STEVE Clarke has no shortage of players to field at left wing back in Scotland’s forthcoming Nations League matches against Ukraine and the Republic of Ireland despite his captain Andy Robertson being ruled out by injury.
Kieran Tierney is back playing for Premier League leaders Arsenal after recovering from knee surgery while Aaron Hickey has helped Brentford to win two and draw three of their six English top flight outings this season.
But could Greg Taylor of Celtic be given the nod for the Group B1 games?
Clarke yesterday indicated the 24-year-old defender, who has been in exceptional form for the Parkhead club during the 2022/23 campaign, is in contention to feature after announcing his 25 man squad for the triple header.
He has no doubts that Taylor will more than justify his selection if he is in the starting line-up against Ukraine at Hampden a week today; he has seen the defender rise to the occasion and prove his doubters wrong on numerous occasions in the past.
“Greg’s playing out his skin,” he said. “I obviously worked with him closely at Kilmarnock. He’s good.
“When he moved to Celtic he had some early criticism. But I know his character. He just dug in, learned a way to play and the current manager (Ange Postecoglou) is very happy with him. He’s improving all the time, Greg, which is great to see.
“But I always thought he would. I remember quite early days after I took over at Kilmarnock in 2017. I took him all the way up to Ross County and left him on the bench. Stuart Findlay was playing left-back and got injured after half an hour.
“I sent Greg on and he did really well. After the game I said: ‘Well done, that was good’. He said: ‘I’m not going back out the team again gaffer’. And he was right. As I said, he’s a good character. That’s what you want. Players who are always willing to meet the challenge head on.
“Greg’s always done that. Even on his Scotland debut when I threw him in against Belgium away. We lost the game, but he acquitted himself really well against Eden Hazard and Kevin de Bruyne. That’s just the type of player he is. Hopefully he can stay on the same level.”
Taylor has only made another six appearances for Scotland since that match in Brussels back in 2019. Clarke acknowledged he would have played far more often if Robertson and Tierney had not been in the set-up. But he said: “Seven caps is still seven caps. It’s one more than me!”
Clarke looks certain to retain his three man defence against Ukraine and the Republic of Ireland and deploy Tierney, who missed the June internationals due to the injury he picked up in Arsenal training, on the left side.
“It’s easier for Kieran to play there in terms of energy expended,” he said. “You can control yourself a little bit more as a left centre back rather than going down the wing as a left wing back. But that’s something the coaching staff and myself will discuss before deciding which way we’ll play.”
Clarke is confident that Scotland will be competitive against both Ukraine and Republic of Ireland whoever replaces his skipper and can put their bitterly disappointing defeats to those nations back in June – they lost to the former at home in the Qatar 2022 play-off semi-final and the latter away in the Nations League - firmly behind them.
“It’s a blow for Andy, a blow for us and a blow for his club as well,” he said. “But we lose one top quality left-back and we’ve got another one coming back to the squad in Kieran. It’s just part and parcel of international football. You know you’re going to lose some players.
“There are few of the boys in the squad who’ve not had many minutes on the pitch. But we’ll deal with it and hopefully we’ll start to progress forward again after a little hesitation in June.
“Aaron’s at Brentford doing really well. I’ve seen him and he’s been good. He and Nathan Paterson at Everton are both playing week in, week out. Greg is on fire at Celtic. So I’ve got good options at full-back.”
Meanwhile, Clarke stressed he has no fears about Billy Gilmour’s summer switch to Brighton turning awry following the departure of Graham Potter, the manager who signed the midfielder, to Chelsea last week. He is optimistic that moving to the Amex Stadium will help his fellow Ayrshireman to realise his full potential.
“He’s a bit unlucky Billy, isn’t he?” he said. “First of all, he wanted to stay at Chelsea. But he wasn’t given the guarantees that he’d get enough minutes, so he chose to move. Then circumstances dictate that the manager he was going to play for has gone to Chelsea.
“Obviously the manager has gone and Billy signed there to play for that manager. But he’s going to have to play for the next manager. That’s the business, that’s football. It’s down to Billy, how he trains and how he plays when he gets the opportunity. That will determine how many minutes he gets in that team.
“It’s down to Billy, but I have no doubts that he will do well, which is why he is in this squad. I haven’t spoken to him. I’ll wait until he comes up and have a wee chat with him, Saltcoats boy to an Ardrossan boy!
“He was clear in his mind that he didn’t want to go out on loan again. He wanted more minutes because, going forward, he wants to be part of the Scotland squad. To do that you have to be playing as much as possible. He wanted to make a permanent move. Now he has to impress the next manager at Brighton.”
