Mixed zone with Oliver Burke

…his new mindset in training: “I’ve made a lot of changes this season. When I found myself on the bench during pre-season and at the start of the season, I told myself that I needed to find a way out of this situation. I told myself that I needed to improve and work harder. After all, the issue wasn’t with my skills, and so I had to recognise that there were things I needed to change about myself. On the pitch, I’ve been able to make changes to the defensive side of my game. That was an important area for me. I believed that I would be able to improve, tried to give it 110% every day and remained focused. That all worked out.”

…his motivation to keep working to improve: “If I think about how difficult it is to prove yourself and make it as a professional footballer, and what it takes to get to this point, then you have to question whether it would be worth throwing all that away just because of something minor. I’ve grown up and a big part of that is realising that I don’t want to be looking back on my career one day thinking that things didn’t go as planned because I wasn’t able to change and grow.”

…going through rough patches in the past: “As a young player, sometimes you need a bit more time to develop. I think that applied to me as well. Sometimes you also might be dealing with several things happening at once off the pitch as well. I think right now, I’ve got a clear mind. My personal life is going well and I’m very happy. Everything is as it should be and I’m very happy here. That makes a big difference.”

…the current hype surrounding him: “Of course I’m enjoying it. It’s a privilege, but there’s still a lot of work to be done and plenty of room for improvement. I want to get better every day. It proves that I’m doing the right things and that the hard work is paying off. I’m just giving it everything I’ve got and am trying to help the team as best as I can. My focus is squarely on football.”

…his popularity amongst the fans: “I’m not entirely sure how that came about. After arriving here, I was able to make a positive impact pretty quickly. The game in Dortmund where I scored a late winner was definitely a special one for the fans. That helped form a connection. That might be one reason. The rest has just evolved naturally. The same goes for my nickname, ‘the Bearded Scotsman.’ At first, I didn’t know what it meant, but I really like it. I don’t think I’m allowed to shave my beard off anymore now! But I wasn’t planning on doing that anyways — I’ll look far too young otherwise.”

…a return to the Scotland national team: “It’s been a while since my last call-up. Of course I’d love to play for Scotland again. I want to continue giving everything I have in order to keep things going the way they are at the moment. But there hasn’t been any contact between me and the national team recently.”