Scotland manager Steve Clarke says he convinced Kieran Tierney to convert from left-back to centre-back for the benefit of his national team.

The Arsenal fullback plays centrally for Scotland due to the presence of Liverpool counterpart Andy Robertson, who is the Tartan Army's captain.

Clarke said on the High Performance Podcast: "Between November and March I was thinking about what we were good at. Defensively we weren't great and needed a change.

"I phoned my coaches and said 'we can't go with a back four, I want to go with a back three'. I had never coached a back three in my life so it was a challenge for me and my coaches.

"The personnel we had – we had two of the best left-backs in world football, Tierney and Robertson, and had to figure out how to get them in the team.

"At that moment I didn't think the centre-back options were great, so let's pick three and see if that makes it better!

"My idea was that Tierney could play centre-back and I had this mad idea that Scott McTominay could play as one of the others.

"I had good midfield players and I wanted to get three or four into the team but had nothing great up front really.

"I had a really good conversation with Tierney to tell him he was going to be the best left-sided centre-back that Scotland had ever had."