It’s not about me right now, it’s about the players ... I am so proud to be their manager
Strach silent on future
GORDON STRACHAN refused to say if his Scotland reign is over last night after watching his World Cup dream blow up in a nightmarish second half here Slovenia.
Two goals from sub Roman Bezjak torpedoed hopes of a place in the play-off despite a first-half opener from Leigh Griffiths that looked to have fired Strachan’s side towards the eliminators.
Robert Snodgrass scrambled a late equaliser but it wasn’t enough to salvage three Group F points required as Scotland crashed out of the race to Russia on goal difference – pipped at the post by the Slovakian side they had defeated so dramatically in Glasgow last week.
The late heartache will lead to a national inquest over Strachan’s position on the back of a second failed qualification campaign.
But the 60-year-old stonewalled all questions on his future and gave no indication if he wishes to stay on for a third attempt and a crack at making it to Euro 2020.
Strachan’s contract with the SFA is now all but up but when asked if it is the end of the line for his tenure he said: “You have to ask that question but you know fine well that I’m going to say I’m the last person I’m thinking about right now.
“Players, staff and family – I want to make sure they’re alright. The players’ families have backed them up and everything else. So we are looking after them at the moment. Me? It’s not a problem. I am proud, really proud, to be their manager.
“I just get on the plane, have a cup of tea, get home and see how it goes after that. But I can go away knowing that group of lads and the group that has worked over the last year, I couldn’t have asked for any more.”
Strachan heaped praise on his players who claimed 14 points from the last 18 available before falling at the final hurdle. And he insists they are being hamstrung by genetics more than a lack of will to win or talent.
He added: “It’s an honour to work with these guys. At this moment it’s a big disappointment but my disappointment is nothing compared to the players.
“You saw them at the end of the game – I don’t think I’ve seen a group of players as exhausted after a match. As I said to them, they can go away and feel really proud of themselves.
“I think some of them pushed themselves to places they didn’t think they could actually go.
“We were against a physically stronger side, a side that hadn’t let a goal in here in this campaign. But we took the lead.
“We just knew set-pieces would be a problem and they scored with two of them.
“But you can’t change our genetics. I can’t just pick the biggest people in Scotland.
“Technically we’re fine. But our guys have to work harder to get on the ball than bigger lads at 6ft 3in. It’s an honour to be their coach. I’ve been fortunate to have been successful in my own career and get to places.
“But with all due respect to the lads I played with – some who are my mates now – this group are as good as anything I’ve worked with. They’re hurting badly. Over
the last two games especially they gave it everything they had.
“We’ve just been beaten in the end on goal difference to Slovakia who are an excellent side.”
A calf injury to West Brom’s James Morrison – picked up in training here last night –forced the manager’s hand into a change of formation.
But he selected a side he felt would be best equipped to cope with the physicality of Slovenia’s comparatively mountainous 11.
Asked what he had learned from the campaign he said: “What I do know is genetically we are behind. In the last campaign we were the second smallest behind Spain. I had to pick a team to try to combat their height and strength.
“Even at that we couldn’t combat their height and strength at set plays. Genetically, we have to work at things. We have to fight harder for every ball and jump higher because it is easier for these type of guys. Nobody can tell me their technique, apart from one player, is better than any of ours.
“Physically, we have a problem against the teams we have faced in the last couple of years. We seem to be able to fight and get through on just sheer determination, skill and workrate but that takes a lot out of you. That is what’s happened tonight.”
And he insisted there is no way of calculating the part his own tactical decisions have played in this latest qualification write-off as Scotland’s wilderness years extends into a third decade.
H e said: “What you have to do is analyse. You could say, ‘Och, you don’t use that system!’ But it is only a theory. We don’t know if that means we are going to win. I am the only one who puts the theories into practice. “You don’t know if it would have made a difference if you’d played another system or player. It might have been worse. Nobody will ever know.” As if to compound our misery, Slovenia’s goal hero Bezjak plays for SV Darmstadt 98 – sitting eighth in the second tier of German football. But coach Srecko Katanec insisted his team were better all over the pitch. He said: “I’d like to congratulate my boys for a great performance. “We were the better team.”