TALKING ABOUT AN EVOLUTION
McArthur optimistic as Scots grow in strength at a critical time in campaign
THE lot of an international manager can indeed be a peculiar one. Denied the luxury of a transfer market, the form of your squad is largely shaped by factors beyond your control. Yet accountability to your nation remains absolute.
As Gordon Strachan seeks to exact revenge on Lithuania for leaving Hampden with a point last autumn, the Scotland boss must be comforted by the knowledge that so many of the players he will select are in a far better place than at the outset of the campaign.
For Scott Brown, who had temporarily retired as the campaign began in Malta, that place is happily on the field of play rather than a seat in front of a television. For the likes of Ryan Fraser, Stuart Armstrong and Leigh Griffiths, domestic bliss has opened the door to wearing a dark blue jersey with distinction.
This has been the narrative of the campaign to date. One that might just see an evolving Scotland side yet pinch second place in Group F and threaten to march on Russia next summer with a spring in its step.
Were that to happen, Strachan might be minded to send a nice bottle of red the way of Brendan Rodgers.
When Scotland began the campaign with a 5-1 win in Malta’s Ta’ Qali Stadium one year ago, Celtic’s homegrown contingent were conspicuous by their absence.
Citing the need to pace his body in his mid-30s, Brown, at that point, had taken leave of the international scene.
Craig Gordon had just been dropped by his club manager, while Armstrong and Griffiths had yet to come under Rodgers’ spell.
The upshot was that just one Celtic player — James Forrest — featured in that handsome opening night win and even then his was a cameo role. By the time March dawned, though, Rodgers had individually and collectively elevated Celtic to a whole new level. With Gordon re-established as the club’s No 1, Brown reborn and having U-turned, Kieran Tierney, Armstrong, Forrest and, to a lesser extent, Griffiths, crunching through the gears domestically, six Celtic players started in the win over Slovenia that month. Five, with the crucial inclusion of a belatedly improved Griffiths, featured against England in June and at least as many are in the running to start in Vilnius tomorrow.
It surely cannot be co-incidence that the winning habit that has never left Rodgers’ players domestically since he came to Glasgow has manifested itself in improved results and performances for the national side.
Yet the Rodgers factor is not the only reason for Strachan to be thankful as the campaign enters its final lap.
Andrew Robertson frequently excelled for the national team while employed by Hull City, and his transfer to Liverpool this summer and all the fresh demands that come with it can surely only elevate him to a new performance plane.
Fraser has featured in three of Premier League Bournemouth’s four games to date with Matt Ritchie playing in all four of newly promoted Newcastle’s outings.
Matt Phillips is another wide option playing regularly at the highest level of the English game with West Brom, while his team-mate James Morrison has returned from injury to feature in the Baggies’ last two outings.
With Crystal Palace’s James McArthur another first-team EPL option for the Scotland manager, it’s hard to escape the conclusion that the resources at Strachan’s disposal have never been better.
For McArthur, the scorer of a late equaliser against Lithuania last October, there is a growing sense of belief that a campaign that started so sluggishly has gathered pace in the nick of time.
‘That result was very disappointing,’ said the former Hamilton midfielder. ‘Scoring in the last minute meant there was a sense of relief that we didn’t lose the game, but, at the same time, we knew it was a chance for us to try and get three points on the board. But going there now we can obviously try and make it right by getting these three points.’
This time, there are to be no second chances. Scotland may, ultimately, have taken an unlikely point from England in June but their position remains precarious.
Depending on other results, 10 points from the four remaining
We need to do whatever it takes, even if that means four wins
matches may just be enough to take Scotland into the hat for November’s two-legged play-off. Anything less and the game is surely up.
Mindful of the danger of looking towards Monday’s home game with Malta before Lithuania have been reckoned with, McArthur appreciates how little room for error there now is.
‘We need to go into the first game and concentrate on that,’ he warned. ‘We know from playing them at home that they are a good side. They aren’t going to roll over. But we can go there and take confidence from the last game.
‘Being so unlucky to not get three points against a top nation is something we can take a lot of positives from. The fans that day were incredible. We need to get to the finals of a major competition to give the fans a bit of relief, a bit of excitement.’
For the sum total of 180 seconds that day in June, Scotland were free of two decades of failure.
Griffiths’ sublime pair of free-kicks briefly took us back to a time where Hampden was a place to be feared and where tales of glory were scripted and handed down through the ages.
If Harry Kane’s equaliser acted like a bucket of iced water over the nation’s head, recapturing those few stolen moments of delirium is one heck of an incentive.
‘That’s why we need to get there,’ said McArthur. ‘The atmosphere when we scored those two goals was incredible.
‘Leigh scored two amazing goals which will go down in history. People in 20 years will remember them. He wants to push on and be remembered for a lot more than just those two goals. We all do.
‘You watch major competitions. You look at the Irish fans, for instance, or the Welsh fans when they got there. That could be us. That could be our fans. We need to do it for them. We need to do whatever it takes. And if that means four wins, we need to do that.’