Disaster Index: 5.1 Entry: McTominay Expectation Differential Cause: The gap between what Scotland decided Scott McTominay would be at this tournament and what the tournament has so far permitted him to be. Category: Emotional / Tactical Evidence: McTominay arrived as the single most legible narrative Scotland carried into the group stage — Napoli's midfielder, the Serie A season, the goals. The question now forming in Scottish football discourse is whether the expectation was the problem. BBC Sport Scotland reports the debate has opened. Historical precedent: Scotland has a documented tendency to locate its tournament ambitions in one player, then measure the tournament against that player rather than against the available evidence. See: Dalglish, 1978. Baxter, 1967. The mechanism recurs. Affected parties: Scott McTominay; the portion of Scottish football expectation that was stored in his name prior to kick-off. Immediate outlook: The debate is legitimate. The question of whether it is fair on McTominay and the question of whether Scotland's expectations were correctly placed are different questions, and conflating them will not help either answer. Filed: 20 June 2026 / Group stage