Scotland were atrocious last night, losing away to Israel 2-1, despite entering the match as favourites. Andy Robertson didn’t enjoy a great game, having been made his country’s captain during the last international break a month ago.
But our left-back is being used as a wing-back for his country, with Kieran Tierney at left-sided centre-back behind him.
“Both of us are out of position,” Robertson told BBC Scotland, cited in the Daily Record.
“So it’s two positions we need to try and learn. We’ve played there before but we need to learn it in this system. Unfortunately, that will take time.
“Both of us want to play left-back and there isn’t that slot just now.”
“The gaffer has looked at it and wants to get me and KT down the left. I’ve got to start a lot higher and I don’t have a winger to play with.
“From that point of view, it is a lot harder. I won’t speak for Kieran, but I wasn’t good enough.”
We’d suggest that Robbo will make a very good wing-back, as he’s quick and loves marauding the flank, but if there’s nobody ahead of him to overlap, he maybe feels a little stunted offensively.
At Liverpool, he has Virgil van Dijk passing to him from the middle and Sadio Mane cutting in and allowing him to get to the byline.
Life as Scotland skipper hasn’t begun very smoothly, but with the new Euros qualification format, it’s almost harder for countries not to make it!
We still think Scotland will get there.
The 24-year-old is now considered amongst Europe’s elite, and it seemed an obvious choice for Alex McLeish, the Scotland manager, to give Robertson the armband; no other player in the Scotland squad plays consistently at as high a level as Robertson week in, week out.
He was named skipper at the beginning of September, wearing the armband for the first time in a friendly defeat by Belgium.
His second match was a victory – 2-0 over Albania in the Nations League – and he led Scotland out for the third occasion on Thursday night.
The clash against Israel, also in the Nations League, turned out to be a disaster.
The Scots took the lead midway through the first half, but they were pegged back by Israel – who had lost each of their previous four matches – soon after the break.
McLeish’s side then lost John Souttar to a red card, and the damage was made complete when Kieran Tierney put the ball into his own net to hand Israel all three points.
There were major criticisms for many of Scotland’s players, but Robertson took a serious blasting on social media for his performance – with some fans even saying he should be stripped of the captaincy!
You can see the best reaction below…
https://twitter.com/LUFCSATANIST/status/1050645011379834880
Shambles…. Andy Robertson Not a captain. Not even the best left sided player.
— Kev McG (@KevMcGowan10) October 11, 2018
Robertson was terrible again for Scotland tonight, never captain material too soft and terrible at defending, but the media love him because of who else plays in his position……
— Gary Winchester (@hanszargow) October 12, 2018
https://twitter.com/NH_67/status/1050482436612734978