Mcleish’s Griffiths worry
● Celtic striker needs to be playing regularly to be at his best for club and country, warns national manager
Alex Mcleish has expressed his concern over Leigh Griffiths’ fitness levels as Scotland’s chronic shortage of striking options shows no sign of easing.
Griffiths, plagued by hamstring and thigh problems, has started just three matches for Celtic in 2018 and missed Scotland’s summer trip to Peru and Mexico as he underwent tidy-up hernia surgery.
The 27-year-old made his first start of the season for the Scottish champions in their 1-0 league defeat by Hearts at Tynecastle on Saturday and is in the squad for the crucial Champions League qualifier against AEK Athens in Greece tonight.
But Griffiths, who was Scotland’s top scorer with four goals in the unsuccessful 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign, has slipped down the strikers’ pecking order at Celtic behind French duo Moussa Dembele and Odsonne Edouard.
Mcleish is anxious to see the 27-year-old playing regular club football again ahead of Scotland starting their Uefa Nations League campaign next month.
“It would be difficult for Leigh to keep his levels up if he’s not playing much and keeping his match fitness,” said Mcleish.
“That’s a concern for us but the challenge is for Leigh to bang in the goals. It would be very difficult to pick players when they are not playing. They lose match fitness – that’s the obvious answer.
“I don’t have anything up my sleeve in terms of new strikers to come in. I wish I had. But we want Leigh back to top fitness, because when he came into the Scotland team in the last qualifying campaign he was on fire.
“Brendan Rodgers, in the beginning, had to rouse him to get to a level at Celtic. I know Gordon Strachan wasn’t particularly liking Leigh’s level until Brendan did a wee bit of work on him and then Gordon couldn’t leave him out.
“Leigh is better when he plays every week. He needs to be playing, keeping sharp and scoring goals. He had a couple of chances against Hearts at the weekend but we want him to play to the same level every week.”
If Griffiths is not considered for the Hampden fixtures against Belgium and Albania on 7 and 10 September, Mcleish could again turn to Swansea City striker Oli Mcburnie. The 22-year-old failed to score in his first three Scotland outings against Costa Rica, Peru and Mexico at the end of last season but will be given further opportunities.
“He could have had three goals for Scotland by now,” said Mcleish. “You know how different it can be to score a goal – in the eyes of the critics and the fans it makes a difference.
“He’s done not too badly. We’ ve watched him and is poke to Swansea manager Graham Potter, who is very happy with him. But we do need someone to score goals.
“France won the World Cup with a striker [Olivier Giroud] who didn’t score a goal in the
tournament. So we have to find a dynamic for goals, regardless of whether it’s the centre-forward or coming in from wide areas. We know that’s where we’re short. I can’t dig someone out of fresh air but we are keeping an eye on every centre-forward.
“As I say, Oli is playing well for Swansea, Jordan Rhodes scored for Norwich at the weekend and we’re still looking at some of the guys who played up front in Gordon’s era. But we hope Griffiths can be ready and at the moment he looks in good condition.”
Mcburnie missed a penalty in Swansea’s 1-0 win against Preston North End at the Liberty Stadium on Saturday but was praised by Potter for his attitude. The Swansea boss said the striker was a “pleasure to work with”.
John Souttar is on course to make his senior Scotland debut next month as Alex Mcleish considers his defensive options ahead of the Hampden double-header against Belgium and Albania.
The Hearts centre-half earned lavish praise at the weekend from his club boss Craig Levein, one of Mcleish’s predecessors in charge of the national team, for his display in the 1-0 win over champions Celtic at Tynecastle.
Souttar had been called up by Mcleish for the summer friendlies against Peru and Mexico at the end of last season but was among the raft of players who withdrew from that squad. But with Hearts captain Christophe Berra joining Aberdeen’s Scott Mckenna on the list of injured Scotland defenders, 21-yearold Souttar is in the frame for the challenge match against World Cup third-place finishers Belgium on 7 September and the Uefa Nations League opener against Albania three days later.
Mcleish is wary of taking all club managerial recommendations at face value but admits Souttar’s time at senior international level may have come.
“Every week there is a player who has an excellent game and every manager will claim a player was excellent on that particular day,” said Mcleish.
“Obviously I can’t pick everyone. I’d need a squad of about 100 if I went with every gaffer who said how good his player was that weekend.
“But John Souttar is on the radar. He was going to come to South America but the kid phoned me himself and said he’d been suffering with a foot injury and it would be better for him to rest over the summer. We made a lot of concessions in the summer for players who had hard seasons and needed to recuperate. Some players had been overloaded for a couple of years. But now everyone is on the radar and John had a good game at the weekend.”
Mcleish will also consider using Kieran Tierney in a more central role next month as he looks to accommodate both the Celtic left-back and his Liverpool compatriot Andrew Robertson in the same starting line-up.
“We have to maximise our best players,” added Mcleish. “Dare I say it, England did the same thing with Kyle Walker and Kieran Trippier at the World Cup this year. Walker is, to all intents and purposes, a right-back or wing-back. But he took to the centre-back position like a duck to water. So there are ways to get all your best players in the team.”
John Mcginn is likely to be another key figure
in Mcleish’s plans for the Nations League campaign which offers Scotland an added opportunity to secure qualification for the 2020 European Championship finals.
A former Aston Villa manager, Mcleish believes Mcginn will thrive at the club he joined from Hibs last week, turning down rival interest from Celtic.
“I can see the attraction of
playing in England for John and his style of play is likely to be suited to the Championship down there,” said Mcleish.
“Maybe he thought there would be too much competition for places at Celtic – you’d need to ask him – but Villa is a big club with great facilities and it’s a division where his swashbuckling approach can flourish.
“Maybe he’s been guaranteed a start at Villa, I don’t know. But going to Villa will empower him and increase his confidence. Of course, that would also have happened if he’d signed for Celtic, because he’s a boy who believes in himself. But with the start he’s made at Villa, where he got rave reviews for his debut against Wigan on Saturday, the likelihood is that he will be playing for them most weeks and that’s important.”
Mcleish was at Craven Cottage on Saturday to watch three of his midfield candidates – James Mcarthur of Crystalpalaceandthefulham duo Tom Cairney and Kevin Mcdonald – in action and was encouraged by what he saw as he looks to fill the void filled by the international retirement of Celtic captain Scott Brown.
“He’s a good player, James, and he makes it look easy,” added Mcleish. “He maybe doesn’t have the same allaction approach as Scott. But James is the same in terms of getting into the right positions, reading the game and keeping the traffic moving. He’s probably one of the most experienced midfielders we have. He played really well at the weekend. Cairney and Mcdonald didn’t do too badly either.
“We are keeping an eye on everyone down there and it was also good to see Ryan Fraser doing well for Bournemouth.”
Tickets for the Belgium and Albania fixtures go on general sale this Friday and Mcleish is urging Scotland supporters to embrace the significance of the new Nations League competition.
“I know the punters might be more captivated by the thought of seeing Belgium,” he said. “But it’s important to realise the most important game is against Albania. If we win our Nations League group, we have a double chance of qualifying for the Euros. So the Albania game is much more important in the grand scheme of things.”