Strachan is seeking signs of a senior step-up
GORDON STRACHAN hopes one of his young call-ups can follow John McGinn’s example and stamp himself as a Scotland international with a breakthrough performance over the next week. McGinn produced a man-of-the-match display against Denmark in March on his first senior outing and, by doing so, booked a place back in the squad for the searching friendly tests with Italy and France.
These games are a steep hike in opposition class but Strachan believes there remains scope for a potential newcomer or one of his inexperienced provision to convince him they have a firm future with the senior squad this week.
Stephen Kingsley and Barrie McKay could debut against the Italians in Malta tonight or the Euro 2016 host French on Saturday, while Nottingham Forest teenager Oliver Burke is seeking to build on a late substitute appearance when Scotland scored a 1-0 win over the Danes.
Strachan said: ‘John McGinn was the bonus in the last two games. Can we get someone else like that? Can we get two like that? Then we can go: “Good, we can rely on them”.
‘If they’re young, that’s terrific.
‘We’ve got Stephen Kingsley. Callum Paterson’s not as young as the rest. Oliver’s there, Barrie McKay’s been smashing in training this week. That’s the first step. The next step is: “OK, we like what we’ve seen, do we like what we seen on the field?”
‘They’ve shown they can integrate, they have the intelligence to pick things up.
‘We’ve had time with them to go through what we like doing here which can be different from at their clubs.
The last couple of days have been good for us. To win, that would be great. We know it will be hard though.
‘It’s imperative to play against people of that quality because we’re not getting it anywhere else. When you play an end-ofthe-season game miles away against countries you’re not really interested in who aren’t at the top level, that wasn’t great for players, staff, anyone.
‘After playing 50-odd games, how do you make them excited at this time of year?
‘You have to play against top players good crowds, good atmospheres.’