Doug Ward

Thu 12 November 2020 15:40, UK

Ignore Michael Stewart – Rangers star Ryan Jack has to start for Scotland on Thursday in their huge Euro 2021 play-off showdown with Serbia.

Scotland know that they must win in Belgrade to secure a spot at the European Championships and qualify for a major international tournament for the first time since playing in the 1998 World Cup in France.

BBC Sportscene pundit Stewart has suggested Stuart Armstrong should be starting over Jack, 28, for Scotland’s make-or-break game in Serbia – but we could not disagree more as the ex-Aberdeen midfielder could be vital to victory.

Steve Clarke has regularly rotated his midfield in recent international fixtures because Scotland’s midfield is arguably the strongest area of the squad.

Jack, Callum McGregor, Armstrong and John McGinn are all top players but one of them is more than likely going to miss out against Serbia.

Whoever it is, it shouldn’t be Jack.

Out of those four players, he is the best defensively.

Stats by WyScout show that the Rangers midfielder has averaged 5.01 interceptions and 9.69 recoveries per 90 minutes of football in all competitions this season while also winning 66.7 per cent of his defensive duels and completing 90 per cent of passes.

Serbia are not going to be pushovers on Thursday night and they have some very good players in Dusan Tadic, Sergej Milinkovic-Savic and Aleksandar Mitrovic.

McGregor, Armstrong and McGinn may be able to cause problems when Scotland are on the ball, but what about when they are off it?

Jack is a lot more solid off the ball but even on it, he’s someone who can shine with the £20,000-a-week [FI] Gers ace ranking second in the Scottish Premiership for the number of passes completed this term [958] with McGregor in third [872].

Jack simply has to start in Belgrade.

If Clarke doesn’t then we can expect to see Serbia dominating possession, dominating the game and potentially winning.

In other Rangers news, a broadcaster has hit back at a Rangers conspiracy theorist.