Scotland manager Steve Clarke has explained how he convinced Arsenal's Kieran Tierney to convert from a left-back to a centre-back for the benefit of his country.
Tierney almost exclusively plays in the left side of the defence for his club but reinvented himself for the sake of the Tartan Army.
The defender has 29 international caps to his name and it's likely he wouldn't have as many if it weren't for his versatility.
What's been said?
Clarke said on the High Performance Podcast: âBetween November and March I was thinking about what we were good at. Defensively we werenât great and needed a change.
"I phoned my coaches and said âwe canât go with a back four, I want to go with a back threeâ. I had never coached a back three in my life so it was a challenge for me and my coaches.
âThe personnel we had â 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 didnât think the centre-back options were great, so letâs pick three and see if that makes it better!
âMy 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.
âI 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."
Clarke added: "A myth had built up around Kieran that he didnât want to come and play with the national team, which wasnât correct.
"But I think he always felt that he was a better left-back than Andy Robertson. Every player thinks theyâre better than the immediate competition and if you compare them, there isnât a cigarette paper between them.
âI had to persuade Kieran that he was better than Andy and thatâs why I trusted him to play left centre-back and not Andy. Now, thatâs probably not strictly true but thatâs how I had to sell it to Kieran.
"Now weâve got the best overlapping centre-back in world football. It works.
âSelling that position to Kieran was important and it was a really good conversation, he asked a lot of really good questions.
"I told him I loved him and I wanted him to play there."
Tierney's season at Arsenal
Tierney's made 20 appearances across all competitions for the Gunners, netting a single effort while grabbing three assists.
The Scotsman's ankle injury back in November saw him temporarily miss matches before having to sit on the bench until early December.
Once Tierney proved his fitness again, he hasn't missed a fixture since, regaining Mikel Arteta's confidence in him.