Griffiths an injury doubt for Malta
By Graeme Macpherson
LEIGH Griffiths is a doubt for Scotland’s opening World Cup qualifier away to Malta after revealing he has been struggling with a hamstring injury. The forward, who scored his seventh goal of the season yesterday in Celtic’s 4-1 home win over Aberdeen, still hopes to play a part for Gordon Strachan’s side next Sunday but only if passed fit by the Scotland medical staff. His absence would be a major blow for Strachan given Griffiths’ strong start to the campaign but the player hopes he will make it as he “doesn’t want to let anybody down”.
“I’ve been struggling with my hamstring tendon since before we played Hapoel [Be’er-Sheva] at home [two weeks ago],” he said. “But I’ve battled through it. I will go away with Scotland, see the physios there and what they are thinking. I always want to play for my country, I don’t want to let anybody down. Hopefully I can pull through and get a chance. I managed to play 60 minutes today. In midweek I managed 55 minutes.
“The manager [Brendan Rodgers] is happy that I’m playing without it really hurting but now I will go and see the Scotland physios. Hopefully I can battle through. If he [Strachan] sees I’m ready to go I’ll be delighted. If not I’ll sit on the bench, bite my tongue and if I’m called upon I will give my best like I always do.”
Rodgers, meanwhile, believes Craig Gordon will benefit from being left out of yesterday’s game after the goalkeeper was dropped in favour of Dorus de Vries.
“Dorus knows inside out how I want to work and I’m sure Craig will get another opportunity again,” he said. “Whether it comes in the next game, or after, he will be better for this week. It has been unfair for him at times. I’ve got good goalkeepers now at the club, and one particularly [de Vries] who understands how I work.
“I just do what I do in every game and put out what I think is the best team. My ’ keeper is no different to any outfield players.”
GORDON Strachan announced his squad last Monday for the start of Scotland’s World Cup qualifying campaign. A nation shrugged its shoulders in indifference. Perhaps the only task harder than making the finals in Russia in two years’ time will be trying to revive interest in their prospects among an increasingly disenfranchised fanbase.
Not qualifying for Euro 2016, and then seeing a plethora of smaller nations thrive in Scotland’s absence, dealt the initial damaging blow to morale. When the manager then named a squad featuring no new faces for the opening match of the next campaign away to Malta next Sunday it did little to lift the collective sense of anguish. Same players, same outcome, seemed to be the instant conclusion reached by many. Optimism, that quality that has sustained the Tartan Army for many a decade during thin and thinner times, seemed to be in short supply for once.
Strachan has never felt the need to turn his aerial in the direction of public opinion but he is undoubtedly irked at the idea the national team have grown “stagnant” on his watch. Instead he believes it is a matter of misperception. Ten of the players named for the opening qualifier in the last campaign are no longer with the group. And there are five outfield players in this squad aged 21 or under and with a total of six friendly caps among them. All could make an impact in the years ahead.
That he has not made more changes, Strachan makes clear, is because he does not believe there are more young or promising players out there who deserve a call-up. For the time being, then, he will persist with the core of the previous squad until that situation improves.
“We are evolving – there are 10 changes there [from the first squad the last time], we have brought five new players in, and that says it all,” he said. “People sometimes just like seeing different things. They want different faces. But the reality is different from the perception.
“The truth is, someone like Gordon Greer came in late, at 34, but played 10 games and went undefeated in all of them, which is some going. Age isn’t a problem to me, whether you’re 34 or 18.
“We had Oliver Burke in when he’d played three first-team [club] games. If I had said to people in Scotland five months ago, tell me about him, not one person would have known who he was.
“We’re quite happy to take a chance on youngsters but we’re definitely not going to put them in just because their name is different from someone else who has been about for years.
“I’d love to have a squad of 23-year-olds who were all brilliant but it doesn’t work that way. The younger guys we’ve brought in aren’t just in because they’re younger, it’s because at this moment in time this is the best squad I can pick. I scratch my head when people say there’s no change to the squad. It looks completely different to me to two years ago. I really can’t understand why people think it’s a stagnant squad. As far as I’ m concerned, it’s changed significantly, especially since I first took over. It’s unrecognisable.”
Burke, in particular, is one being spoken of in breathless terms as “the new Gareth Bale” amid transfer speculation this week linking him with £10 million moves to Liverpool, Arsenal and Sunderland. The winger has yet to win a cap in a competitive game – and also qualifies to play for England – but Strachan will not pitch him in against Malta simply to remove that doubt from the equation.
“He’s different, he’s got blinding pace, he’s strong, and he can run with or without the ball,” the manager said. “He’s still a young fella, there are things he has to work on and he knows that. In terms of giving him a competitive cap I think I know what you’re talking about but that’s not my priority when I’m playing this game. My priority is to make sure we put in a good performance against Malta.”
At the other end of the age scale, Strachan hopes to see his new captain Darren Fletcher return to prominence in the campaign ahead after featuring only fleetingly last time.
“He gets a game every week at West Brom and if Tony Pulis is picking him every week in the Premier League and trusting him, I’m happy to follow his guide,” he said .“When he first came back[ from serious illness] he broke himself in gently but he’s off the leash now, more comfortable about everything he’s doing and he knows fine well everything is behind him.
“He’s a man who makes very few headlines and doesn’t need them, doesn’t need to be a celebrity off the pitch, he only wants to be a good player on it. He only wants to be a good team-mate and help people round about him. For me, that’s a fantastic footballer and a fantastic man.”
I scratch my head when people say the squad is the same. To me, it looks completely different