Much has been made of the way that Kieran Tierney and Ryan Jack adapted to being played out of position for Scotland on Thursday evening, but they weren’t the only ones.
West Brom attacker Matt Phillips was also shifted from his usual station by Malky Mackay, and he says that he enjoyed his unexpected run-out up front in the defeat to The Netherlands.
So much so, in fact, that he would happily play there again for the national side in the future. After so long on the periphery of the national set-up, he was delighted to be quite literally front and centre for a change.
Phillips was moved from his normal furrow on the left flank to spearhead the Scots’ attack, and while he felt he could have done better with some of the opportunities that came his way, he is more than happy to muck in for the cause wherever he is asked to play.
“I thoroughly enjoyed playing that role,” said Phillips. “It was good.
“The boys put some good balls through for me. Obviously, there are times when I can do better with my back to goal, but I enjoyed the experience.
“I don’t know what will happen with it in the future. As I’ve said before, I’m just delighted to be in reckoning and I was delighted to start.
“I feel I had two opportunities myself – ones that I would take on another day. But I will take the positives that I got myself into the right positions.
“A couple of years ago, I might have got my head down about it and let it bother me. But I look upon it as a positive that I played a different role and managed to get a couple of opportunities.”
Phillips was impressed by the quality of the service he received from the players behind him, particularly from debutants Ryan Christie and Callum McGregor.
“We have the players to create for whoever is playing up front,” he said. “I think you could see that against Holland when we played some really good stuff.
“Ryan and Callum were both brilliant on their debuts. As a team, we stuck to the gameplan and I think we did well. Ryan definitely impressed me. He was brilliant. I think you could say that about a lot of the players because we were unlucky to lose the game.
“We had a good four or five days together and everyone played their part. Even the boys who didn’t get on the park against Holland were very positive about the place. We were all right at it.
“I think we can definitely take optimism for the future. There were a lot of new faces involved in the game. And it was the same towards the end of the last World Cup campaign.
“There is definitely a lot of competition for those roles in behind the striker and that is what you want.
“There is an opportunity to build for the next qualifying campaign and everyone will be fighting to get a shirt.
“The lads who have come into the squad have been great and everyone wants to stay involved for the next friendlies and the next campaign.
“Craig Gordon was saying he didn’t have a shot to save against Holland. And we had a few opportunities.
“Overall I think we gave a good account of ourselves and we’ll take positives from it.”
Phillips doesn’t think that the turmoil in the Scotland dugout will affect the players, with each member of the squad committed to giving everything for the jersey regardless of who is standing on the touchline.
“It’s not for us as players to say,” he said. “Whoever is the manager, they will get 100 per cent from everyone in the dressing room.”
Playing out of his normal position for Scotland is one thing, but Phillips is struggling to force his way into any position for his club at the moment. That is a problem that has plagued Scotland in the past, as squad members struggle for game time.
He is hoping that he can go back to West Brom refreshed after the break and set about the task of forcing his way back into manager Tony Pulis’s plans.
He said: “We will go back into things with West Brom on Monday and begin preparations for two tough games as we have Chelsea and Tottenham coming up.
“On a personal level, obviously no-one likes to be left out but the manager is playing a different way. I respect his decision and when called upon I will be ready.”
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