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At a glance, things appear to be ticking along nicely for the record six-strong Scottish contingent in Serie A.
Lennon Miller is starting to make his mark after scoring on his full Udinese debut in the Coppa Italia, while Torino’s Che Adams opened his account for the season at Lazio on Saturday.
Josh Doig has started every game for Sassuolo since their return from the second tier, Bologna captain Lewis Ferguson is getting regular game time again, and Billy Gilmour has scored his first Napoli goal.
Celebratory haggis pizzas all round, then? Not quite, because there is one man who has been conspicuous in his quietness so far in 2025/26: Scott McTominay.
The reigning Serie A MVP was the driving force behind Napoli’s stunning Scudetto but is now struggling with the difficult second album following the summer arrival of a virtuoso midfield partner, Kevin De Bruyne.
McTominay’s dip in form has become a big talking point in Italy. Eight games into the new campaign, his opening-day strike against Sassuolo remains his only goal of the season, while a positional change brought about to accommodate the Belgian has raised doubts about whether the pair can co-exist.
De Bruyne and McTominay have yet to gel effectively in this season's Napoli first team
Many observers say the Belgian's arrival in Naples has cramped the style of the Scot
McTominay celebrates a De Bruyne goal against AC Milan but he has started the season slowly
‘De Bruyne steps on McTominay’s toes,’ veteran Italian coach Pasquale Marino put it. ‘He isn’t scoring goals or finishing like last season, that much is obvious. It’s a big problem.’
Conte himself admitted at the weekend that ‘Scott is struggling a bit compared to last year’, when he scored 12 goals including a spectacular final-day bicycle kick that will go down in Napoli folklore.
The coach earned praise for succeeding where his Manchester United counterparts had failed in recognising where McTominay’s strengths lie and playing him in a role that made the most of them — on the left of a midfield three in a 4-3-3 with the licence to get forward and support striker Romelu Lukaku.
The results were spectacular, and the Scotland international looked to have picked up where he left off when he scored the opening goal of the new season against Sassuolo in a man-of-the-match performance.
However, since then he’s added just one assist as he attempts to adapt to a new role on the left wing of a 4-1-4-1 formation designed to accommodate the title-winning midfield trio and De Bruyne.
After being pushed wide, Fabio Capello said McTominay is ‘being usurped by De Bruyne in his position’ in the left-central role.
AC Milan legend Zvonimir Boban put it down to teething problems with Conte’s new system.
‘If there isn’t tactical clarity, the team pays,’ said the Croatian. ‘They will find it soon, a way of allowing both to show their quality.’
Conte himself is evidently still getting to grips with his ideas. Napoli have hardly been sluggish; they sit top of the table and bounced back from an opening Champions League defeat to Manchester City by beating Sporting Lisbon last week.
But their performances haven’t always convinced, with a nervy 3-2 win over Pisa and 2-1 defeat away to AC Milan in Serie A before a comeback was required to beat winless Genoa at home on Sunday.
‘We have two options; playing with four midfielders — and we must continue down this road because we have a lot of room for improvement — and changing to a 4-3-3 that can be more technical but should always give us great balance,’ Conte said.
McTominay's scissor-kick goal against Cagliari last season paved the way to the Serie A title
De Bruyne and McTominay look a picture of happiness as they hail a victory over Sassuolo
McTominay has undoubtedly found life harder with option one. Gazzetta dello Sport ran the headline ‘We need McGoal’ last week as they analysed his dip in form and showed through heat maps that the Scot and De Bruyne have been occupying almost identical areas of the pitch.
The substitutions have been telling, too. McTominay was replaced just four times last season but has already been taken off three times in 2025/26, including in back-to-back games against Milan and Sporting.
A recent analysis of his statistics in the opening five games showed that McTominay has taken more shots, made more passes and had more touches in the opposition box, despite struggling to convert.
‘He just needs patience,’ Napoli director Gabriele Oriali said before the Genoa game.
‘He doesn’t need to think about winning games on his own but just playing like he always has. It’s only a matter of time before we rediscover the real McTominay.’
Conte attempted to do that against Genoa by dropping De Bruyne, reinstating the 4-3-3 and putting McTominay back in his familiar role from last season.
The Scot was a constant, menacing presence in the box and appeared more comfortable, begging the question of where Napoli go from here with their midfield conundrum.
Not everyone is convinced that working out how to balance two of the league’s most talented midfielders is a problem at all, though.
‘(McTominay) can’t score a goal or an overhead kick in every game,’ said ex-Napoli striker Roberto Sosa.
Antonio Conte is determined to stick with his new-look 4-1-4-1 rather than revert to a 4-3-3
‘This discussion was created to criticise De Bruyne, and they have thrown everyone else in the mix too. A lot of them are just searching for “likes”.’
De Bruyne has had an eventful start to life in Naples himself, creating a flash-in-the-pan controversy by being unhappy with Conte (‘there was never a problem,’ he later insisted) when being replaced in the Milan defeat before providing two gorgeous assists for Rasmus Hojlund in the Champions League three days later.
The Manchester City great is convinced that he can make it work with his former rival.
‘I’m playing in a way that is a bit different to when I was at City, but I think we can alternate positions,’ De Bruyne said.
‘Sometimes it’s a little difficult because we’re not playing with a natural left winger, so it’s not easy to find the depth, but we’re improving, and everyone will find their position.’
In Naples and in Scotland, they will hope he’s right.
