FIVE wins from five matches in qualifying for Euro 2024, nine games unbeaten in total and a feel-good factor higher than perhaps at any point this century.
Even when we qualified for Euro 2020 the squad wasn’t this confident – and that’s evidenced by the players who can’t even get a regular game in Steve Clarke‘s team.
Such strength in depth was the hallmark of Scotland teams in the halcyon days of the seventies and eighties when we went on a run of qualifying for five World Cups in a row.
Back then, the likes of Liverpool legend Alan Hansen found it difficult to dislodge the solid defensive pairing of Alex McLeish and Willie Miller, forged in Aberdeen under Sir Alex Ferguson.
On the other foot, fans on both sides of the Old Firm saw heroes miss out on regular starts to players playing in the top flight in England.
Many of Celtic‘s Lisbon Lions received fewer caps than many would expect, with even key players such as Billy McNeill (29 caps) and Jimmy Johnstone (23) missing out back in the times when only one substitute was allowed.
Davie Cooper was, on his day, arguably one of the most gifted wide men in all of Europe yet he only made 22 appearances for Scotland, with the likes of Archie Gemmill, John Robertson and Gordon Strachan all winning more caps for their country than the Rangers icon.
And of course, long before the debate over Andy Robertson vs Kieran Tierney, we had Danny McGrain vs Sandy Jardine. Luckily now, as Scotland did back in those days, we’ve found a way for them both to play together.
With this in mind, ahead of Scotland’s clash against England on Tuesday we’ve compiled a team made up of those who DIDN’T start (or even feature) against Cyprus in Friday’s 3-0 win.
After all, Tuesday’s game may well be a glamour anniversary match to celebrate 150 years of international football but at the end of the day, it’s a friendly…
So we could easily just field a team of back ups – who cares, even if it is against the Auld Enemy, right?
Goalkeeper
In truth, we’ve been pretty spoiled in this position ever since Craig Gordon blessed the national side with his presence to fill the voids left by Jim Leighton and Andy Goram.
It will be interesting to see if he forces his way back into the national team set-up once he’s fully recovered from the horror leg break he suffered but right now, his replacement at Hearts, Zander Clark, is one of two decent backup options Clarke has behind Angus Gunn.
We will give the nod to Motherwell shot-stopper Liam Kelly over Clark, given he’s been involved in squads for longer.
Central defence
It wasn’t long ago we were experimenting with Scott McTominay as one of the three men at the back.
And for a long time, centre-back was the weak spot for Scotland.
Now we have morphed McTominay into a goal scoring midfielder extraordinaire, while Jack Hendry and Ryan Porteous are proving to be more than capable at international level.
Scott McKenna has played all but 33 minutes of Premier League action for Nottingham Forest this year, while John Souttar seems to be growing into a Rangers jersey. Grant Hanley meanwhile is just two appearances away from having his name on the Scotland Roll of Honour (he has 48 caps).
That’s before we even discuss Leeds United skipper Liam Cooper, plus fellow English Championship stars Ross McCrorie and Dominic Hyam.
Right wing-back
But for injury, Nathan Patterson may have been firmly entrenched as Scotland’s no1 option in this area.
But his fitness issues at Everton opened the door for Aaron Hickey and the Brentford star has grabbed it with both hands.
He was excellent against Cyprus and seems to improve with every game in dark blue.
Celtic’s Anthony Ralston and Liverpool starlet Calvin Ramsay are further options (we are MASSIVE, aren’t we?)
Left wing-back
This one is a toss-up between a Clarke favourite and another of the nation’s up-and-coming talents.
In the end here we’ve gone for Celtic full-back Greg Taylor, who Clarke knows from his time as Kilmarnock boss.
Taylor has ten caps but wasn’t included in the squad for the current round of matches.
Josh Doig is featuring regularly for Hellas Verona in Serie A and the former Hibs starlet is versatile enough to play centre-back too, a la Tierney, so we’ll have him as a first sub in our backup XI.
Central midfield
This is an area Scotland has been strong in for a while, with Barry Ferguson, Darren Fletcher and Scott Brown all having been important players in recent years.
Now it’s manned by Callum McGregor, Billy Gilmour and John McGinn on most occasions.
Ryan Jack was on the bench in Cyprus and is often used by Clarke when he goes for a more defensive setup.
He was joined on the bench by Kenny McLean, scorer of that crucial winner over in Norway, while Lewis Ferguson is yet to properly break into the national side despite impressing so much for Bologna in Serie A that Italian giants Juventus were at one point linked with him.
Stuart Armstrong has 43 caps to his name but increasingly nowadays he is becoming more of a first reserve off the bench for Clarke.
Forwards
Like central defence, for a long time we had limited choice in the final third of the pitch – particularly in the striker department.
While there are no superstars within our attacking ranks, Che Adams is a proven Premier League goal scorer and his chief backup, Lyndon Dykes, foerver gives his all in a Scotland shirt and can be a mightily effective target man, with nine goals in 31 caps.
Ryan Christie can play in any of the three positions behind the main striker and has featured in all five of Bournemouth‘s matches this season across all competitions, but he had to make do with a late cameo against Cyprus.
With Ferguson pushing forward in our backup midfield we’ll go with another out-and-out striker up top to partner Dykes. Also on the bench on Friday were two of the top marksmen in the Scottish Premiership of recent years in Hearts talisman Lawrence Shankland and ex-Hibs ace Kevin Nisbet, now at Millwall. We’ll take the latter given he has ten caps to Shankland’s five so far, and list Shankland on among our subs here.
Luton Town‘s new signing Jacob Brown didn’t even make this squad, neither did 26-times capped Ryan Fraser while ex-Sunderland goal machine Ross Stewart, now at Southampton and with two international caps to his name, is recovering from injury and wasn’t picked by Clarke.
Scotland ‘backup’ XI (3-5-2): Liam Kelly; Scott McKenna, John Souttar, Grant Hanley; Greg Taylor, Kenny McLean, Ryan Jack, Lewis Ferguson, Nathan Patterson; Kevin Nisbet, Lyndon Dykes
Subs: Josh Doig, Stuart Armstrong, Lawrence Shankland.
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