Scott McTominay has committed a crime so heinous that Scottish football fans are still searching for the right words to describe it. The crime? Not single-handedly winning matches at the World Cup.
The Napoli midfielder arrived in Qatar—or wherever this tournament is being held—carrying the weight of an entire nation’s expectations. Not the realistic kind. The kind that assumes one player with a decent pass completion rate can drag Scotland from the group stage into the knockout rounds through sheer force of will and midfield positioning.
Some pundits have dared to suggest that McTominay has underperformed. This is generous. What they really mean is that he has failed to transcend the laws of physics and the actual quality of Scotland’s squad. He has played football like a footballer plays football, rather than like a superhero discovering his powers mid-tournament. The audacity.
Here is the beautiful irony: McTominay’s “lackluster” World Cup is actually the most honest thing Scottish football has produced in years. While fans and commentators built him into a one-man salvation project, he simply went out and played. No miracles. No redemption arcs. Just a midfielder doing midfielder things against teams that are, objectively, better.
The real masterclass is watching an entire nation realize that anticipation, when left unfulfilled, reveals exactly how unreasonable it was in the first place. McTominay did not fail Scotland. Scotland’s expectations failed McTominay. He is merely the mirror.