Kieran Tierney faces an uphill battle to reclaim his place in the Arsenal team ahead of Oleksandr Zinchenko, but Scotland's famous 2-0 win over Spain on Tuesday night has offered a reminder that the pair can co-exist in the same side.
The defender was one of 14 senior Gunners players called up for international duty this month alongside the likes of Thomas Partey, Martin Odegaard, Emile Smith Rowe, Matt Turner, Granit Xhaka, Bukayo Saka, Leandro Trosssard, Jorginho and January signing Jakub Kiwior.
And after making just four substitute appearances since his last start in an Arsenal shirt - against Manchester City in the FA Cup fourth round back in January - it turned out to be a positive experience for Tierney as he played the full 90 minutes of Scotland's win over Cyprus before getting another 76 minutes under his belt against Spain.
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There may have been some concern amongst Gunners supporters when Tierney was withdrawn against Spain as it came not too long after he required medical treatment. With that said, nothing suggests he is injured, which means the focus can be on his performance at Hampden Park.
Particularly his role in Scott McTominay's second goal as he flew down the left-hand side to set up the Manchester United midfielder. What is interesting about Tierney's involvement is that his starting position on the night was as the left-sided centre-back in a back three.
As Scotland manager Steve Clarke is blessed with two of the best left-backs in Europe - the other being Liverpool's Andy Robertson - he solved a conundrum at the most recent European Championships by deciding to switch from a back four to a back three in order to accommodate the pair in his strongest starting line-up.
And despite needing to convince Tierney that he was the perfect option to play in somewhat of a new role, the Scotland manager recently revealed his belief that the 25-year-old is 'the best overlapping centre-back in the world'.
"The personnel we had – we had two of the best left-backs in world football, Tierney and Robertson, and had to figure out how to get them in the team," Clarke said on the High Performance Podcast last year. "At that moment I didn’t think the centre-back options were great, so let’s pick three and see if that makes it better!
"My idea was that Tierney could play centre-back and I had this mad idea that Scott McTominay could play as one of the others. I had good midfield players and I wanted to get three or four into the team but had nothing great up front really. I had a really good conversation with Tierney to tell him he was going to be the best left-sided centre-back that Scotland had ever had.
"But I think he always felt that he was a better left-back than Andy Robertson. Every player thinks they’re better than the immediate competition and if you compare them, there isn’t a cigarette paper between them. I had to persuade Kieran that he was better than Andy and that’s why I trusted him to play left centre-back and not Andy. Now, that’s probably not strictly true but that’s how I had to sell it to Kieran.
"Now we've got the best overlapping centre-back in world football. It works. Selling that position to Kieran was important and it was a really good conversation, he asked a lot of really good questions. I told him I loved him and I wanted him to play there."
Operating as a left-side central defender in a back three is nothing new to Tierney as it's a role he has played several times for Arsenal following the appointment of Mikel Arteta. Most notably he played there as the Gunners beat both Manchester City and Chelsea to win the FA Cup in 2020.
So for the Spaniard to benefit from having 'the best overlapping centre-back in the world' he would have to ditch his favoured 4-3-3 system and return to a 3-4-3 formation that would see Tierney on the left-side of three central defenders alongside William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes.
Whilst it would be a major surprise if Arteta made a sudden change at this stage of the season, Tierney's role for Scotland may serve as a timely reminder for the title run-in as he could repeat the trick to get him and Oleksandr Zinchenko, who has been the first-choice left-back when fit and available for selection, in the same side.
However, even if Zinchenko moves to a left-wing back role it still poses an issue further forward as one of Arsenal's three midfielders in Odegaard, Partey or Xhaka would most likely have to make way for an extra defender and on the occasion where Arteta has opted to tighten up his defence, he has often turned to Rob Holding.
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