Shanks can be the man when Scots head for Germany
Kenny Miller insists Lawrence Shankland has enhanced his chances of being Scotland’s main striker for Euro 2024.
The Hearts captain was handed a rare start in Friday’s 4-0 friendly defeat to the Netherlands and competed well up against Liverpool centreback Virgil van Dijk.
T h e only disappointment for Shankland was the chance he missed at 1-0 when he saw an effort clip the top of the bar after going clean through.
But former Scotland marksman Miller saw enough to think that the Tynecastle man, who has scored 27 clubs goals this season, can play a huge part in Germany
Miller said: “I thought he was excellent. His link-up play has been excellent over the course of the season and has developed over the last five, six years where he is a very good all-round striker.
“I thought it was a really good performance and it would have been rounded off with that goal with the chance he got in the second half.
“I think he’s added something, I don’t think we’ve lost anything in the absence of Lyndon Dykes or Che Adams.
“It’s only enhanced his chances, that is top-level opposition. He was playing against arguably the best centreback in the world and I think he served the team really well, he got them up the pitch, linked really well and got a couple of chances.”
Scotland went toe-totoe with the Dutch for long spells before losing three late goals following a raft of changes from the bench.
And former Rangers and Celtic striker Miller insists there were encouraging signs from the performance despite the result.
He added: “We’ve gone away to a pot one team, a very, very strong team and created so many chances and one another night we score two or three goals.
“Shankland’s chance was the one, we see him scoring them every single week but his performance was good.
“We saw so many opportunities in the second half, five or six.
“I thought we played very well in the first half, Scotland had more possession and more shots.
“There are a lot of positives to take but you need to be careful waxing lyrical about the performance when you’ve been beaten 4-0.”