary Lineker believes Scott McTominay is “exactly” the midfielder Ruben Amorim needs to spearhead Manchester United’s revival.
The 28-year-old Scotland stalwart has been a revelation since he was sold by former boss Erik Ten Hag to Napoli last summer for £25million.
Antonio Conte’s men are just three points behind Serie A table-toppers Inter Milan with ‘McSauce’ a key goalscorer in their title quest.
The Red Devils, meanwhile, have been poor this season and linger 14th in the Premier League table.
They kept their trophy hopes alive with a last gasp win 7-6 aggregate win over 10-man Lyon in the Europa League on Thursday.
Despite that victory, United are still struggling to get to grips with Amorim’s system and tactics, and Sir Jim Ratcliffe and INEOS have a big summer ahead if they want to provide the Portuguese head coach with the new players he needs to be successful.
Speaking on the Rest is Football podcast hours before the Europa League drama, Lineker insists the former Man Utd midfielder is the answer to Amorim’s issues in the middle of the park.
“Talking about players who have left Man United, Scott McTominay, scored two more goals, one of them an absolute beauty for Napoli at the beginning of the week,” he beamed.
“It’s remarkable how well some of the United players that were there are doing now.
“It just jumped into my head because Scott McTominay is exactly the player I would say would actually work in an Amorim system. He’s what they need.
“I know they were half-forced to sell him because of this PSR and he’s a local lad and he was brought through, which we all think is nonsensical and a ridiculous feature of this particular rule.
“But, yeah, there’s him, [Marcus] Rashford looks like a different human being.
“So, it suggests and all the evidence is there that United, it’s kind of a bit rotten there at the minute.”
