It may be time to pick Robertson OR Tierney
AEUROPEAN medal with Liverpool has never offered any cast iron guarantees of a game in the Scotland defence.
Alan Hansen was elegance personified. Sauchie’s answer to Virgil van Dijk moved through the gears like a Rolls Royce pulling away from a Skoda.
Over 13 years on Merseyside, Hansen won eight English league titles. Alongside fellow Scots Kenny Dalglish and Graeme Souness, he won three European Cups in one of the finest club sides Britain has ever produced.
Where Dalglish and Souness are still lauded as two of the best Scotland technicians of all time, however, Hansen’s haul of 26 Scotland caps reflects an appreciation which was grudging at best.
Recommended to Liverpool by Jock Stein, the Big Man was never quite so keen on picking him for Scotland after that collision with Willie Miller against the Russians in the 1982 World Cup.
Over the next five years — some of the most productive of his Anfield career — Hansen won just five caps. Alex Ferguson left him out of the Mexico World Cup after he captained Liverpool to a league and cup double in 1986. Two years ago, he was topped by Dave Narey, Roy Aitken and Rachel Corsie in a poll of Scotland’s 50 greatest-ever internationals.
In contrast, Andrew Robertson has always enjoyed a place in the heart of the Tartan Army. Where Hansen competed with one heavyweight after another for a place in the team, Robbo’s status as a Champions League-winning Liverpool defender places him in an elite group of one in the current side. Scotland’s captain has a profile and a CV no one else in the squad can match.
Right now, Qatar is putting the finishing touches to billboards featuring huge images of players from all of the countries competing in the World Cup. Harry Kane is the choice for England. Ghana skipper Andre Ayew is already up there.
Had Scotland played half as well against Ukraine in June’s World Cup play-off as they did in the Nations League the other night, there’s no question which player would have been plastered all over the side of a skyscraper.
Robertson is the face of the team. The one star player in dark blue fans from other nations can name in an instant.
Eight years into his international career, however, Wednesday’s 3-0 win over Ukraine raised an awkward question. In spite of an injury to their captain, Scotland were excellent. And people are asking why Robertson should walk straight back into the team.
Plenty will find the question ridiculous and Steve Clarke might be one of them. Still only 28, the classy defender has won the English Premier League, FA Cup, League Cup, Champions League, European Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup. None of which washes with the band of fans who suspect Arsenal’s Kieran Tierney might actually be the better left-back.
Over the years, the Robertson/ Tierney debate has become tedious. To stop the bickering, successive Scotland managers have shoehorned the pair into the same team in a 3-5-2 formation.
Tierney defies a lack of inches to excel on the left of the back three, Robertson slotting in as a wing-back.
The problems arise when the former Celtic player misses big games against the likes of the Czech Republic or Ireland. The system doesn’t work without him.
Robertson’s absence the other night offered Clarke a chance to try something different. The decision to go with a back four instead was a tactical triumph.
Tierney played in his favoured left-back role in a back four. Scott McTominay was released from his defensive purgatory to play in his Manchester United position. The players looked comfortable and the end justified the means.
Top of Group B1 in the Nations League, Scotland don’t lack motivation to beat Ireland tonight.
June’s 3-0 drubbing in Dublin was awful and revenge would leave the team chasing a single point against Ukraine in Krakow on Tuesday to secure a place in the Euro 2024 play-offs.
Achieve that with a conventional back four and an old debate would be difficult to avoid. Robbo or KT is the nightmare call Scotland managers have been ducking since Alan Hansen was still the first name on the Match of the Day team sheet. It might be time to flip the coin and make the call.