Sheffield United forward Oli McBurnie has been given the backing of his Scotland manager, Steve Clarke.
The Blades forward drew another blank for the Scots last night, despite scoring his penalty in midweek to help Scotland to Euro 2020.
However, he has still yet to get off the mark for his country and some criticism has come his way on social media, something we have highlighted on here already as being a bit harsh.
But Clarke, speaking after the 1-0 loss in Slovakia last night, gave his full backing to the Blades star.
“Listen, the big man just has to keep believing. He just needs to keep working as hard as he did in this game and the goals will come,” Clarke said.
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“I can’t speak about criticism he’s getting on social media, but I can tell you he’s got the support of everyone in the camp. And he knows that. Listen, a goal would change things for any forward who is on a run of matches without goals.
“If he could get one sooner rather than later that would be better for him. But he’s got plenty of support from inside the camp.”
McBurnie has yet to get off the mark for United this season either, missing a couple of good chances including a golden headed effort against Fulham.
However, he has the chance to get in on the act this weekend against West Ham, a team he scored against at Bramall Lane last season.
McBurnie has to just keep going
We’d all love McBurnie to get on the scoresheet sooner rather than later and it’s nice to see Clarke chucking his weight behind the big striker.
Of course, strikers are judged on goals so McBurnie does need to start firing sooner or later. Indeed, the £20m fee we apparently paid doesn’t help with some critics.
But it will come good. Clarke has backed him, while Chris Wilder continues to support the former Swansea man. Hopefully, this weekend will be the time McBurnie gets his season underway.