Weir: Formation not to blame … players were weak-minded
DAVID Weir has still never seen a formation lose a game of football. The former Rangers and Scotland defender, believes it was Alex McLeish’s players, and not his 3-5-2 shape, that was to blame for the 2-1 Uefa Nations league defeat in Haifa.
And Weir said the players were “weak-minded” if they were using McLeish’s system as an excuse.
“They are professional footballers,” said Weir, now working on the backroom staff at Brighton and Hove Albion, and speaking on behalf of BT Sport. “You look at the best teams and they change formation within games, with the ball, without the ball.
“Formation is sometimes used as a stick to beat the coach but he picks that formation to win the game,” added Weir. “He picked that formation and it beat Albania then he picked it and we lost to Israel.
“So was it the formation that lost to Israel? Or the players? In my mind it wasn’t the formation – it was the players who lost the game.
“The players have got to adjust and adapt. And if players are moaning about the formation then they are weak-minded in my opinion. Because a formation has never lost you a game. It is players that win or lose a game.”
Weir was no stranger to being accommodated in a back three, whether it was Rangers’ run to the Uefa Cup final in 2008 or his early days with Craig Brown’s ultraconservative Scotland side.
“I always thought ‘the more people around me the better!’” he joked. “Everybody thinks three at the back is a new thing, a fashionable thing.
“But, when I first came into the team under Craig Brown in 1996/97, or whatever it was, we were playing three at the back and that wasn’t the first time it had been done.
“There are strengths and weaknesses in every system, pros and cons. But, ultimately, it is about the players.”
Weir admits the Israel match – in which John Souttar was sent off, and even star performers such as Andy Robertson and Kieran Tierney appeared ill at ease – was a “hard watch”.
There has been a backlash in some parts about altering the team’s shape to accommodate both Andy Robertson and Kieran Tierney, but Weir is with McLeish and his predecessor Gordon Strachan about the need to find both a starting spot.
“You definitely want both of them in your team,” he said. “It is just sod’s law that two of our better players would ideally play in the same position. But that is what managers get paid for, to try to give your team the best chance of winning.
“You could say the same about the goalkepers, Allan McGregor, Craig Gordon, David Marshall in the past. We have top goalkeepers and