BILEK: SCOTS FAR BETTER SINCE 4-6-0
KAZAKHSTAN COACH Michal Bilek insists Scotland are a better team now than they were the night Craig Levein utilised his infamous 4-6-0 formation. Bilek was the Czech Republic coach when Levein came in for huge criticism for his tactics in a 1-0 European Championship qualifying defeat in Prague in 2010 — and famously branded the Scots’ style ‘unpleasant’. Now in charge of an unfancied nation yet to reach a major international tournament since gaining their independence from the old Soviet Union, Bilek believes the Scots are more pleasing on the eye now than they were in 2010. ‘I remember the matches,’ says the Czech. ‘The first game we won 1-0 at home and away it was a 2-2 draw. I think that the Scottish team has got better since then. ‘When we started our preparation for this game against Scotland, we watched all of their games. It is a very strong team. The philosophy of this team is fast delivery of the ball to close in to the goal to open it up. ‘The current Scottish team is much better than the previous one in 2010. Because, in the current team, there are a lot of very fast players, especially the wingers. They deliver the ball to the offence quickly and play a very fast game. They are much better. ‘Their attacks are very dangerous for us. ‘We have explained to our players how we need to play the match. I hope that my team will do something super.’ Bournemouth wide man Ryan Fraser, a regular starter under Alex McLeish, is unavailable for today’s game at the request of his club due to concerns over the artificial surface in the 30,000-seat Astana Arena. Aberdeen’s Scott McKenna is also a doubt, while McLeish suffered the unexpected loss of captain Andrew Robertson minutes before the Scots boarded their charter flight from Glasgow on Sunday night. ‘It’s football,’ shrugs Bilek. ‘Sometimes players get injured. We have one or two injuries.’ Bilek took control of the Kazakhstan national team in January after Bulgarian Stanimir Stoilov — a former Champions League foe of Celtic — stepped down. In a Nations League group featuring Latvia, Georgia and Andorra, the Kazakhs managed just one win. Currently 117th in the FIFA world rankings, 77 places below the Scots, expectations of an away win are high. Bilek is pragmatic over his team’s hopes of troubling the higher seeds in the group, adding: ‘One of the tasks of the team in these qualifiers is to gain more points and wins than in previous campaigns. ‘The favourites in our group are Belgium and there are also very strong teams like Scotland and Russia. But we will do our best to make some surprises in this campaign.’ Despite a 4-0 win over Andorra, goalscoring remains a problem for the oil-rich state. Identifying Baktiyar Zaynutdinov and Alexander Merkel — making his first start in three-and-a-half years — as his best hopes of an upset win tonight, Bilek explains: ‘Zaynutdinov has trained with Rostov and he has had two games. He is a talented and technical player. ‘Merkel plays abroad in the Dutch league. He has played in every match for Heracles Almelo. ‘He has a good understanding of football and is a good passer. Overall, he is a good player. These two players will be helpful for our team.’