SHOW ME WHAT YOU’RE MADE OF
Clarke keen for opportunity to gauge commitment of Hickey following his reluctance to join up with Under-21 squad
MOMENTUM established by a six-game winning run, Steve Clarke has no urgent need to tinker or experiment with his Scotland team. Obliged to play a couple of non-competitive matches following the postponement of Thursday’s World Cup play-off against Ukraine, the national coach reasons he might as well make the best of a truly awful situation. Sat next to the horrors unfolding in Ukraine, just about any football match being played right now feels meaningless. All Clarke can do is prepare his team for this week’s hastily-arranged friendly against Poland and hope the exercise helps keep his squad ticking over until June when we must all pray the Ukrainians are free of war.
Clarke has named a strong squad to face first the Poles, then the loser of the other play-off semi-final between Austria and Wales, but one or two inclusions will see extra game time as a result of the overarching circumstances.
Striker Jacob Brown earned his solitary cap to date as a substitute against Moldova back in November and will likely be given minutes over the next ten days.
Even more intriguing will be the role assigned to Aaron Hickey.
Had Scotland been facing a World Cup play-off this week, then it’s not at all certain that the 19-year-old would have been called up at all.
Scot Gemmill’s frustration at the Bologna full-back’s unwillingness to report for Under-21 duty is real and Clarke’s decision to select the defender for the full squad should not be mistaken for a schism between the two coaches.
It might in fact be a test of Hickey’s commitment.
Encouraged by assistant coach Austin McPhee, who helped oversee Hickey’s transition to firstteam football at Hearts aged just 16, Clarke wants to get a measure of defender’s skillset and personality.
If, as has been suggested, he is being badly advised by an over-bearing family member, then the national coach is right to reason that Hickey ought not to be punished for the sins of another.
With captain Andy Robertson and Kieran Tierney available for duty on the left of defence, Hickey is unlikely to start in his favoured berth.
Ongoing concerns over the personnel available to play on the opposite flank might yield an opportunity on the right.
Nathan Patterson is likely to start at right wing-back against Poland but the Everton defender has suffered for the change of manager that saw Frank
Lampard replace Rafa
Benitez just days after the Spaniard sanctioned a £12million outlay to Rangers in January.
Just as Patterson has not been playing at Goodison, so Stephen O’Donnell has drifted out of favour at Motherwell where Graham Alexander has preferred the less subtle skills of Bevis Mugabi.
Clarke knows what O’Donnell can do and so Hickey may be given a chance to prove he is as versatile as all manner of experts suspect.
‘Aaron is a player I don’t know very well,’ concedes Clarke. ‘He moved from Hearts to Italy and has done fantastic out there and I hear a lot of good stories about him.
‘Austin worked with him at Hearts and has a lot of good things to say about the boy.
‘He is quite versatile, can play off the left and the right and I believe he can play central midfield, too. I’m quite strong in that position, so I don’t see him playing there.
‘It just gives me a chance to see him up close and personal and compare him to what we have. That is the most important reason for having Aaron in this squad.’
Still only 19, Hickey has flourished in Italy and is now a regular in Sinisa Mihajlovic’s team, scoring four times this term for a side that sits mid-table in Serie A.
Having played in the 2019 Scottish Cup final for Hearts just weeks after his debut, Hickey had proved capable of adapting to big occasions well before his £1.5m move the following year.
No teenager has played more minutes in any of Europe’s big five leagues this season.
Nevertheless Clarke (left) will be keen to assess his appetite for international football — and his willingness to slot into the team wherever required.
‘I haven’t managed to get out to Italy but I have picked up a couple of his games on various television channels,’ continues the Scotland manager. ‘He is obviously more comfortable on the left but he has good competition to get into the national team. ‘There is good competition on the right too but that is something I could possibly look at. ‘This is a chance for me to get some minutes into Nathan’s legs because he is not getting enough game time at Everton.
‘If I can do that and maybe utilise Aaron, too, that would
Aaron is a player I don’t know very well. This gives me a chance to see him up close
be good.’ Should Hickey come in and prove a versatile squad option, he will be continuing a tradition that has moved through the days of Danny McGrain and Sandy Jardine to Maurice Malpas and, most recently, Steven Whittaker and Tierney. A former full-back himself, Clarke played on both flanks during a career that saw him start at St Mirren and knows what it’s like to play on either side of a defence.
‘I started at left-back and found it quite easy to play there,’ he says. ‘Kieran played right-back fine, so it’s just a mindset.
‘Aaron does it quite well and he would claim to be two-footed, which I probably claimed, too. I could kick the ball with my left foot, I didn’t think I had to run around it and use my right foot.
‘If you’re comfortable with both feet, it’s definitely something you can do.
‘I saw Aaron play on the right for Hearts and I’ve seen a couple of games where he’s played on the right for Bologna and did okay.’
By all accounts a shy and reserved personality, Hickey may benefit above all from the opportunity to join and mix in new company over the next few days.
The process of integrating to a new group — and one full of energy and confidence — seems to have presented its challenges for Brown when he received his first call-up for the World Cup qualifiers against Moldova and Denmark in November.
Eligible through his Glasgow-born mother, the Stoke City forward — a scorer in a 2-0 win over Millwall yesterday — was nevertheless an enthusiastic conscript and Clarke feels he can offer something fresh.
‘Jacob shows a goalscorers’ instinct and he is in double figures in the English Championship this year which is good,’ adds Clarke. ‘He was a little bit nervous coming into his first camp, so I’m looking forward to getting another look at him.
‘Hopefully this time he will come in nice and calm and show us what he can do.’
Brown debuted as a substitute in Chisinau and will likely get the chance to build on those eight minutes of action over the next two games.
Che Adams’ goal against Denmark was in keeping with his fine form for Southampton this season but, with Lyndon Dykes struggling for fitness at QPR, there may be
another striking slot up for grabs. Fast and with a preference for ghosting off defenders, Brown plays the position differently to the other forwards available.
‘I went to Peterborough to watch Jacob last week and he scored a wonderful goal,’ says Clarke. ‘It wasn’t a great game, it was a fiery strong pitch, a windy day with the ball bobbling all over the place.
‘Everybody needed five touches to get the ball under control but that goal itself had a super pass from Joe
Allen, Jacob controlled it inside the box, got it out of his feet and he finished like that.
‘He also missed a really good chance in the second half. I will show him the video of that one!
‘Lyndon is a little short of match practice and I spoke to (QPR boss) Mark Warburton about the situation. It’s a tough one because Lyndon obviously wants to come away with us. ‘We’ll be guided by QPR on his availability. Even if Lyndon was available for the second game, that would be helpful for us and maybe even helpful for QPR.
‘Hopefully, it’s a situation that resolves itself. If not I’ll need to try and find another striker.’