TIME TO STAND UP AND BE COUNTED
Strachan demands that Scotland show true grit in make-or-break clash
GORDON STRACHAN has selected his 35th Scotland team. Few have posed the 60-year-old national coach so many problems, prompted so much agonising. Ultimately, he is convinced the 11 chosen men possess the character to dig Scotland out of a huge World Cup qualifying hole at Hampden tonight and keep him in a job.
The finality of the situation — the Scots are out of Russia 2018 contention after five games if they cannot beat Slovenia and Strachan’s tenure must surely be over — eventually brought much clarity of thought to the procedure during which some senior players had to be scratched from his team.
‘It’s make or break and sometimes there’s a clarity to it when you face something like this,’ said Strachan at the national stadium yesterday.
‘There’s no: “If we get a draw, there’s this”. And it ends up a good draw. It has to be a win now and it changes everything completely. Whatever comes after that looks after itself, but a win changes the landscape.’ To that end, Strachan is confident
that dependable individuals capable of holding their nerve on the Hampden stage with an entire campaign on the line will be in control of Scotland’s dwindling World Cup hopes and his future as manager.
‘I would like to think that nobody needs to be baby-sat out there because, if you need that, it’s not the place to be,’ he declared.
‘You can help somebody who’s having a bad day, maybe technically. But if you’re weakminded, you’ll be found out. That won’t happen here. There won’t be anybody with a weak mind. You can’t always be winners — but you must compete and stand up.’
Strachan’s tick list for this massive occasion, albeit one set to be attended by little over 25,000 loyal Tartan Army followers, offers a hint that Celtic players will figure prominently in the hope of giving Scotland a sorely-needed competitive win.
Only Malta and Gibraltar (twice) have tasted defeat in qualifiers at the hands of Scotland in the last two-and-a-half years. Undefeated Slovenia are a considerable upgrade on those minnows. They are already four points ahead of Scotland, having secured draws against England and Lithuania and defeated Slovakia and Malta.
Strachan explained: ‘Who is feeling good about themselves? Who is enjoying the game? Sometimes players come along to internationals struggling with their game. It’s very hard to then play a big game. Then you have to be fit because it will be high tempo.
‘You must be adaptable because there are a couple of ways Slovenia play, although you have to hope they change their shape to deal with us. And that all comes down to who jumps the highest, who wants to run the quickest, who wants to control the game and who wants to be bravest on the ball.
‘Those four factors determine how the game will be decided — whatever shape we are playing.’
The sight of Leigh Griffiths at the pre-match media conference heightened hopes that the Scotland boss will go with a popular, lively, goal-hungry pick to lead the line.
However, the duty of speaking on the day before an international is traditionally the role for the captain and that suggests Strachan did not wish to give away the identity of his skipper.
Scott Brown’s game-by-game commitment does not make him an automatic for the armband. Darren Fletcher led the side against Canada, yet his non-appearance yesterday marked him down as a candidate to drop out.
Robert Snodgrass played the full 90 minutes at Easter Road on a heavy pitch and looks ripe for the chop despite rarely letting Scotland down and starting the campaign with a hat-trick in the 5-1 victory over the Maltese.
‘It could just be for this game,’ said Strachan when addressing the prospect of high-profile casualties.
‘You may see something different in this game. I try to speak to the ones you think deserve it out of respect, but there are ones who are maybe not sure if they’re playing or not. I have no qualms about anyone I might play — or their mental strength.’
A potential debut for Celtic’s most improved player of the season, Stuart Armstrong, lands much focus on the midfielder with a goal threat.
Matt Ritchie and James Morrison — a training ground stand-out according to coach Mark McGhee — have worked from Thursday onwards, while Lee Wallace and Ryan Fraser are nursing knocks.
Strachan was at Hampden for media duties only as he opted to keep his squad in training at Mar Hall.
‘There is the fact we didn’t play that well the last time we were here,’ he said of his preparations for the hugely damaging draw at home to Lithuania.
‘It has allowed us to do more at training in the morning and spend more time on the training field than coming in here for half an hour.
‘We can do more at Mar Hall. On Thursday, we had guys doing warm-downs, other guys were more intense.’ An ugly victory tonight would be deemed beautiful. However, Strachan has predicted a far more pleasing contest than the grinding and combative effort required to plunder an unsatisfactory draw back in October against Lithuania.
‘That was like a Championship game in England where it was just whoever won the most headers,’ he admitted. ‘This will be a different game, a better game technically.
‘Slovenia have been impressive. They have a nucleus of about 15 or 16 players who do very well and they have stayed together as a group. Sometimes you have a spread of players that is so massive it can be a problem at times.’
Strachan’s bold selections for the job will need to combat that potent weapon within the visiting ranks tonight or they can expect another campaign to be over woefully early and anticipate a change in manager after a four-year reign.
He was only focused last night on securing the victory that would turn Group F fortunes around and feed hope that a messy race for second place among middle-rank nations could be winnable.
‘The landscape would change totally with a win,’ said Strachan. ‘If you ask me what I’m concerned about, it’s not that it could be the last game ever. It’s how you feel after a victory. That’s the glow you get in winning a football game.
‘(If it goes wrong) I will still be the person I am. At this moment in time, the only thing that matters to me is getting three points.
‘The only thing that scares me is not getting those three points.’
If you are weak-minded, you’ll be found out. That won’t happen here