FERGUSON IS READY FOR SCOTS CALL-UP
I WOULD love to see Lewis Ferguson named in Steve Clarke’s Scotland squad on Tuesday for the World Cup qualifiers against Denmark, Moldova and Austria at the start of next month.
The Aberdeen midfielder is ready and could be part of the manager’s squad for a very long time. I’m not necessarily saying he should go and start games but I’d love to see him being integrated into squads. He has been terrific for a long time.
Clarke won’t veer too far away from his normal selections. After all, it wasn’t so long ago the boys were competing at the Euros. There will be freshness in the Scotland squad with the likes of Nathan Patterson and
Billy Gilmour.
But I do think there are certain areas of the team that are still up for grabs. We’ll see if Clarke is still committed to a back five, which allows him to get Andy Robertson and Kieran Tierney in the same side. I expect that to be the case.
There is competition needed at right wing-back and right centre-back.
Patterson is the heir to the throne in the wide position, but I don’t expect Stephen O’Donnell to roll over.
It is a big season for the Rangers youngster, trying to break his way into playing more minutes for his club. In turn, we will start to find out more about his capabilities and if he is the one to play more regularly at international level.
Defensively, Jason Kerr plays right of a three-man defence for St Johnstone every week and has done very well. He has leadership qualities and he drives the team on. Someone like him may well come into the reckoning. This is me assuming Clarke will stick to the same system with a back five.
Goalkeeper is an interesting position. David Marshall is not playing and I think he will need to get out of Derby County to feature regularly to help him play at international level.
When you see Craig Gordon, the way he is at Hearts, I think we are okay with him and Jon McLaughlin at Rangers.
It might be advantageous for Scotland to bring a younger goalkeeper into the squad and be integrated. It may well be someone like St Johnstone’s Zander Clark.