Scotland manager Alex McLeish has opened up on the reasons for giving on-loan Hibs striker Marc McNulty to nod to join the national team for the upcoming European qualifiers – and insisted he was the “right man to come in.”
McNulty will join the squad for the first time after impressing since signing for Hibs on loan in January.
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The striker has scored six times in eight appearances for Hibs and could make his international debut against either San Marino or Kazakhstan.
“McNulty’s a good hold-up player. He’s different from McBurnie and Oli Burke. So that’s gave us a little bit of versatility,” McLeish said, as quoted by the Scottish Sun.
“When he played for Coventry he was banging them in. I know it’s a lower division so it’s a lower level, can he do it higher up? I was going to make a point of going and watching him at Reading two or three times but he didn’t feature very much under the coach.
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“Now he’s moved on to Hibs, he’s getting confidence playing for Hibs and having some good performances. He had a good game in the draw with Rangers and he led the line well.
“Our scouts have flagged him up for the last couple of months in terms of his appearances, and the reports have been pretty favourable.
“We felt he was the right man to come in.”
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Scotland are without Steven Fletcher for the Euro 2020 qualifiers and the on-loan Coventry man joins Oli McBurnie of Swansea, Sunderland’s Lewis Morgan and Sporting KC striker Johnny Russell as options for McLeish.
With two relatively easy away games to kick off the qualifying campaign it should give McLeish’s side a chance to get points on the board.
After failing to reach a major tournament since 1998, the possibility of playing at Hampden in a major tournament should be a massive motivation for the national team.