Young Scot will with Neuer, Lew

Mclaughlin is tipping Morrison for Champions

Ten months ago, Andy Robertson flew the flag for Scotland when Liverpool beat Tottenham in the 2019 Champions League Final. Tonight, when the team from the city of light, Paris Saint-germain, take on Bayern Munich in Lisbon’s Stadium of Light for the trophy, there will be no such tartan connection.

Fast forward a couple of years, however, and one of our national team’s youth coaches predicts Scotland will have a new name competing in European football’s glitziest showpieces.

And not, he says, the one fans might guess.

Brian Mclaughlin had Liam Morrison under his charge for four years in the Scotland Under-16 and Under-17 set-up and at the SFA’S Performance School at Grange Academy in Kilmarnock.

That was when the kid was with Celtic, and before his dramatic switch to Bayern Munich, a move that Mclaughlin believes can help Morrison become part of a Bavarian dynasty at the very pinnacle of the European game.

“Liam is still at a young age. He is only 17,” the former Hoops winger pointed out.

“However, if you look at him just now, he has all the attributes to play in the Champions League for Bayern Munich.

“That is with, and without, the ball. “He is a central defender, very tall, someone who is very aggressive but – and massive credit must go to Celtic here – a real footballer.

“You watch him, and he is equally as comfortable stepping out of defence in possession to develop the game as he is stopping the opposition, especially in his own box.

“That is something Bayern must have seen in him. He has all the potential to be a Champions League centre-back.

“I believe their Academy people have likened him to a young Mats Hummels (a serial winner for Bayern, Borussia Dortmund and Germany), and I think it is a good comparison. “You have a centre-back who is equally comfortable playing on the right or the left, and – like all our kids have to have now – the ability to beat a man if he has to.

“The reason he has got all that is because he is an unbelievable trainer, and his strength of character.” Qualities which, Mclaughlin explained, have helped to win a rapid promotion to Bayern’s Under-19 squad.

“Liam had a real challenging time when he first went to Germany,” the 46-year-old continued. “Leaving Celtic last summer was a big decision for him. I know for a fact he respects Celtic as a club, and respects their coaches.

Liam Morrison is earning rave reviews at Bayern Munich