Scotland World Cup squad analysis: Midfielders

With the sky-high stakes for Steve Clarke, he has announced his Scotland World Cup squad. As we approach this momentous event in the history of Scottish sport, we follow up our analysis of the defenders in his squad, by next looking at midfielders. This is part 3 of our series analysing the Scotland World Cup squad.

Ryan Christie

Age	31
Full Scotland caps	66
Date of latest cap	March 2026 (v Côte d’Ivoire)
Club	Bournemouth
Club division	English 1st
Club division Opta rating	91.9 (1st globally)

Christie lost his place as a Bournemouth 1st team regular with a 4 month groin injury from April to August 2025. His attempt to regain that first team regular status was hampered by a knee injury keeping him out for 7 weeks, shortly after he played for Scotland in November’s momentous win versus Denmark.

His club season ended early on 9 May at Fulham due to a red card induced suspension. In the season now ending in England, he played only 1,060 mins in 27 Bournemouth games; 39 mins per game that he played.

Christie being a squad player at Bournemouth, may mean he is yet another Scots player who goes to the World Cup feeling fresh.

Findlay Curtis

Age	19
Full Scotland caps	1
Date of latest cap	March 2026 (v Japan)
Club	Rangers
Club division	Scots 1st
Club division Opta rating	75.9 (39th globally)

Who says Steve Clarke never gives new players a chance? Curtis benefited enormously from his January loan to Kilmarnock in the season just ended. Indeed, Curtis was instrumental in keeping Killie in the Scots top tier; 5 goals & 1 assist in his 14 Killie games. Clarke debuted 19-year-old Curtis off the bench in the 81st minute of the March friendly international v Japan.

Curtis is likely to play 2nd fiddle as a winger if danger man, Ben Gannon-Doak, can stay injury free for the finals. Given Ben’s less than okey-doaky injury record, that is a big ask of Gannon-Doak expecting he stays fit. Potentially though, either of those 2 Scots wide men could have a big part to play, especially in the 3rd game v Brazil.

Brazil

Alisson Becker is a top GK, but not an infallible GK. As per Coaches Voice:

“If Alisson has one weakness, it is his command of his area. For someone so big, he is a little vulnerable at crosses and generally chooses to avoid situations where he tries to claim a ball into the area – a particular issue at set-pieces, when he can be reluctant to come for crosses, even when they are in the six-yard box, and instead chooses to stay on his line and leave his defence to defend.”

Supplement that with the opinion that for all the array of talent Brazil can muster, their weakest area is FB. That could potentially mean Alisson has to deal with crosses if Curtis & Gannon-Doak can get the better of their FBs. And not just wingers like those 2; add in the crossing threat from wide posed by attacking FBs such as a fit & fresh Andy Robertson.

Then also throw in the aerial threat posed by Ross Stewart. Stewart potentially faces Brazil CB Gabriel, who he played against when eliminating Arsenal in the FA Cup quarter finals in April.

Ben Gannon-Doak

Age	20
Full Scotland caps	12
Date of latest cap	November 2025 (v Denmark)
Club	Bournemouth
Club division	English 1st tier
Club division Opta rating	91.9 (1st globally)

The youngster in his 12 caps, has often been the man to unlock defences. Quick, tricky & direct, he is a FB’s nightmare. As per the analysis in the section above re Finlay Curtis, Gannon-Doak could be a vital part of the Scotland machine to take something from the Brazil game. And against Scotland’s other opponents.

Gannon-Doak’s downside is his fragility against injury. His last appearance is a case example. He was eating Patrick Dorgu for breakfast in the 17 mins he played in the November World Cup qualifier v Denmark. When Gannon-Doak went off injured, Scotland’s on pitch threat evaporated, allowing Denmark to easily control the game. That then changed when Rasmus Kristensen was sent off in 61 mins, allowing Scotland back into the game playing against 10 men.

Gannon-Doak only returned from that injury in mid March. Since then he has played only 22 mins in his 3 Bournemouth appearances. Scotland have plenty of players in the squad who will be fresh at the World Cup, from not having been over-used at club level this season. Gannon-Doak’s under-use in contrast, potentially means he lacks match sharpness.

Lewis Ferguson

Age	26
Scotland full caps	23
Date of latest cap	March 2026 (v Côte d’Ivoire)
Club	Bologna
Club division	Italian 1st tier
Club division Opta rating	86.2 (4th globally)

An underwhelming season coming to end for Ferguson, by his lofty standards of his 2 previous Bologna seasons. 2023-24 Premio Bulgarelli awardee as the best player playing in Italy playing at number 8 position. 2024-25, Coppa Italia winning captain. This season just ended, he has been in and out of the team. He has played only 1,506 mins, in his 26 Serie A games; 57 mins per Serie A appearance. Considering he was unused from the bench in 9 games. That is only 43 mins per game in which he made the matchday squad.

