Manchester United told how to get the best out of Scott McTominay

Scotland head coach Steve Clarke believes his decision to push Scott McTominay into a more advanced role has helped the midfielder to improve this year.

Manchester United's Scot was on the fringes of Erik ten Hag's team at the beginning of the campaign. However his performances for his country, where he scored seven goals in the calendar year, turned the Dutchman's head.

From the end of October, McTominay has become a regular for United and has become the club's top goalscorer this season with six to his name. Reflecting on the year he has had, Clarke told Sky Sports a conversation at the beginning of the campaign improved the 27-year-old.

READ MORE: Maguire echoes McTominay's claim about the squad

READ MORE: Keane is wrong about one player who he thinks is on 'last straw'

"Obviously I would be lying if I expected it," Clarke explained when asked about McTominay's goalscoring. "We had a chat with Scott before the campaign started, tweaked his position and allowed him a bit more freedom to get forward on the pitch and suddenly he was scoring goals.

"It was great because we are a team who rely quite a lot on goals from other positions. The way we set up is for the striker to help the midfielders score goals ... but it was good for Scotty he had a really good campaign."

Currently, United is not the happiest place to be playing football with Saturday's defeat to West Ham dropping them to eighth in the table. But Clarke admitted he tries to get players like McTominay to forget their domestic woes while with the national team.

He added: "We try to encourage them to come to us and be what they are. If you take Scott McTominay as an example, he was struggling to get into the Man United team and when he came away with us, it