STRACHAN AIMS FOR THE STARS
Scots boss goes to see Interstellar and is bowled over by public excitement for clash
ESCAPING the bubble of Scotland’s team hotel, Gordon Strachan spent Wednesday engaging with the outside world. As manager of Celtic, visits to the cinema were a tricky business. Abuse from the local delinquents was an occupational hazard.
Preparing to l ead Scotland through a keenly- anticipated Euro 2016 qualifier with the Republic of Ireland, public feedback is now a less-fraught affair.
‘I went out to the cinema and, as I walked there, I met a lot of people,’ said Strachan yesterday.
‘That is when the excitement started. I went to see Interstellar. I was there for about three hours with (Mark) McGhee. He was explaining the theory of relativity and sound and ageing and all the rest of it. My head was buzzing by the time I got back here.’
The stars i n his eyes were not solely attributable to his assistant manager’s chat. There was also a new appreciation of just what t onight’s game means to people.
If Scotland harbour realistic aspirations of returning to a major finals, winning a home match laced with headlines and sub plots is pretty much essential.
Asked what people said during his ‘date night’ with McGhee, Strachan identified excitement as the main emotion.
‘It is not depression, it’s not that,’ he said. ‘It was just excitement from the people we met. So that was good. It’s exciting just now.
‘As I say to the players, you can always worry about things after it. Before it, use the excitement, don’t worry too much about it. Don’t worry about a disaster until it happens.’
These days the fear of disaster is Scottish football’s default mode.
Years of successive f ailure, mediocrity and decline at this level have often prompted shrugs of resignation.
During 18 months in charge, Strachan has managed to raise expectations but dropping six points behind Ireland tonight would feel like the bursting of a bubble.
‘There is always pressure in every j ob that you get and, i n this one, you feel as if you are letting down a nation if you don’t do well,’ he said. ‘But so far, through their performances, we have made them proud.
‘Somewhere along the line there has got to be performances that are not that great. But we have to make sure that, if we are not playing that great, we make it as diff i cult as we can f or our opponents to play well.’
There is nothing worthy of an Interstellar sequel in how Strachan does it. His management methods are not rocket science.
Organisation, picking a system which suits those at his disposal and players knowing their jobs has been a successful formula.
The stakes are high against Ireland but Strachan also sensed this week that the players needed a break. A day to be themselves or, as he did, watch a movie.
‘Everything we had wanted to do we had done in the previous two days,’ he said.
‘As a manager, you sometimes sniff that they need a rest from me, they need a rest from coaching in general.
‘They just need a wee bit of time to step back and have mental rest.’
Not l east when the various threads to this game add to the spice of the occasion and increase the pressure to win.
They are numerous. Strachan versus Martin O’Neill — his Celtic predecessor. The Roy Keane circus. Aiden McGeady back at Celtic Park where he was once idolised but may yet be booed.
Players and management don’t read papers, of course. Not until something negative appears. Then they seem to know about it instantly.
This week more than most, however, Strachan has been largely protected f rom the hype and freneticism of this game.
‘I think we’ve got it right,’ he said. ‘We don’t get them too high for a game — no matter if it’s Germany or Georgia — and we want to strike a balance.
‘The coaches set the standard and I detach myself from the madness that surrounds it — which is a great madness for everyone bar the players.
‘It’s good to have excitement but I’m totally detached from the media side of things and just get on with it.’
It won’t be a normal international. The squads are so similar, the players so familiar with each other, the Celtic temperament such that a scratchy, frantic and high-tempo occasion is expected.
‘I think there will be a wee bit more pace to this than a normal i nternational game,’ Strachan said.
Neither is talk of a ‘ must-win’ game for the Scots likely to improve the quality of the football.
Strachan says it’s no such thing — football people always do. But no one can deny that dropping six points behind Ireland with a trip to Dublin still to come would be bad news.
‘It’s not a reluctance (to call it a must win),’ Strachan insisted, ‘just a general belief. I think we’ll have a better idea of things once we’ve all played each other once.
‘There may be days when you don’t perform and you still win — that might be tomorrow. I hope it’s not — I hope we perform and win.’
The worries surrounding this Scotland team are less than they used to be but they will never really go.
As Celtic manager, O’Neill was the architect of many a goal from a set- piece. How Scotland’s rearguard defend those will be important.
They have lost some bad goals from corners in the recent past and O’Neill usually picks big players.
In contrast, Strachan will probably field a more diminutive side. Yet he sees few braver.
‘All the games have been decided by one goal,’ he said. ‘ Take Gibraltar out of the equation, all the games have been decided by one goal. That is how important it is you get set-plays right.
‘Then again, we’ve tried anything, who is the tallest and bravest, it might come down to that. I’ve no fear of these lads. You watch Steven Naismith going up, he’s not that tall or hasn’t that body strength but it doesn’t bother him.’
Graeme Souness was fulsome in his praise of the Everton player this week but expressed concerns over t he l ack of a r eli able, consistent Scotland goal-getter at this level. The Irish have Robbie Keane with 65 international strikes. Naismith — with four — is the best the Scots can offer.
‘ I can see where Graeme is coming from,’ said Strachan. ‘But I watched Derby play Wolves at the weekend and Chris Martin is the main striker.
‘It was 5-0 yet the main goalgetter didn’t score. However, he was involved in everything.
‘More important than the striker might be the three men behind him.’
Strachan will tell his players his starting XI this morning. Thereafter, it i s up to them. Parkhead with a 60,000 crowd is hardly a night at the cinema but Strachan will try, through the nerves, to savour every moment he can.
‘I think you enjoy that bit just before kick- off,’ he said. ‘ It’s a nervous game tomorrow but there is a point just before kick-off when you think: “OK, game on”.’