McLeish in promise to stars axed from team

ALEX McLEISH has assured his axed Scotland stars they still have a big role to play in the Nations League. The national coach raised eyebrows by picking strikers Steven Naismith and Johnny Russell ahead of Celtic’s Leigh Griffiths in Monday night’s 2-0 win over Albania. Parkhead duo James Forrest and Craig Gordon were also sidelined as McLeish went with Kilmarnock’s Stephen O’Donnell and Rangers No1 Allan McGregor instead. Vindicated by a morale-boosting win before next month’s trip to Israel, the 59-year-old expects the sidelined players to be angry. But he insisted they can still be central to getting the Scots to the Euro 2020 finals. ‘They will get annoyed,’ admitted McLeish. ‘That’s just a fact of the game. ‘They will be annoyed and some of them will be p***ed off with me but I hope that, in 24 hours, they calm down and they are willing to go again for us because they are so

important to us as we build a new era. We’ve been losing some senior players over the last 18 months and a lot of young guys have come into the team. They are opting in.’ Hearts striker Naismith extended his scoring streak to eight in the last ten games on a night when he missed a sitter, had a strike ruled out for offside and lost out on the opening goal after UEFA credited defender Berat Djimsiti with the final touch. Overlooked for the original squad, McLeish admits the 31-year-old will now take some shifting. ‘It will be hard to say that I’m not playing him now (against Israel),’ he said. ‘But it depends on form over the next few weeks. ‘Naisy knows the standards he has to keep up but he’s a player who’s been round the block. ‘He’s got good tactical nous. He’s a team player. He knows the positions to go into when we don’t have the ball. He’s good in the air. ‘But Griff has a lot of these qualities as well and is a fantastic finisher. We’re going to need him.’ Meanwhile, Scots skipper Andy Robertson has urged his teammates to seize the moment when they face Israel next month. McLeish’s men travel to Haifa on October 11 knowing a win would all but eliminate their opponents as they have already lost a game to Albania. Were Scotland to top Group C1, they would be assured of a worst-case scenario of a semi-final place in the Euro 2020 play-offs. ‘We need to be positive because we only play four games and two teams,’ said the Liverpool man. ‘We have a really good chance of getting into the play-offs before the Euro campaign even starts. It is a chance we have to try to take. ‘Israel will be massive and it will also be our first away game. It will be a different experience but it is one we look forward to.’ Asked if he had to lift the players after the 4-0 humbling by Belgium on Friday, Robertson replied: ‘No, I don’t think it was needed. All the lads spoke and it was basic errors. If we had cut them out then there would have been some good things from Friday’s game. ‘We looked at clips and what we did wrong — and we managed to put it right against Albania. ‘It has been a week where we have learned a lot from this squad and that can only be a positive for the games coming up.’