Shinnie fills left-back void after Tierney is ruled out
● Scotland boss Mcleish backs Dons star
Alex Mcleish will turn to Graeme Shinnie to help Scotland out of their left-back crisis after Kieran Tierney joined skipper Andy Robertson on the sidelines against Kazakhstan tonight.
Both hope to be available for Sunday’s trip to San Marino but their absence leaves Scotland short when they kick-off their Euro 2020 qualifying campaign at the Astana Arena this afternoon.
Mcleish was putting a brave face on things last night and reminded reporters of Shinnie’s fine display at leftback at the Azteca stadium against Mexico in a 2-0 defeat last summer.
“He played 90 minutes for us in the Azteca Stadium at left-back and also wing-back when we changed formation and did it with great aplomb,” said Mcleish.
“He’s a fantastic athlete in the best form of his career this season. He would be the obvious candidate [to replace Tierney].”
Six of the side that started Scotland’s 3-2 win over Israel in November are missing.
Cardiff City’s Callum Paterson and Bournemouth’s Ryan Fraser are not being permitted by their clubs to play on the artificial pitch, Steven Fletcher is “managing injury issues” at Sheffield Wednesday and Ryan Christie is injured. Goalkeeper Allan Mcgregor, meanwhile, has retired and Liverpool’s Robertson has been waylaid by a dental problem.
The news about Tierney threw a fresh focus on Robertson’s attempt to join his team-mates in Astana having missed the original flight from Glasgow to have surgery on a mouth abscess.
Mcleish stressed it was simply not possible for Robertson to be in Kazakhstan despite the player’s own determined efforts to join his team-mates in central Asia.
“He was desperate to come but travelling with the abscess, getting rid of the poison from his system, it was too much in terms of draining it and arriving in the best shape,” said the manager. “It was a shame to lose him but some times it happens and you have to be ready and prepared.”
Tierney has not set foot on the artificial surface at the Astana Arena, so the tightness he is feeling cannot be blamed on that surface.
Tim Williamson, the Scotland physiotherpaist, is also head physio at Celtic. Tierney was seen stretching off his long-standing pelvic complaint during the 1-0 win over
Dundee on Sunday and he was rested at training on Tuesday in what was described as a “precaution”.
“The medical was done on him and they were very adamant about it – it had nothing to do with the pitch,” said Mcleish.
“He was feeling a little tight after the weekend and you saw television evidence of him stretching once or twice. We had to do the right thing and scan him, unfortunately we can’t play him and he’ll miss this one.
“I don’t know if he will be ready for the weekend. We got the news from the medical team this morning. It is what it
is. We have to move on. These are things we can’t control.”
From being blessed with two top-level left-backs earlier this week, Mcleish has been left with none. But he stressed that Aberdeen’s Shinnie is a more than adequate replacement.
“We believe we have very good cover and we think a lot of that is down to the fact we played those friendly games last year which stood us in good stead,” he said.
“We were able to see players in different positions and players that are versatile and can play a number of positions. I have total belief in the players who will replace the guys who are missing.”
Mcleish also confirmed Callum Mcgregor as captain – the fourth he has named since returning to the job of Scotland manager just over a year ago. Charlie Mulgrew, who pulled out of this squad with an injury, was skipper for Mcleish’s first game back in charge against Costa Rica, while Scott Mckenna, who is expected to be fit to take his place in central defence this evening, led the team on their summer tour to Peru and Mexico.
Robertson was given the armband full-time at the start of the Nations League qualifying campaign in September.
Fan behaviour is a hot topic in Scotland but David Bates recently experienced a new extreme in Germany, when the referee ordered the players to seek shelter off the pitch during a game.
He is doubtful whether such a tactic would work at home. In any case, there’s a fine line betweenemployingsuchstrict measures and destroying the much-admired atmosphere at German matches.
This is the case even in the second tier where Bates’ club SV Hamburg currently reside, along with city rivals St Pauli. When the clubs met earlier this month at St Pauli’s Millerntor stadium for the first time in eight years there were fireworks – and then some.
Play was interrupted several times. The referee warned he would take the players off the field, before doing so in the second half.
Bates was asked whether referees taking players off the pitch in order to quell offensive behaviour in the stands might work in Scotland. “I’m not sure – the players from both teams (in Germany) go over and tell the fans on both sides to relax,” he said. “But the supporters make the atmosphere when they’ve got the flares and the like.”
As a former Rangers player he has of course experienced the passion of an Old Firm derby, even if there’s not been a case of players being ushered from the field by the referee – yet. “It was different (to the Old Firm fixtures) as there were only 29,000 at St Pauli,” he said. “The European atmosphere is different. They’re always singing and the safe standing areas add to the occasion.
But there are also similaritiesintheway the fans hate each other. There were Rangers fans in the Hamburg crowd so there is a connection there.”
Bates is getting used to new extremes. When once he was playing in front of a few hundred people while turning out for the likes of East Stirlingshire and Brechin City, now there are four times that number gathering just to watch him and his team-mates train.
“The day before the first game (v St Pauli, in September) there were 2,000 fans at training the day before,” he recalled. “The fans love it over there and with it being a city rivalry it’s always good to get one over on them. We hadn’t beaten them in quite a long time (17 years) so it was big for the fans.
“When I was 17 or 18 there would have been no chance of 2,000 fans at my games. It is crazy when you think about it – 2,000 ultras at training singing their hearts out. It makes the atmosphere. The fans over there are really tops.”
Now a fully-fledged international with high hopes of starting tonight’s opening Euro 2020 clash against Kazakhstan, Bates has no regrets about quitting Rangers to
start a new adventure abroad. It’s all very different to when he trained at the Michael Woods Sport and Leisure Centre in Kirkcaldy while with Raith Rovers. “It is some transformation from there to Hamburg but if you work hard you never know what can happen,” he said. “I’ve kept my head down, just kept plugging away, and I’ve got some benefits from it.”
Bates is relishing the new environment. His girlfriend has joined him in Hamburg, he is learning German and he
still has more than three years left of the four-year contract he signed last summer. He fully intends to see it out, hopefully in Bundesliga 1. Hamburg were setting the pace earlier this season but have dropped to second behind Cologne.
“Thetoptwogoupandthere’s a play-off between third top and third bottom of Bundesliga,” he explained. “We have a good chance of going up. We were top in January and have had a couple of slip ups since so we’re totally focused on getting back up there.”