Kris Boyd reveals his predicted Scotland team to take on Hungary

LAWRENCE SHANKLAND could be Scotland’s hero against Hungary.

But I’ll still be astonished if Che Adams doesn’t start in Stuttgart on Sunday night.

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There are plenty of Scotland fans out there shouting for the Hearts striker to be picked for the must-win game.

Sorry, but I just don’t see him coming in from the start.

There’s no doubt he can play a big role — if we need a goal in the second half, he’s the ideal man to come off the bench.

But Adams has done nothing to warrant losing his place in Steve Clarke’s side.

In fact, there’s a strong case to be made that he was Scotland’s man-of-the-match against Switzerland.

Don’t underestimate the job Adams did against a top-class defence. The quality of the balls up to him were good, and that allowed him to get his body in front of them and bring it in.

But Adams took the bumps to the back, won fouls, showed good pace and importantly, he got us up the pitch.

He was excellent and that type of striking performance will be very much needed against Hungary too.

I’m not saying Shankland couldn’t do it, but I just feel Adams is the better option from the start.

The Hearts striker has had the best season of his career, and I understand all the calls for him to play.

People look at the must-win nature of Sunday’s game and think, ‘Get the goalscorer in’.

Remember, I’ve been in Shankland’s shoes for the national team during my own career. You come off the back of a prolific spell at club level and think, ‘I should be starting’.

It’s not until you get older and wiser that you understand why you were left out of certain games.

Shankland can still be the man to fire Scotland to the last-16 — but Adams should start.

Hungary are no mugs. They never lost a game in qualifying. This isn’t a game where we’ll create a dozen chances.

If that was the case, then I would be all for getting Shankland in, because he’s the squad’s most natural finisher.

Clarke will need more, though. He’ll need Adams to play the same way he did against the Swiss.

So much of Scotland’s good pressing was down to the Southampton striker.

He was backed up by the likes of Scott McTominay and John McGinn, but Adams set the tone.

The Scotland hitman was clever. It wasn’t about him running around daft, it was about getting into good areas.

McTominay and McGinn got plenty of plaudits for nullifying Granit Xhaka, but so much of that was down to Adams’ starting position when the Swiss had the ball.

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Clarke will need him to be a similar focal point against Hungary — with Shankland there as back—up.

The Scotland boss will be finalising his team in the next 24 hours, but I would expect minimal change.

Kieran Tierney has been ruled out of the tournament, and I really feel for the Arsenal defender.

It’s another major injury blow for Scotland and there are now calls for Clarke to alter his system. He first started playing a back three to accommodate Tierney and Andy Robertson in the same team.

With one of them unavailable, a back four will maybe come into Clarke’s thinking.

But I can’t see the Scotland boss doing that from the start against Hungary.

Clarke has always been a flexible coach and don’t be too surprised to see a 4-3-3 or 4-4-2 at some point on the night.

I just don’t see him ripping up his normal gameplan due to Tierney’s injury.

For me, Scott McKenna will come in on the left side of the back three, and that will be the only change.

Shankland, Ryan Christie, James Forrest and others should be ready to play their part in the second half.

But the back three has worked for Scotland over the years and I’d be surprised if Clarke changed things now.

As for this growing talk of leaving McGinn out? There’s NO CHANCE of that happening.

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In Scotland, we can have this bad habit of wanting change all the time.

Players who have been left out suddenly become better in the eyes of the fans, the longer they spend on the bench.

But there’s a reason why there are regulars who start every game, while others tend to be subs.

If McGinn was left out against Hungary, people would start to realise what he brings to this Scotland side.

OK, the Aston Villa midfielder hasn’t carried his usual goal threat in the first two games, but he’s one of Clarke’s go-to guys.

McGinn will be in his usual spot in Stuttgart, and let’s all focus on the positives.

We go into the final group match with a fighting chance to get to the knockouts for the first time in Scotland’s history.

If you’d said before this tournament started that we would need a win against Hungary to qualify, we would all have taken it.

The squad got criticism after Germany and won plenty of praise after Switzerland — rightly, in both cases.

History now awaits Clarke and his players.

Let’s be positive, let’s go win the game and see where it takes us.

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