We should be aiming for three victories
There weren’t any real surprises in Steve Clarke’s squad for the three Nations League ties coming up over the next 10 days.
Some might have raised an eyebrow at Ryan Fraser’s inclusion after he had opted out of games last November.
But Steve always said the door was open for him if he was playing well for Newcastle United, and he has been.
Of course, it’s a blow not to have the injured Andy Robertson available. But it’s good to have Kieran Tierney back playing for Arsenal.
He is a huge player for his country, and there’s no doubt we missed him for the World Cup play-off tie against Ukraine back in June when he was sidelined by injury.
With Andy being out, Kieran could slot in at left-back, or he could stay as a leftsided central defender.
I’ll trust Steve’s judgement on that. Greg Taylor is an option to fill the No. 3 jersey as he has been performing very well for Celtic.
On the opposite flank, we can have Aaron Hickey, who has slotted in nicely at Brentford, or Nathan Patterson, who is really looking the part at Everton following his move from Rangers.
There was a bit of scepticism as to how Nathan would do defensively in the English Premier League, but he has handled it all very well.
He looks very comfortable, and is now an important part of Frank Lampard’s plans.
At Manchester United, Scott Mctominay is flourishing under Erik ten Hag.
It goes without saying that the more players we have operating at the highest level, the better.
We now just need to try to win games. We start at home to Ukraine on Wednesday, and it’s vital to get three points.
That would set us up for the Republic of Ireland at Hampden on Saturday, before we travel to Poland for the tie against Ukraine.
Getting nine points will be an extremely tall order, but we should be aiming to at least come through the fixtures unbeaten.
Steve and the players will be itching to get back into action.
Ideally, these games would also have been preparation for the World Cup Finals in November, but it wasn’t to be.
However, we must put all of our focus into getting to Euro 2024. Good results in the coming days will help us get there.