Former Manchester United goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel says Liverpool's Xherdan Shaqiri has "behaved like a child" during an apparent row over the Switzerland captaincy.
Shaqiri missed Switzerland's Euro 2020 qualifiers against the Republic of Ireland and Gibraltar last month amid claims that he was unhappy with Swiss coach Vladimir Petkovic's decision to give the international captaincy to Arsenal's Granit Xhaka.
It was never confirmed that that was the case, but Xhaka spoke about the issue after the match against Ireland in Dublin, a 1-1 draw.
“If the captain’s band really is the problem, then we can sit together at one table," he told reporters.
“We are grown up enough to talk about it.
“If he really has a problem about that [the captaincy], then he may like the captain’s armband. That’s no problem for me. It does not matter to me if I have it.
"I want to give everything to the team, whether that’s with the band or without.”
Shaqiri is currently injured and absent from the Swiss squad for the upcoming qualifiers against Denmark and Ireland.
And ahead of the matches, Swiss newspaper Blick caught up with Danish legend Schmeichel, who gave his view on the row among other things.
"I liked the words of Granit Xhaka in the context of Shaqiri's absence," he said.
"I read that the captain question played a role in Shaqiri's thinking.
"Although this has been denied in the meantime, nevertheless I found it strong that Xhaka said: 'If Shaqiri wants to have the captain's armband, he should take it.'
"Xhaka showed that he wants to be a leader even without ties - and gave the pressure to Shaqiri. That was brilliant of him. In contrast to Shaqiri, who behaved like a child."
Despite that criticism, Schmeichel did go on to praise Shaqiri's abilities as a player.
"He is a very good player, can dribble, shoot, has fast feet," he said.
"You can never say exactly what he does next, which makes it very difficult for the opponent. But he made a strange transfer to Stoke.
"He was brilliant at Basel, went to Bayern - great. But then Stoke. Now he is with Jurgen Klopp [at Liverpool ], he likes such players. But he is not one of the 11 important ones."
