LIAM COOPER has defended Steve Clarke’s decision to go with a 3-5-2 formation even in the absence of Arsenal star Kieran Tierney.
The three-at-the-back line-up was essentially set-up to accommodate both the former Celtic ace and Andy Robertson in the same team, in favourable positions.
Both clearly deemed world class left-backs, Robbo invariably plays in the wing-back role, with KT slotting in at the left-centre-back position.
The hybrid version of the formation allows for both players to bomb forward when attacking, though, which has brought great success to Clarke’s team over the past two-years.
Tierney was of course missing from Wednesday night’s defeat to Ukraine, as he continues his recovery from injury.
And Cooper is adamant that there was no reason to veer away from the tried and trusted set-up.
He said: “We’ve been successful with that shape. I don’t see why we would change it (if Tierney isn’t available).
“We’re comfortable in that shape, we work on it a lot and like I said, we’ve had a lot of success with it.
“I don’t think going into a big game and changing it up, going against what we believe, would’ve worked in our favour.
“Obviously when we did change, we created chances, but we were vulnerable to the counter-attack.
“We were always in the game. We believe that we can score goals, so we stuck at it.
“I don’t believe for one second that the boys rolled over. We got a goal which put us in the ascendency to push for that final goal.
“Nothing would drop for us, though. On another night, we get that goal to take us to extra-time.”
He added: “We’ve come up short, we’re gutted. We’re down. But we’ve got a week to pick ourselves up.
“The manager has said we don’t want to be a one-hit wonder. We want to make major tournaments. We failed to do that this time, it hurts. We’re devastated as you can imagine and we’ve got to go again.
“We knew coming into the game that it was going to be difficult – they’ve got class players all around the pitch. After 20-minutes, I thought we were in the game.
“Obviously, losing the goal after half-time is a killer blow. We changed the shape and created some chances and got a goal. You’d like to think we could go on to get an equaliser but it wasn’t meant to be.”
