Midfielder’s progress from United kid to star in EPL

Kieran Tierney has become Arsenal’s flavour of the month and player of the month by broadly doing the same job in a red and white strip as he was asked to do in a green and white one.

As proud as St Mirren and Hibs supporters will be of John Mcginn’s exalted status in Birmingham, his allaction game at Aston Villa remains instantly recognisable.

Andy Robertson was an attacking leftback when he left Dundee United and he’s an attacking left-back now that he’s a Champions League and Premier League winner. There are more one-twos on the edge of the box at Anfield than there were at Tannadice but a spade is still a spade.

As a rule of thumb, the Spfl-raised Scots who cross the border and succeed do so because they find a manager who values their skillset, then extends the curve by refining and moulding it for the requirements of his team and a higher standard of opposition. The holes are square and so are the pegs.

Go through all of them playing in England’s top flight and it’s a similar story – Robert Snodgrass (drop the shoulder, exquisite crossing); James Mcarthur (disciplined, dirty work in midfield); James Mccarthy (up and down, tackles flying); Ryan Fraser (raw pace and cutting in from the left); Kenny Mclean (dictating tempo); John Fleck (vision and weight of pass as a No 10).

But Stuart Armstrong is different. Perhaps even uniquely different.

The challenge Ralph Hasenhuttl has set him at Southampton, or more accurately, Armstrong’s ability to rise to the challenge Hasenthuttl has set him at Southampton, sets him apart.

Saints fans poring over Armstrong’s highlights package from his seasons with Dundee United and Celtic hoped they had signed the next Steven Davis – an energetic, goal-scoring, midfielder who could marry running power with a bit of composure and creativity. And when he broke into a struggling Mark Hughes team the position in which he was deployed, and on occasion the performance he produced, supported the Davis analogy.

Now, ask Southampton legend Jason Dodd to compare him to a player he either played with or watched over the last three decades, it’s not athletic equivalence he’s attempting to recall, it’s craft and guile at the top end of the pitch.

“When Stuart first came down from Scotland I thought we were getting a box to box midfielder,” said Dodd, whose Southampton career lasted 16 years as a player and a few more as a coach.

“Steven Davis was magnificent for Southampton but if you were being critical, which is harsh, did we get the goals we thought we were expecting from him? Probably not.

“Adam Lallana was a very creative player but he would operate deeper on the pitch. It’s a while ago now (1996-97) but Eyal Berkovic had a brilliant season with us.

“He was smaller but he linked the play well, like Stuart, in the danger area. The lads weren’t too sure about him when he came in at the start but his performances changed that. It was in areas that mattered – the final third. That’s where you need players to make the difference and win you Premier League games. Stuart is definitely doing that.”

Before anybody rolls their eyes and thinks back to the Berkovic whose every touch of the ball was booed by Celtic fans in a pre-season friendly, by which time they wanted him out of Parkhead, Israel’s greatest footballer is revered for his season at The Dell.

Two goals and three assists in a 6-3 victory (no grey kit excuses from Sir Alex on this occasion) over Manchester United doesn’t get easily forgotten. Matt Le Tissier’s lob over a stranded Peter Schmeichel is the pick of the six that makes all the ‘best ever’ DVDS but a Berkovic 20-yard volley isn’t far behind. Dodd played that day.

Maybe it was the fact that Armstrong’s display against United was fresh in the memory that prompted the Berkovic comparison when he spoke about his development under Hasenhuttl. It was against the same club that the magnitude of the 28-year-old’s evolution was brought into sharp focus as he shone under the lights of Old Trafford.

Armstrong started out with the other United as a teenage substitute widemidfielder tasked by Peter Houston with making full use of his pace against tiring full-backs by either getting in behind where he could be picked out with a diagonal pass or cutting back in to burst through the space between the left-back and left-sided centre-half. Ten years later, here he was, effectively a support forward for Danny Ings, triggering a sophisticated and well-oiled Southampton press, giving a robotic Harry Maguire all the trouble he could wish for with movement and awareness any born and bred number nine would be proud of.

Before this game, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s men were rolling over the top of their opposition and rolling back the years, winning four league games in a row by a three-goal margin. But in the