Mackay lifts lid on Scots’ new style

Scotland’s youth teams will be reared on a European style of football once the game returns, SFA performance chief Malky Mackay has revealed.

The former Watford, Cardiff and Wigan boss has been in charge of overseeing the nation’s top talent since the end of 2016.

Scotland Under-21s, U19s and U17s have all had qualifiers and Elite Round games postponed during the coronavirus crisis.

And ex- Celtic and Scotland defender Mackay has conf irmed he will be instructing the youth coaches to take a new approach once back up and running.

He said: “At the moment, myself and a couple of people are just about to launch a performance style of play strategy.

“It’s for the national youth teams to play in a manner more accomplished in terms of European style, with the ball and having the ball in a certain way.

“That’s going to be rolled out soon. And to be fair, for the last two years my teams have been living it. My coaches are terrific guys and our youth teams have been having reasonable results against England, Spain, France and Germany.

“The youth teams are now going out to Spain to play a lot of our games and we have a training base there where we have taken a variety of teams. We’ve gone there out of season to play practice matches.

“In the grand scheme of things, we are trying to bring as much of the best practice I know and that I’ve been to see.”

Mackay was out of work for a year-anda-half before his performance director role and added: “You need to do something or mentally you have problems.

“I went around the world, went to see the Special Forces, NFL games, Aussie rules, rugby, La Liga, Bundesliga – different countries and sports that you can use to bring that little edge.

“As far as our young coaches are concerned, we are trying to put good people in front of them. Recently we had Paul Scholes and Darren Fletcher up to talk to 120 coaches. I’ve had Sean Dyche, Henrik Larsson, Kenny Dalglish.

“For our players to be better, our coaches need to be even better than they are. Once you get your Pro License you are kind of just left to your devices. It’s like getting a driving license then two years later you are asked to drive a Formula One car.

“It’s trying to make them more rounded and resilient for that journey ahead. I’m so proud to be involved with it.

“And we have a couple of top youngsters coming through such as Billy Gilmour.”

Mackay was talking on Paul McVeigh’s podcast “McVeigh Meets”, which is raising funds for NHS Charities Together.