Steve Clarke admits the time was right to hand Lawrence Shankland a chance against top quality opposition.
Che Adams and Lyndon Dykes have been the Scotland manager’s favoured two strikers for most of his reign with Shankland battling the likes of Kevin Nisbet and Jacob Brown to be third choice. But the Hearts man made the squad this time after his sensational run of form and has been handed a start against the Netherlands tonight.
This is the first of two friendlies during this international break and while there will be further warm-up matches ahead of Euro 2024, it’s a chance to try some things. And with the manager fully aware of what Adams and Dykes can do for him, he wanted to give Shankland the chance to prove himself.
“I know what they can do against good opposition, so I’d like to have a look at Lawrence and see what he can do against good opposition.”
Andy Robertson and Kieran Tierney are back in the side and Clarke thinks their experience could be crucial.
He added: “Yeah I think so. We didn’t have Andy and Kieran for the last couple of games in the qualifying and you obviously miss players of that quality so it is great to have them back.”
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