McGinn:Accept theflakandwinthe next double-header

Scotland midfielder John McGinn insists the national team must be prepared to accept the criticism coming its way following the defeats by Israel and Portugal.

Manager Alex McLeish has come under fire for his persistence with a 3-5-2 formation, although on Sunday he switched to four at the back for the visit of Portugal.

With Scotland’s hopes of securing top-spot in Nations League Group C1 – and a place in the Euro 2020 play-offs – now hanging in the balance, McGinn says the team must silence the critics when Scotland go to Albania on November 17 and then host Israel on November 20.

McGinn said: “You either go under and crumble or you puff your chest out and try and show what you are made of.

“I think over the piece we managed to do that. You are willing to take the praise when it comes so you have to be willing to take the criticism when it comes and it has been fully merited.

“We know we need to do better. We need to go back to our clubs and get our confidence up. On the park it felt a lot more solid against Portugal. We were restricting them but more importantly we were causing them problems up top.

“I don’t know what the manager wants to do next but whatever we do we are going to work as hard as we can to do what this country is craving and that is to get back to the big time.”

McLeish has lost six of eight matches so far since returning for a second stint as national team boss. But Aston Villa’s McGinn feels some difficult friendlies in that sequence have been a factor in the poor run.

He added: “We have had a lot of difficult games against top opposition since the manager has come in.

“There are arguments for and against. The competitive games are the most important and we would rather have had the Portugal performance against Israel. If we had done that I think we would have come away with the win.

“The likes of Portugal is the level that you want to get to. You look at these players – how agile they are, how powerful they are. We have experienced that from the Peru and Mexico games as well. But we have to take those lessons on now and use the Nations League to get us back to where we want to be.”