Speaking on Sky Sports, former Scotland international Kris Boyd has criticised Kieran Tierney for his role in Denmark’s opening goal on Wednesday.
Steve Clarke fielded a bizarre lineup with Andy Robertson starting at right wing-back and Tierney on the opposite side, even though the former Celtic skipper has almost always played in central defence for Scotland.
That change ruined Scotland’s balance and Denmark went 2-0 up after just 15 minutes. Daniel Wass opened the scoring for them and a big share of the blame lies on Tierney, who failed to stop the Dane before he gave his side the lead.
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Sky Sports pundit: Lazy defending from Kieran Tierney
Boyd said on Sky Sports (September 1, 08:45 pm): “It’s obviously an area that Denmark have looked at. Even if it was Kieran Tierney or Andy Robertson there. It’s an area that they have seen as a weakness and you have to say they have exploited it really, really well.
“I think it’s lazy defending from Kieran Tierney, and it’s not like him because he is usually a good defender. But maybe because he is in the three and he is tucked in a bit more.
“When you see the goal, he [Tierney] actually has a look at him [Wass] but I am not sure why he goes in the pitch, he runs inside and it’s a fantastic finish.”
The Insider’s View:
Tierney stepped in-field for a tiny moment and that allowed Wass to get ahead of him. The Arsenal man then appears to misjudge the flight of the ball, which makes the Dane’s job a lot easier than it should’ve been.
Could Tierney have done better for that goal? Yes and he’ll be the first one to admit that! Was that ‘lazy defending’ as Boyd has branded it? Not at all! It was just a momentary lapse in concentration that cost him and Scotland dearly.
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Tierney’s Scotland face Moldova next followed by a game against Austria next week. As Arsenal fans, we don’t really care about his performance there. All we want is for him to come back without any injury issues for our game against Norwich after the break.
