Scotland assistant John Carver welcomes form of Aberdeen players

John Carver has welcomed the Aberdeen resurgence that has helped furnish a depleted Scotland squad with two buoyant new full-backs.

The Dons have won all 13 of their matches this term and, after right-back Nicky Devlin, 30, was given a first call-up last week for this month’s Nations League double-header against Croatia and Portugal, left-back Jack MacKenzie, 24, was drafted in on Tuesday following the withdrawal of Celtic’s Greg Taylor.

“I was up at Aberdeen at the weekend, and they’ve had a great start to the season, so the two full-backs deserve to be in our squad this weekend,” said Scotland assistant Carver.

“It’s a chance for them, they need to step up. They’ll find it difficult because it’s a good group of players, but it’s up to them.”

Carver was impressed by MacKenzie’s performance in Aberdeen’s thrilling 3-2 win over Hearts at Pittodrie on Sunday.

“It was interesting, because obviously we had the issue with Greg pulling out, and I was going up to Aberdeen anyway, and we’ve had a lot of good reports about him,” he said. “He’s obviously had a great start with Aberdeen, they’ve had a fantastic start, and they play with confidence.

“I just like the way Jack plays, he’s a front-foot player, he likes to get high, he gets into the final third, he delivers the ball, which is the way we want to play, so it’s a great opportunity for him.

“He came in this morning, and he’s not overawed by the players around him. He’s joined in training this morning and he’s been great. I’m looking forward to see how he can develop.”

Carver is delighted that Aberdeen’s strong form has given Scotland more reason to select players from the William Hill Premiership.

“I think it’s great, because it’s a team from Scotland, and I like that,” he said. “I think it’s important that people out there, young players who are playing in Scotland, actually realise we’re out there watching, and they might just get an opportunity.

“Because it’s not just about them going down the road (to England) and playing, or going over to Italy and playing, it’s about the local guys getting an opportunity.

“And these guys are not getting their opportunity because they’re local guys, it’s because they’re good enough to be in the group.”