Scotland manager McLeish considering Paterson as an attacking option

ALEX McLeish hopes Callum Paterson can ride to Scotland’s rescue after watching him perform an emergency striking role for Cardiff City.

The former Hearts defender has been utilised in an advanced midfield role since Neil Warnock lured him to Wales last year.

And his versatility has also come in handy for the Bluebirds boss after top-scorer Josh Murphy and fellow frontmen Gary Madine and Danny Ward were recently sidelined and Ken Zohore seemingly out of favour.

He was thrown up front by Warnock and responded with strikes against Fulham and Liverpool.

Now McLeish admits he is considering how he can get the best out of the 24-year-old as he looks to replace injured strikers Leigh Griffiths and Steven Naismith for this month’s crucial Nations League double header with Albania and Israel.

McLeish said: “Callum is very versatile. I played him as a wing-back against Costa Rica. But we felt that he has also been pretty effective middle to front in the Mexico and Peru games.

“He scored a lot of goals for Cardiff last year and now Neil Warnock has done an emergency manoeuvre when he put him up front.

“He’s scored a couple of goals against some big clubs over the last three or four weeks.

“So he’s a bit of a threat. He’s a versatile player and worthy of being in the squad.

“It gives us options. We played him in an attacking role in Mexico but didn’t give him the service that I think he would have appreciated.

“So that’s something we will have to tactically work on if he was coming into a forward area.

“But he’s been very effective in the middle to front area for well over a season now.”