18 appearances though in other competitions including 14 in the Europa League in which he was a mainstay, give him a tally of 2,835 mins with 1 Serie A game remaining. His uncle, ex-Rangers Barry Ferguson, has indicated Lewis is unhappy with his selective game time, & that he may leave Bologna in the summer. That though is post World Cup. Ferguson missed Euro 2024 with a cruciate injury. Currently, Ferguson is fit.

While not a midfield eye-catcher like the goal scoring John McGinn and Scott McTominay, Ferguson is an important player for Scotland. Full of running, he does unselfish work for the team such as picking up opposition midfield runners. Lewis Ferguson is another in the Scotland World Cup Squad who could benefit at the finals from being under-used in his soon to end club season.

Billy Gilmour

Age	24
Full Scotland caps	45
Date of latest cap	March 2026 (v Côte d’Ivoire)
Club	Napoli
Club Division	Italian 1st tier
Club Division Opta rating	86.2 (4th globally)

Aged 24, 45 caps. Kenny Dalglish, Andy Robertson, Jim Leighton, John McGinn, your positions in the list of Scotland caps is under threat. Similar to Ferguson, Gilmour’s current season in Italy has been underwhelming in comparison to the season before when Gilmour was a Serie A title winner. This season Gilmour has only 16 Serie A & 3 Champions League appearances, totalling 834 mins of 1st team club football.

Gilmour returned in mid-February from a 3 months injury layoff. He generally at Napoli though is understudy to the very capable 31-year-old Slovak, Stanislav Lobotka. Gilmour is yet another in a continuing theme in this Scotland World Cup squad; his time out of the 1st team in the domestic season, means he should at least be fresh for the World Cup. Gilmour’s composed, intelligent play-linking is a huge asset.

John McGinn

Age	31
Full Scotland caps	85
Date of latest cap	March 2026 (v Côte d’Ivoire)
Club	Aston Villa
Club division	English 1st tier
Club division Opta rating	91.9 (1st globally)

The Aston Villa captain in mid-March came back from a 2 month knee injury. Since then he is in arguably the best form of his life. In the last 7 games, he has 3 goals and 3 assists, including a double strike in the Europa League semi-final over Nottingham Forest. In the previous round, he notched an assist versus Lewis Ferguson’s Bologna. At the weekend just past, he scored against Liverpool (in which Arne Slot unwisely played Milos Kerkez rather than Andy Robertson). For his endeavours, McGinn has this evening’s Europa League final versus Freiburg in Istanbul to look forward to.

If McGinn can carry that form into the World Cup, the effervescent, energetic midfielder is in for a great tournament at least on an individual level. Big World Cup performances from John McGinn, would cement his status as a Scotland legend. McGinn though will tell you, it has to always be for the team.

85 times capped McGinn has his eye on the cap tallies of Jim Leighton (91), Robertson (92 & counting) & Kenny Dalglish (102). After the 2 warm up and minimum 3 group games, McGinn is prospectively on 90 caps by the end of June.

Kenny McLean

Age	34
Full Scotland caps	56
Date of latest cap	March 2026 (v Côte d’Ivoire)
Club	Norwich City
Club division	English 2nd tier
Club division Opta rating	81.4 (9th globally)

56 caps to date is a fine testament to McLean’s abilities, in which competition for midfield places has only been matched by the competition for the LB spot. The Norwich City captain completed the season just ended with a Flashscore rating of 7.3 for his 42 performances in England’s 2nd tier. That is his 3rd season in a row with a rating in that division of at least 7.0. He also picked up his 2nd Norwich Player of the Season award in 3 years. He is profiled in more detail in this article.

Scott McTominay

Age	29
Full Scotland caps	69
Date of latest cap	March 2026 (v Côte d’Ivoire)
Current club	Napoli
Club division	Italian 1st
Club division Opt ranking	86.2 (4th globally)

Kate Scott: What would feel like a successful World Cup for Scotland?

Scott McTominay: Winning it.

Similar to Gilmour, this year has been a step down for McTominay at Napoli, after winning Serie A the season before. Who is accountable for that? Whoever in the Napoli hierarchy decided to sign the once great, injury prone has been that is Kevin de Bruyne, to replace McTominay as the attacking fulcrum of the team.

McTominay is another who is a nightmare to play against. Unlike though being shuffled wide to accommodate de Bruyne, McTominay does his stuff through the centre. A 6 foot 4 hulking brute, ripped like Anthony Joshua, menacing in the air, owner of a great engine, & owner of a composed & powerful shot. And athleticism that lets him score goals like the one in the image above.

A big part of Steve Clarke’s Scotland tactics, is the likes of Che Adams dragging CBs out of position for surging Scots midfielders to exploit. McTominay in USA will be looking to capitalise on that & any other such opportunities that come his way. McTominay goes into competition as the best player in the Scotland World Cup Squad. He was born to lead by example.

In that same December 2025 interview with Kate Scott, McTominay stated he’d like to play for another decade. He currently has 69 caps. Another to compete with Robertson & McGinn in the contest to be Scotland’s most capped player?