Ally McCoist has hailed the ‘phenomenal’ Kieran Tierney, after the Arsenal defender helped Scotland to a crucial 3-2 win over Israel in their World Cup qualifier on Saturday evening, as he told Sky Sports.
Scotland needed a stoppage-time goal to win the game, as Tierney, along side his partner in crime, Andy Robertson, were a constant threat down the left hand side.
It’s a shame for the Scots that two of their best and most important players so happen to be left-backs.
But Steve Clarke has mastered a system where Robertson plays as the left-sided wing-back, with Arsenal’s flying machine on the left of a back three.
When the duo are on the front foot and motoring forward then they are a serious problem for many opposition players.
Nonetheless, McCoist was full of praise for what he saw from Tierney last night and claimed that he was ‘excellent all night’.
“He comes across Tierney, who has been excellent all night and he just gets one on the ribs (from the opponent),” said McCoist. “It was accidental. But it can be painful. It was the left elbow right into the ribs.
“It has been the best 45 minutes I have seen from Scotland in many, many a year – Tierney was phenomenal down that left-hand side with Robertson and we deserved it.”
Nothing seems to be stopping the Tierney train, at the moment, because for both club and country he is flying high.
It could be argued that he is one of the best left-backs going across Europe, but he does need to be playing in the Champions League and challenging near the top of the Premier League table to seriously get involved in that conversation.
The £25 million man (Sky Sports) will be hoping to do that with Arsenal, who after an abject start to the new season, are now climbing up that table.
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