ENGLAND’S HOT HANDS SPUR A MOOD OF CAUTION IN McGHEE
Spurs supply plenty of swagger for an England side McGhee knows will be going for the jugular at Hampden to snuff out Scottish hopes
MARK McGHEE got lucky when selecting Tottenham Hotspur’s home game with Bournemouth to catch a prospective Scotland international in action against a clutch of Hampden-bound England stars.
First of all, winger Ryan Fraser made it off the bench midway through the second half for Eddie Howe’s team at White Hart Lane. Secondly, Spurs only triumphed by a meagre 4-0 that April afternoon.
Watching them destroy topflight clubs by scoring six and seven might have been too much to bear just a few weeks before Eric Dier, Kyle Walker, Dele Alli and Harry Kane form the heart and soul of an England team on World Cup duty in Glasgow.
No group of players finished the English Premier League season stronger or with greater swagger than the eventual runners-up to Chelsea, winning 12 and losing one of their 13 fixtures since exiting the Europa League in February.
Thrashing former champions Leicester 6-1, then putting seven past David Marshall at Hull in their final match within four days, with Kane responsible for seven of that 13-goal haul, was fearsome form.
Mauricio Pochettino’s team played as if they didn’t want the season, their best in the top flight since 1963, to end. For at least four of his England players, the competitive action won’t finish until Saturday, June 10. That is ominous news for Scotland.
Kane topped the league’s scoring charts on 29, while Alli, voted PFA Young Player of the Year for the second time, finished in sixth on 18 goals. After checking on both young stars, who have forged a brilliant understanding, McGhee was left hoping they would somehow leave league form in the rubble of White Hart Lane rather than bring it bouncing to the international stage.
‘Alli is getting away with murder at the moment with referees, he’s the golden boy,’ said McGhee. ‘He was kicking the ball away and the ref was having a laugh with him! But, my God, he is a good player.
‘The Tottenham team that day I saw them were terrific, with all of the boys who’ll play against us — Alli, Kane, Dier, Walker. They’re a very good team. Thankfully, we had the most aggressive player on the park that day in Ryan Fraser!
‘Seriously, they are a top side. And they have several players in the England team to face us, which is similar to us with Celtic. I don’t think that’s a bad thing because the others who will make up the team are top players as well.
‘The Spurs boys have an understanding which should help the spine of the England team. I hadn’t seen Kane enough to really appreciate him before. But I’m starting to get what all the fuss is about now. He does a lot of things that are difficult but makes them look easy. He’s also stronger than I thought he was against centre-backs. He’s just a really good player as well.’
Alli only turned 21 last month and has proven to be a match-up nightmare for opposition defences and midfield enforcers with his trickery, pace, movement, stride, goal threat and, critically for the position nowadays according to Gordon Strachan, his 6ft 2in frame.
Strachan said: ‘For years those you’d regard as a No10 would stay in a wee hole, never go anywhere and never go get the ball, float about. Saying: “Give me the ball and I’ll do a couple of turns because I’m the No10 and I don’t have to run back either”.
‘Now people like Dele Alli play between the lines, run in behind, when the ball goes that way they get behind it. It’s that all-round fitness you must have and he’s a great shape to be in there. A sixfooter. Our two who used to play in there were 5ft 6in, 5ft 7in.’ Shaun Maloney was Scotland’s most effective version during the Euro 2016 campaign. However, he was left out of the 29-man squad Strachan named last week since making only 14 appearances for relegated Hull City in 2016-17. Maloney was omitted after much plotting at the manager’s Leamington Spa home between McGhee and Strachan. That’s where the build-up to the Auld Enemy tie — and the bid for revenge for November’s 3-0 loss at Wembley — began in earnest a month ago. They started by poring over the Wembley footage again. ‘There was some great stuff up until England scored their second goal, in terms of how we closed them down,’ said McGhee. ‘But there were moments when we had to do better.
‘I felt when we crossed the halfway line we were in too much of a hurry to get from A to B. Something had to happen in between to get us up the park as a team. We had to be a bit more careful. I’ve watched games lately when teams under pressure have done well — but when they win the ball back, they give it away again.
‘We’ve got to improve on that against England at Hampden. The rest was actually very good. We didn’t get the luck we deserved. There’s a way we can approach this game and if we improve on certain aspects of the Wembley performance we can do well.’
While the Spurs aces face few difficulties topping up their exceptional levels of fitness since last week’s rout at the KCOM Stadium, a handful of Scotland players have been set posers by the early finish to their leagues.
John McGinn, Steven Naismith, Russell Martin, Jamie Murphy, Charlie Mulgrew and Christophe Berra have had either five or six weeks of competitive inactivity.
McGhee admits that will come into consideration when assessing their readiness when the group gathers but he knows how seriously they will all have treated their preparation for June 10.
‘Hopefully all the Celtic boys will come away from the Scottish Cup Final feeling healthy,’ said McGhee.
‘The flip side is, the boys who aren’t playing will have had a break and will have a freshness about them.
‘We marvel at the professionalism of this group. No matter how good or bad they might be when they run out there to play, they do everything they can to be the best they can possibly be. Their preparation and approach to training is fantastic.
‘We’ve got guys like Russell Martin and Ikechi Anya who weigh their food! They don’t leave a stone unturned and do everything to a plan. You can be sure that any of them who have a period between finishing and starting with us, we can trust them.
The Tottenham boys have an understanding which should help the spine of Southgate’s team
‘The June date hasn’t been bad for us. We beat Croatia away and got a draw against Ireland in the past. We have players who finished on May 7, so we have to decide if they’re likely to play in the game and, if so, what do we do with them? All we can do is be on the case and monitor them.’ Meanwhile, McGhee has rubbished any suggestion that Gareth Southgate’s multi-millionaires won’t share the same passion and enthusiasm for the occasion at the end of a taxing English top flight and Champions League campaign. Even if the private jets are at the ready to spirit them to their first Las Vegas pool party of the close season, McGhee is convinced the English players will not lack for commitment to go with their obvious talent at Hampden. ‘I don’t buy into the fact that some of England’s big players won’t fancy this game,’ he said.boys. The likes of ‘You Gary have Cahillto knowand othersthese — there’s nothing they want more than to come to Glasgow and beat Scotland. ‘They’re the exact same as ours, even in the past with the likes of big Alex McLeish or whoever going to Wembley. These guys love playing for their country. They love carrying the flag and taking us on. I don’t even consider that aspect of it. They will be up for it —don’t worry about that.’