MALKY Mackay has put his efforts to halt the alarming decline of Scottish football briefly on hold this week to concentrate on leading the national team to victory in a friendly against the Netherlands.
Yet, the need for his work as the SFA performance director to bear fruit in the future has been driven home to him since he was appointed interim manager of the Scotland team last month.
With Leigh Griffiths being forced to pull out of the squad at the weekend due to a recurrence of a calf injury, Mackay has been left with just one specialist striker for the match at Pittodrie on Thursday evening.
The only out-and-out centre forward he has at his disposal for the meeting with the Dutch is Jason Cummings, the Nottingham Forrest player who is uncapped at international level, and he is considering playing Matt Phillips, the West Brom winger, up front as a result.
There is no shortage of quality goalkeepers or central midfielders for Mackay to choose from. But at centre back and up front? He has been struck by the lack of options available to him since taking over from Gordon Strachan on a temporary basis.
The importance of unearthing players in those key positions who are of a sufficient standard to represent Scotland ahead of the first Uefa Nations League next year and the start of the Euro 2020 qualifying campaign after that is obvious to him.
“There is a dearth of fresh blood coming through, guys who have either played at international level or we think are capable of going up to international level,” said Mackay. “That’s certainly something that, as a country, we’re going to have to look at. We have to see where the next generation is coming through.
“I could have been doing with Leigh Griffiths and Darren Fletcher. We need as many experienced players as we can get. Someone asked me the other day why Scott Brown and Darren Fletcher were in my original squad. Simply because we need our best players. Darren and Scott are of that quality. And Leigh has that quality.
“We don’t have a vast array of centre forwards to choose from. Some of the guys are getting nearer to the end of their careers, the forwards. So for the next campaign, I’m talking about it to the guys now.”
Mackay continued: “Where are our problems? Centre forward and centre back. If we think ‘where have we had problems in the last few years?’ it’s finding centre backs and centre forwards.”
“Looking back at the old academy structure it was fashionable not to be a centre back or centre forward and be something else. It got to the point that it’s a swear word to be an old fashioned centre back.
“Centre forward is slightly different. People wanted to be a No.10 didn’t they? But no one wanted to be the guy up the top running the channels. I suppose that’s because we’ve come away from playing two up top, when the one up top themselves had to be able to run beyond. There is an issue there. The ones we do have we have to try and make sure we give them the tools.”
Mackay, who has refused to rule himself out of the running for the Scotland position, is not, however, without hope.
He revealed he would have drafted three members of the Scotland Under-21 set-up into his if they had not had European qualifiers against Latvia on Friday night and then Ukraine a week today and clearly sees youngsters who can make the step up to the full national squad.
“Oliver McBurnie came on (for Swansea City) at the weekend,” he said. “He is a centre forward who has certain attributes, but needs to have so many more things in his game. But he scores goals and he has forced his way back into Paul Clements’ squad.
“Scott McKenna, the Aberdeen centre back, is another one. He has really impressed me, him and John Souttar, the Hibs defender, have been terrific in the middle for the under-21s.
“Ross McCrorie is another one. If we can get Ross playing plenty of games then you start to look at two or three youngsters coming in, and you think: ‘I like the look of those two or three’.”
Mackay has told the likes of Cummings, Ryan Jack, John McGinn and Callum McGregor immediately after meeting up with his squad at Dalmahoy outside Edinburgh on Sunday evening this game offered them an opportunity to stake a claim for a regular place in their na-tional side in the future.
“This is their audition for the Euro 2020 qualifiers,” he said. “Between this one, maybe two in March and one in June, there are four friendlies for the younger ones to kick on and become future internationals for the next couple of campaigns.
“That’s where the players are going. And that’s what I spoke to the players about last night. They’ve got to grab their chance over the next period, to show they can do it. Why not go and become someone who wins 50 caps for your country?
“There are some I’ve seen already where I believe that is going to happen. We’ve got to keep pushing as many as we can towards that path.”
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