Matt:No chance I’mona downer
Fraser: My pal Ryan was thrown into unfamiliar role but stuck it to boo boys and bigmouth Boyd with super display against Dutch winger
MATT PHILLIPS admits he would have beat himself up a couple of years ago over the chances he missed against Holland to break his Scotland duck.
But the West Brom man insists his new positive mindset means he will focus on the fact he got into the right positions. And he has told Scotland’s creative players to keep teeing up the opportunities for him and he’ll provide the goals.
Natural winger Phillips was handed a lone striker role by interim boss Malky Mackay in the absence of injured Leigh Griffiths.
He had an opportunity early on but Virgil van Dijk got the better of him and another in the second half when he let the ball run through his body and into Jasper Cillessen’s hands.
Phillips, who praised debutants Callum McGregor and Ryan Christie, said: “I had two opportunities – ones I would take on another day.
“But I will take the positives that I got into the right positions. A couple of years ago I might have got my head down about it and let it bother me.
“But I look upon it as a positive that I played a different role and managed to get a couple of opportunities.
“I can do better with my back to goal but I enjoyed that forward role. The boys put some good balls through for me.
“We have the players to create for whoever is up front. You could see that against Holland when we played some good stuff. Ryan and Callum were brilliant on their debuts.”
We all saw what Boyd said but Ryan kept a world-class player in Depay quiet
RYAN FRASER