Oliver Burke has told Scotland manager Alex McLeish that he is willing and able to lead the line as Scotland prepare to open their European Championship qualifying campaign.
The striker, on loan at Celtic from West Brom until the end of the season, has been included in the national side for the first time since a friendly against Canada in 2017.
Fresh from a successful Nations League campaign, Scotland open their qualification campaign next week with games against Kazakhstan and San Marino and Burke has told McLeish that he can answer the striking dilemma.
With Steven Naismith injured and Leigh Griffiths still out of football as he deals with personal issues and Steven Fletcher not in the squad, it looks as though Burke will be asked to take up the forward berth.
READ MORE: Kieran Tierney: I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Mr Celtic John Kennedy
And Burke is confident he can replicate a role that has yielded four goals since his arrival at Celtic in the January transfer window.
“I’m more than happy to play there especially now that I’ve been doing that tole here at Celtic,” said Burke. “I’m more comfortable to do it with the national team because that’s a role I’m now used to.
“I’ll do my very best in training and show what I can do and hopefully that gives me the opportunity. I’m happy to be there and back in the fold and enjoy the whole experience.
“I’m really enjoying the striker role. I’m still learning a lot as it’s all very new to me.
“I think it’s been really successful here. I like that position a lot but I think it’s also important to have the flexibility to play in different positions. If something happens in a game you can swap and change. I think it’s gone really well playing as a striker and hopefully I can keep learning the trade in that position and continue.”
Departed Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers spoke of Burke’s natural inclination to drift towards the channels rather than make a beeline for the box, and the 21-year-old has admitted that retuning his own instincts has been something he has had to work on.
“When you are a winger that’s why you head for the corner flag - hit the byeline and cross it in.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here