McTominay a doubt for Napoli against Fiorentina
Antonio Conte will make a late decision on Scott McTominay's participation in Napoli's Serie A clash with Fiorentina on Monday (AEDT).
McTominay has been a fine addition to Napoli's ranks since his move from Manchester United, netting seven goals in 29 appearances in all competitions.
No player has won more duels in Serie A for Napoli than the Scotland international (137), but Conte's reliance on McTominay has come at a cost.
Ahead of welcoming Fiorentina to Stadio Diego Armando Maradona, Conte said that McTominay was struggling with fatigue and could miss the game all together.
"[McTominay] had an overload, a couple of days he trained a little less than the others. We have 24 hours and we'll evaluate the best solution together with the boy," he said.
"[Billy] Gilmour did great against Inter and I was clear with the lads, in the past 11, whoever deserves to play plays, there is no fixed place.
"There are 11 games, 11 battles, 11 finals, there are no credits."
Napoli is second in the standings, four point behind leader Inter Milan, despite failing to win in its past five league matches.
It has drawn its past two league games at home and the Partenopei could draw three Serie A home games in a row for the first time since drawing four between January and February 2010 under Walter Mazzarri.
Conte acknowledged the importance of returning to winning ways to keep his side's hopes of lifting the Scudetto alive.
"Every game we have to look for the three points. Often we have succeeded, other times we have struggled more like in the last month in which we had four draws and a defeat," Conte said.
"It's part of the path of a championship, and we have to work, recover everyone, try to make choices from all points of view. In some moments we have to be good, to grit our teeth."
Napoli has scored 43 league goals in 27 matches this season, the fewest of any team in the top five.
Asked how it could improve their attacking output, Conte pointed to the profiles of the players in the squad, saying: "If you look at the statistics of the squad, and you don't find many players with a CV with a lot of goals, we can't invent goals.
"We can work on it to increase a player's totals, but if someone scores one or two goals a year, you can't expect them to score 10. When you build teams you have to put in many ingredients."
