FOR years, one of the major debates around the Scotland team centred upon how best to shoehorn both Andy Robertson and Kieran Tierney into the starting XI, as the blessing of two world-class players was tempered by the curse that they were both left-backs.
The emergence of other potentially top-level players for the national side is never to be sniffed at, but we might well be in for a similar discussion on the other side of the Scotland defence, as both Nathan Patterson and Aaron Hickey battle it out to be Steve Clarke’s first-choice right-back.
Hickey came on for Patterson in the early stages of the win over Ukraine last week, and will assume the berth for at least the immediate future, with the injury suffered by former Rangers full-back Patterson looking to be one that, lamentably, will keep him out for some time.
Both Hickey and Patterson have been impressing at English Premier League level with Brentford and Everton respectively this season, suggesting that a long, friendly rivalry could lie ahead to rival that of their esteemed teammates on the other side of the field.
“Can Nathan and I be the new Robertson and Tierney?” Hickey said. “I hope so.
“We have two brilliant left-backs on the other side and then Nathan has done really well at Everton.
“Are we rivals? No, I don't see it that way. We are mates and we speak to each other quite a lot.
“We push each other on, of course we do, we both want to play, but we all want Scotland to be successful.”
The chances of the national team achieving success is bolstered, in Hickey’s view, by the strength in depth that he now sees all around the changing room, and the high level at which a large number of that squad are now playing their football on a weekly basis.
Of the starting XI that despatched Ukraine in style on Wednesday night at Hampden, eight of them are playing for clubs in the English top-flight, with Craig Gordon and Callum McGregor sharing the player of the year awards in last season’s Scottish Premiership and Jack Hendry now plying his trade in Serie A with U.S. Cremonese.
“I was thinking to myself before the [Ukraine] game looking around, how many English Premier League players we have,” he said.
“There was eight in the starting XI and that’s good to see. We have a strong team right now and I feel we can be successful going forward.
“Can we do something special? Yes I think so. We have a few big name players and plenty of boys who are playing at the highest level.
“But we work really well as a team and you can tell the boys enjoy it.”
Hickey is certainly enjoying life as an out-and-out right-back at Brentford, with his versatility proving both a blessing and a curse at times in his fledgling career so far.
He had a tough time of it in the World Cup semi-final play-off against Ukraine back in June - his first Scotland start - playing as a wing-back, and he admits that he found the back four system that Scotland manager Clarke deployed in the re-match last week to be far more comfortable.
“Since going to Brentford I have been playing right-back and I am getting used to it more and more,” he said.
“If the manager wants to play me there then I am happy to do that, I will play anywhere he wants.
“I think playing in Serie A helped me with my confidence stepping into the national team.
“I just wanted to come in and show people what I could do and hopefully I have done that recently.
“Playing in the English Premier League every week, against some of the best players in the world, can only help me develop as well. It is really intense down there, but I am enjoying it.
“The manager Thomas Frank is really good and before I went there I knew he was a smart guy as I had spoken to a few people about him.
“Since going in there he has shown that and I am enjoying working under him.”
Hickey will again be tasked with keeping Ukrainian dangerman Mykhaylo Mudryk quiet when Scotland travel to Krakow on Tuesday night; no mean feat, as Celtic found to their cost when he scored against them recently for Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League.
It is a challenge that Hickey rose to last week, and one he is relishing taking on again.
“In the game in June he came on late on and I remember thinking how fast he was,” he said.
“I knew coming on I had to stop the space for him to run into.
“As a team we didn’t let them play and we pressed them really well and that’s something we are going to have to do on Tuesday.
“I don’t think playing them again so soon will really impact this game.
“Listening to the manager and what he says going into this match, we have a feel of what to do against them and I’m sure we will be prepared.”
