Scott McTominay has nine goals for Man Utd this season – only Rasmus Hojlund has scored more (Photo: Getty)
Manchester United star Scott McTominay has revealed how Scotland head coach Steve Clarke helped turn around his performances this season.
McTominay is enjoying the best season of his career having scored nine and assisted three in 34 appearances so far, with only 21 of them being starts
Only Rasmus Hojlund has more goals for United than the box-to-box midfielder who also scored a remarkable seven times to help his country qualify for Euro 2024.
Only Romelu Lukaku, Cristiano Ronaldo, Kylian Mbappe and Harry Kane managed more in qualifying.
All this is more remarkable given that McTominay wasn’t expected to be at Old Trafford this season as Erik ten Hag didn’t see him in his plans and was more than content to sell him off.
There was interest from Newcastle and Everton but in the end he stayed put and now revealed his turnaround in form began after a conversation with Clarke while on Scotland duty in March 2023.
‘That was the camp where the manager and I sat down and he said that I didn’t look happy, that I didn’t look like I was smiling about the place. I thought, “maybe he’s right”,’ the 27-year-old told The Times.
A conversation with Steve Clarke turned McTominay’s years around (Photo: Getty)
‘I went and spoke to my mum, my dad, my girlfriend at the time and they all pretty much said the same thing. Sometimes, you just need to enjoy football and play with a smile on your face and take it easy.
‘Not everything’s the end of the world if you’re not playing so well and you’re not in the team, whatever. Ever since that, to be fair, I’ve just thought, “let’s go for it”. It was a weight lifted off my shoulders.’
McTominay went onto say that Clarke wanted him to go back to being ‘the kid who smiled all the time’.
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‘Now I look back and think, yeah, maybe sometimes the pressure and stuff like that can mount and you don’t realise it can affect you. Sometimes you just need to take a step back and say, “listen, let’s just play football how it was as a kid and enjoy it”.’
McTominay is set to feature in Scotland’s friendly against Northern Ireland on Tuesday night, in what is Clarke’s final chance to assess players before he picks his squad for the Euros, with the Tartan Army set to kick-off the tournament against hosts Germany on 14 June.
Before that, the midfielder will be back in action for United as they attempt to win the FA Cup and finish inside the top four, with a Premier League clash at Brentford on Saturday night next on the agenda.
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