COURAGE UNDER FIRE
Griffiths sings praises of manager Strachan for holding his nerve with team selections
THE courage of Gordon Strachan in sticking with his unpopular convictions has been the key to Scotland’s World Cup revival, according to Leigh Griffiths.
A tumultuous Group F campaign reaches its climax in Ljubljana tonight where an away victory will likely clinch a play-off spot next month for a squad that was down — and in most eyes out — 12 months ago.
The SFA stood by their manager following 3-0 defeats to Slovakia and England before the qualifying momentum swung on a decision roundly jeered by the Tartan Army last March.
Chris Martin’s introduction against Slovenia provided the matchwinner and saved the campaign, and he came on at Hampden again on Thursday to pressurise Slovakia skipper Martin Skrtel into scoring an own goal.
Strachan had repeatedly ignored the public clamour for Griffiths to be installed as his No9 in favour of both Martin and Steven Fletcher, before letting the Celtic striker off the leash to great effect.
The Scotland boss also disregarded the pre-Slovakia drum-banging for the inclusion of John McGinn and Callum McGregor and instead stuck with tried and trusted midfielders.
Griffiths appreciates such decisions are not designed to appease wider opinion. ‘Nobody will be happier than him,’ he said of Strachan’s turnaround.
‘Earlier in the campaign he was getting a lot of stick from a lot of folk but he
CRAIG GORDON admits he has rarely felt more confident in Scotland’s defensive ability. Trouble is, he knows his attacking team-mates will have to find a way past one of the very best goalkeepers in world football if they are to earn a play-off place in Ljubljana tonight.
Jan Oblak is the star turn of the Slovenian national team, a top performer for Atletico Madrid in Spain and keeper of a formidable record at international level.
Although Srecko Katanec’s team sit fourth in the Group F standings, they have yet to concede on home soil in this campaign.
Runaway winners England could not find a way through at the Stozice Stadium, nor could play-off contenders Slovakia.
If Slovakia keeper Martin Dubravka turned in the best individual display of the section in keeping his ten-man team in it until the 89th-minute at Hampden last Thursday, then Gordon believes it is Oblak who has been the most consistently impressive over the entire campaign.
‘He’s one of the very best,’ said the Celtic keeper (below). ‘We’ve seen some of his saves in this campaign and he’s a fantastic goalkeeper — one we’ll need to do really well to beat. But that’s a good challenge. It’s great to play against the best keepers in the world and Oblak is definitely one of them.
‘He’s playing at the top end of European football, challenging for honours in Spain and Europe.
‘Defensively, Slovenia are well organised. They haven’t scored as many goals as they would have liked in the campaign but they don’t need to if they are keeping things out at the back.
‘We are going to have to break them down but we are ready for it and excited.’
In the circumstances, all eyes will turn to Gordon’s Celtic team-mate Leigh Griffiths, a man who is displaying the form of his life for club and country.
A Champions League scorer in Brussels against Anderlecht last month, Griffiths is also the undisputed firstchoice striker for Gordon Strachan and has netted three times in the campaign. ‘Leigh has had some huge performances in the last few games for Scotland,’ continued Gordon. ‘His work ethic has been brilliant, running channels and running things down. He helps keep the team in the opposition half where we want to be. It’s his hard work that sets all that off. ‘He can get himself in the box and score with a header or a tap in. He’s become a much more all-round striker and that’s why he’s playing so well and getting so many goals at the moment.’ While Slovenia have proven a tough nut to crack over the past 14 months, the Scots have also emerged as a more solid unit in recent fixtures. Strachan has fielded the same back four in the past three qualifiers and they have not conceded once. Gordon can trace the roots of that solidity back more than decade to his time as an aspirant goalkeeper at Hearts. Around the time he was developing into a prodigious international player, a young centre-back named Christophe Berra was breaking through in front of him at Tynecastle and the pair developed a rapport and acute sense of each other’s game. More recently, Gordon has performed alongside Charlie Mulgrew and Kieran Tierney at club level with Celtic. Having such a thorough working knowledge of threequarters of the Scotland defence has been a rare treat for the 50-times capped No 1. ‘To have played that number of games behind these guys is always going to help the understanding,’ he added. ‘You are aware of what they are capable of and, more importantly, what they are not. ‘Christophe is much more of a leader now, just through the experience and the amount of games he has played.
‘He played down south in a difficult league for many years, so he is battle hardened. He always comes back for more. He is willing to put his head in there and make challenges, do the dirty work for the team. It is not always pretty but he does a great job.
‘At the other end of the park, he nicks a few goals. At set-pieces he is a huge threat. We need that, too.
‘His partnership with Charlie has been good. They are both dominant in the air and Charlie is good on the ball, which gives us a balance.
‘We feel we are very well organised most of the time. They will be the first to say it is the ones in front of them who start the hard work.
‘But, in terms of stopping many attempts at our goal, they have done very well. I have had a few saves in the last few games but not to the extent of the Slovakian goalkeeper the other night.’
Gordon kept goal the last time Scotland travelled to Slovenia on World Cup qualifying business, but there are a few more grey hairs on his head now than when he largely played the role of observer in a 3-0 victory 12 years ago.
Darren Fletcher, Paul Hartley and James McFadden scored in a dead-rubber tie that offered hope for the future under then manager Walter Smith.
Gordon has gone on to achieve much in his career but admits the absence of a major international tournament on his CV remains a source of frustration, if not outright regret.
‘It’s the one thing I still want to achieve,’ he admitted. ‘We have an opportunity to do that and there might not be too many more. Let’s hope we can take this opportunity, go there and play like it is everybody’s last chance.
‘We have not been to a final since 1998 but there have been a couple of
Oblak is one of the very best, playing at the top level of European football
small opportunities since then to make it happen. Italy at home 10 years ago and the Czech Republic at home in the Euro 2012 qualifiers spring to mind.
‘I don’t know if we could have picked a much more difficult one away from home.
‘Slovenia are very good at home and don’t concede many goals. It is a big challenge but we are coming into it in the best way possible, on the back of five games unbeaten.’
Regardless of what happens today, Gordon will not consider calling time on his international career.
Having missed so much football due to the serious knee injury that put him out of the game for two years, he intends to keep pushing for glory with Scotland.
‘I’ll try to go on as long as I can,’ he said. ‘2020 for sure and maybe 2022, too. What age would I be then? 40? Qatar is still possible, don’t worry about that.’