The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Saints skipper aiming to catch attention of national boss – page 49
St Johnstone skipper believes playing in a three has helped him
Jason Kerr has seen a few of his Scotland under-21 team-mates make the big step into the senior squad.
And the St Johnstone captain is aiming to be the next cab off the rank.
Since the last of Kerr’s six appearances for the 21s in 2018, the likes of Scott McKenna, John Souttar, Oliver Burke, Oli McBurnie, Greg Taylor, Ryan Porteous and Robby McCrorie have either been capped or called up.
The Perth centre-back wasn’t in the sort of form that warranted his name being mentioned as a potential full Scotland international this time last year – but he is now.
And the 23-year-old is determined to catch Steve Clarke’s attention by backing up his excellent early season displays for Saints with more of the same when the Premiership resumes at the weekend.
“Every player has their eyes set out on playing for the national team,” said Kerr.
“I just need to be patient and hopefully a chance will come. I need to keep playing well.
“If you aren’t playing well, you are obviously not going to be involved in the Scotland set-up.
“There are a lot of good defenders in the squad and I can’t be too disappointed with any selection that has been made. I just need to bide my time.
“I’ve got experience of the under-21s and a few of those boys have moved up to play with the full squad. Hopefully that can work in my favour if I was to get picked for the national team.
“But, as I said, all I can do is play well for St Johnstone and hopefully that chance comes one day.”
Kerr has starred in Callum Davidson’s new-look backline, often seen stepping into midfield to help build attacks and even overlapping and underlapping forwards.
“I really like playing in the three because it gives me more licence to go forward and get involved with attacking play,” he said.
“I’m a defender and do defend first, but I like getting involved up the park too.
“When I was growing up, I was naturally a midfielder. I feel that has helped me out.
“Hopefully I can come up with a few assists and goals. I think I was top scorer at East Fife one season – hopefully I can get it this season!
“Last season I got one goal and I was a bit disappointed with that. It would be nice to get more goals than Liam Craig this season. I’d have a wee chuckle with him over that.”
Not conceding a goal for the first time this season in their last match before the break against St Mirren was a significant milestone for the Saints defensive unit, according to Kerr. And a deserved one at that.
“We have lost two late goals in games which is disappointing for defenders,” he said.
“But that clean-sheet against St Mirren will really give confidence to the backline to go on and get more.
“We’ve only had one clean-sheet but I think we’ve been really good defensively. I feel, defensively, we’re one of the best in the league.”
Confidence is high in the camp, as you would expect after such a convincing performance against St Mirren.
Now the players sense an opportunity to move up from their mid-table position.
“For the majority of the games we’ve been playing really well,” said Kerr. “It’s been a positive start.
“Even against Aberdeen and Hibs we should have picked up at least a point in both games. We were really hard done by.
“It was really disappointing because we had played well. We just needed that goal.
“Against St Mirren, although we didn’t take a lot of chances, I felt we were dominant.
“It was the best we had played and I feel like we’ll be playing more football like that over the course of the season.”
The skipper added: “When you are doing well you don’t want the international break to come. That was true for us.
“In the next game we will take more of our chances and move on to win more games.
“It’s Motherwell and Ross County next up, both winnable games. We want to take maximum points from them.”
Meanwhile, Kerr’s manager at McDiarmid Park believes he has the capability to a be a Scotland player.
Davidson said: “As with all your young players, if he can play at a level and we are playing at a level then I don’t see why he can’t get in the frame for Scotland.
“He’s playing very well and he’s shown great mental strength in the last year or so.
“Jason was questioned a bit last year when the team were struggling, people asking about the captaincy.
“But you come through it and you get stronger – that’s what Jason has done.
“In football you have to take criticism at times but you have to deal with it and when you come thorough it you are better for it.”
Kerr is a natural for the role Davidson has given him in his Saints team.
“Jason enjoys the marauding centre half thing so he’s been really pleasing,” he said.
“He’s still getting used to it, but he understands what I am asking him to do.
“Some defenders might not take to it because they want to be more cautious, but Jason used to be a centre midfielder so he’s got that in his game already.
“He’s added plenty to us going forward but he’s also been very solid defensively. He’s got the youthful exuberance of being able to get up the pitch – and then get back just as quickly.”