Former West Ham United manager David Moyes has said that Scotland need to “get Scott McTominay in the Hungary box” if they are to stand a chance of triumphing in Sunday night’s Euro 2024 fixture.
Steve Clarke‘s side are currently third in Group A on one point, meaning that they need to beat Hungary to stand a chance of progressing to the last-16 stage of the European Championship.
A win over Hungary may not secure second spot in the group, but four points would likely be enough to see them advance to the next round as one of the best third-placed finishers.
Scotland opened their Group A challenge with a 5-1 loss to Germany, before drawing 1-1 with Switzerland last time out, with McTominay on the scoresheet for his country.
Moyes has discussed the importance of the Manchester United midfielder to Scotland’s chances of success, and he also confirmed that he wanted to bring his fellow countryman to West Ham last summer.
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Moyes picks out McTominay as key player for Scotland
“Get Scott McTominay in the Hungary box. That has to happen as much as possible if Scotland are going to get the result they need in their last game in Group A,” Moyes told BBC Sport.
“In the past couple of years, the Manchester United man has been really important to Scotland because he can play in several different roles. It was not too long ago that McTominay was as used as centre-half under Steve Clarke for a period but, more recently, he has played higher up the pitch – which is where I feel you get the best out of him.
“When I watch him, it is his goals that stand out. He has got plenty of them for club and country in big games in the past few months, so many that it makes me think that he might end up being Scotland’s top scorer. At the moment that is definitely the part of his game that we need the most.
“Scotland have not really offered much of a threat so far at Euro 2024 and McTominay gives us the best chance of doing that on Sunday, in a game we probably need to win to reach the last 16.
“Lots of managers have hard luck stories about players that get away and McTominay is one of those for me because I tried to sign him for West Ham last summer.
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Moyes confirms he wanted McTominay at West Ham
“It was always going to be hard to replace Declan Rice with any one player when he joined Arsenal, and we were not planning to do that – we wanted to bring in a couple of midfielders instead.
“We bought two really good players in James Ward-Prowse and Edson Alvarez, so that was the cover, but Scott was certainly one of the players we had a big interest in as well.
“He is a good all-round midfielder, but to me his best attributes are arriving in the area, or the edges of it, at the right time to score or make some chances.
“McTominay was a player who I felt I needed at the time, but we didn’t quite get it over the line and he went on to score a lot of big goals for Manchester United last season instead.”
McTominay scored 11 goals and registered three assists in 45 appearances for Man United last season, while he has managed nine goals and three assists in his 50 caps for Scotland.
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