It’s no time to make any snap judgments on the new wave
IF YOU can’t guarantee quality, why not go for quantity? Maybe, if you’re lucky, one of the rough diamonds will shine brightly enough to suggest a bright future lying just beyond the horizon.
It’s a theory, anyway. One that Alex McLeish might have to rethink as he takes this Scotland team forward towards the earthshattering excitement of the UEFA Nations League — and beyond.
On a night when the manager marked his first game — second time around — by handing out new caps aplenty, the desired revolution did not quite go as the most optimistic would have expected.
Snap judgments on the new players who got their first taste of international football from the off last night?
Oli McBurnie may become a serviceable lone striker. A willing runner who won’t mind leading the line and living off scraps.
Scott McTominay is no Darren Fletcher. Nor is he — yet — a Paul Lambert. Give him some time, see how his club career develops, and we’ll get back to you.
Scott McKenna has size, strength and a durability that might serve him well. And Kevin McDonald is too slow to play international football.
With that quartet winning first caps from the start, plus another hatful of potential debutants on the bench, no one could accuse McLeish of shying away from change.
Naturally, much of the focus was on McTominay, whose status as a rising star — or at least a useful water carrier-in-the-making — at Manchester United had already set some Scottish pulses racing.
Jose Mourinho was here to watch a player he has taken special interest in, having promoted him through a stellar squad to become a regular at Old Trafford.
Mourinho’s admiration for the 21-year-old says something, surely, about his potential to cope with the pace of international football. With the emphasis on potential.
The fact that the defensive midfielder chose to represent Scotland rather than England, picking the country of his family over the land of his birth, also earned him some instant cache among the Tartan Army.
Given his role in the team, though, how do you judge him? He’s a quiet worker, his first — and rare — surge into opposition territory instantly ending with him losing the ball.
He gave possession away too freely in the first half, almost costing Scotland a second soon after Costa Rica’s first.
And he was turned inside out by goalscorer Marcos Urena at the start of the second half, losing the ball as the visitors launched an attack that very nearly ended a goal.
When confronted with pace, he looked decidedly uncomfortable. And not all that sure of what he was supposed to be doing with the ball, to be honest.
But his defensive work was valuable at times, not least when he raced back to make a clearing header under his own bar — and getting dunt in the back of the noggin for his troubles.
Just what Scotland need, then, another workhorse capable of putting in a shift.
McTominay — replaced by the more dynamic Stuart Armstrong before the hour-mark — had been partnered in midfield with McDonald, making his international bow at the age of 29. Too soon. Much too soon.
Scotland looked better when Armstrong replaced McTominay. And it was impossible to look at John McGinn — among others — and wonder why anyone would leave him out in favour of Fulham’s McDonald.
McKenna, at just 21, is a centrehalf having to deal with a lot of projection from Scotland fans desperate to unearth someone capable of filling a trouble position.
Playing on the left of a three-man central defence, this was a leap for the Aberdeen kid, certainly.
He was pulled out of position at times. But he was quicker than some suspected and strong in the air, as you’d expect.
Undoubtedly the pick of the new names in the starting XI was McBurnie.
Lively and lanky, his socks worn down emphasising the sheer length of his frame, the 21-year-old quickly showed his desire.
If he has ambitions to be a regular for Scotland, his international career will involved a lot of nights like this.
Coming short for the ball, chasing anything hit in his general direction, looking in vain for support before laying it off to a midfielder back inside his own half… it’s hard to impress with that dark blue No 9 jersey on your back.
He had Real Madrid keeper Keylor Navas scrambling to make a low save just before the half-hour mark, having done brilliantly to work an opening for himself before firing in a stinging right-footed shot.
The kid also gets points for chutzpah following one of the more optimistic penalty appeals you’ll see, throwing up his arms and claiming after appearing to pull back Oscar Duarte while trying to connect with an Andy Robertson cross.
Duarte was sharp to block a McBurnie shot at the end of Scotland’s best move soon after; by now, there was more than a murmur from the cheap seats every time the striker got on the ball anywhere near the box.
The Swansea forward, on loan and performing well with Barnsley, kept getting himself in the right position. Or at least close enough to generate excitement.
But, before being replaced by Matt Phillips inside the closing quarter hour, he probably should have scored from a perfect low Robertson cross along the six-yard box.
It went down as a chance not taken. Something of a theme, for the new lads.