McLeish’s anger
Scotland boss tells his disaffected stars they all have a future 102
SCOTLAND players don’t spend their time fretting over spectator views of the Hampden pitch. Yet Leigh Griffiths, James Forrest, Stuart Armstrong and Craig Gordon found the view from the substitutes’ bench of the 2-0 win over Albania as unsatisfactory as any Tartan Army diehard paying £35 for a seat in Row Z at the back of the West Stand.
A manager since taking the reins at Motherwell in 1994, Alex McLeish had to utilise all his experience from 24 years at the sharp end to explain to players accustomed to playing Champions League football with Celtic why they couldn’t displace Steven Naismith (below) or Kilmarnock’s Stephen O’Donnell from the starting line-up.
Acknowledging some would be ‘p ****** off’ with his starting Xl, McLeish made a point of talking to the angry and the disappointed after the game.
The task was made significantly easier by a performance and result where the end means.
‘It’s not easy to go round everybody,’ acknowledged the Scotland manager. ‘I normally talk to players and I know it has moved on since the last time I was involved in club football at a high level.
‘It’s probably appropriate that I should speak to them after the game, especially if the players somehow feel they are not worthy if I’ve not included them or they’ve sat on the bench for two games.
‘I’ve told one or two of them that I need them all. We’ll have different systems at different times.
‘There are justified the some guys in great form who never played and they must be gutted.
‘I really feel for them but if I’d put some in certain positions against Albania, I’d be fielding questions about playing players out of position.’
While the post-match headlines concerned the omission of Griffiths, leaving out Forrest — a winger playing the best football of his career — to go with O’Donnell was a brave, potentially risky call.
Going nowhere fast at Luton Town 18 months ago, the right-back has rebuilt his career at Rugby Park. And took another huge stride with an excellent display as a marauding right wing-back against Albania.
‘If I’d played James, I’d be getting questions about why I played him out of position,’ McLeish explained.
‘James can play there but it’s not his favourite position and he’s excelled with Celtic in the threeforwards system.
‘I was very aware of that and James was one of the few guys I got to speak to after the match as most were away seeing their families and stuff. I told him we wouldn’t be playing 3-5-2 all the time and there will be times when we need him in the wide areas.
‘He can play wing-back. But there have been questions I’ve fielded about Kieran and Andy Robertson over the last few days.
‘Kieran doesn’t want to play right-back. He’s not a right-back, he’s a left back. If I play him at right-back, he’s another one out of position. So, do I drop one of them and say it just doesn’t work? “You are two fantastic players, but you’re dropped”.’
Failure to beat Albania would have placed McLeish in a grim position. A section of the nation’s supporters remain suspicious of Scotland’s manager on the basis he was seen as an old boys’ appointment by president Alan McRae. Others have difficulty with his past as a former Rangers manager in the EBT era. Much of the negativity stems from the unfair notion that, at 59, he is some kind of tactical dinosaur. Yet no one can query his courage. After four defeats in five friendlies, the easiest course was to pick a populist team. To go safe. Dropping Griffiths on the back of a middling start to the season with Celtic was a huge call. ‘Listen, I’ve had to make these calls before,’ shrugged McLeish. ‘Leigh’s not playing as a starter for Celtic at the moment — only in some games. Naisy is there every single week for Hearts and I know what Griff can do.
‘I think he was a little bit isolated in the Belgium game and let’s face it, it was almost Mission Impossible for him the other night. But again, we know what he can do.
‘He came on and had a free-kick in his favourite position and it’s always good if he can get a goal. He’s still very valuable to us.’
Some of the selection choices worked better than others. Kevin McDonald sustained a first-half yellow card, forcing McLeish to take the Fullham midfielder off at half-time for fear of a costly red.
‘I pulled him in and told him I was taking him off,’ said the boss. ‘It wasn’t a reflection on his play but it was simply that if he slipped going into a tackle, I could see a second yellow card coming. The big yin wasn’t in agreement with it but he accepted it like a good professional and we got Armstrong on, changed the system a wee bit and added a different dynamic.’
Aston Villa’s John McGinn had one of those nights where much of his good work came close to being cancelled out by potentially calamitous errors.
Culpable for Belgium’s opener in a 4-0 defeat on Friday, the former Hibs man might have been punished once more by a better team than Albania.
‘We’ve said to them: “Look back at the games”. I used to tape
Sportscene many years ago and have still got about 100 tapes with dust covering them now. I used to watch them and say: “I could have done that better”, stated McLeish.
‘I hope John’s the type of guy who will look back at his games and say at times: “I’ve got to do better there”. But there were a lot of really good things he did as well.’
The negatives of a timely and important win were few in the end. A crowd of 17,400 raised some old questions over ticket prices. Yet, McLeish has never deviated in his line on attendances.
Monday night games don’t help, but the key is for Scotland to start winning football matches.
‘When I spoke to the players before, I did it at the hotel and told them: “This is the night where we sort it out” and we’ve worked hard for this moment.
‘A lot of it was about mentality because the talent is good and the athleticism is good. Now they have to rise against the pessimism that surrounds us and the only way I want Scotland fans to come back is because they want to see us — not because Belgium’s here or Portugal are coming.’