Simon Donnelly has say on Tierney or Robertson for Scotland captain

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Former Celtic and Scotland star Simon Donnelly has previous experience working alongside Andrew Robertson from their time at Dundee United.

A rather interesting debate has started to develop north of the border since Scott Brown’s second retirement from international football, with no standout candidate for the Scotland captaincy.

Many fans and pundits have been calling for left-backs Kieran Tierney from Celtic and Andrew Robertson from Liverpool to be named as the country’s new skipper but, at 20 and 24 respectively, the pair have minimal experience as captains which is a concern for some individuals.

Tierney has captained Scotland once before in a recent friendly against the Netherlands, where he did a fine job filling in, in his unnatural position of centre-half, while the youngster has also captained Celtic on a number of occasions. Despite this, however, it is still not the level of experience sought after for an international captain by any means.

Robertson has had little to no experience captaining at the highest level but, at 24, is slightly more experienced in terms of his career and his form for Liverpool cannot be disputed.

Former Celtic and Scotland star Simon Donnelly told PLZ Soccer on 20 March 2018 that he believes either would be a great choice, suggesting that both full-backs would be captains who led by example.

“[Robertson would be] a great choice [for the captaincy] as far as I’m concerned,” Donnelly explained.

“I think him and Kieran Tierney both lead by example, good young Scottish players that have kicked on with their careers.

“[Robertson is] a permanent fixture in an exciting attacking Liverpool team playing with top players. I think he’s got the experience to go and lead the national team.”

Irrespective of who gets picked, one thing is for sure and that is both Robertson and Teirney will be leading by example in a squad heavily peppered with youngsters. As the two individuals arguably performing at the highest level for their clubs, it should be their natural duty to do so.

With both youngsters playing in the same position, there may be times down the line when they do not both feature in the team, such is the case now with Tierney missing the break through injury.

Nevertheless, McLeish has two wonderful options for a new captain in the Celtic and Liverpool men.