Strachan the brave leads our evolution
IT’S a Darwinian world, football. A harsh-as-hell environment where only the smartest survive. And the key to thriving in a business where standing still equals stagnation, where failing to make the next great leap forward means being devoured by a ferocious chasing pack? It’s the same as the secret to staying on top of the food chain anywhere on this beautiful blue-green globe.
Adaptability, that’s what it takes. Intelligence enough to see the world changing, plus the bravery needed to take an unfamiliar path. Yep, those people who always seem to be in the right place at the right time might owe their ‘luck’ to more than just whims of fate.
Which brings us, nicely if a little meanderingly, to the advances Scotland have made under the direction of Gordon Strachan — a fine example of managerius a stutus bending to the needs of the modern international game.
Strachan’s boldness, never more apparent than in Friday night’s beautiful dissection of an Ireland side employing tactics straight from the Mesozoic era, has created a new mood in the country. There is a genuine and unquenchable feeling of optimism about our chances of qualifying for the Euro 2016 Finals.
As he prepares to l ead a much- changed XI into a sort of afterthought engagement with England, there can be no denying that Strachan — and his team — have been transformed.
You only have to recall the persistently lukewarm reception Gordon got from some in the Celtic support, forever complaining about his brand of football, to understand how much has changed in his world.
From day zero until the day he departed Celtic Park with a load of domestic honours and a quite astonishing European record, Strachan laboured under the criticism of being somehow set in his tactical ways.
It was fascinating, then, to see how the Scot completely outcoached his far more popular predecessor at Celtic, Martin O’Neill, as they crossed swords at their old stomping ground.
There was O’Neill, still playing the percentages and asking the opposition to climb over bodies for an inch of space, being undone by Strachan’s more subtle and nuanced approach, one based on possession, pace — and the deft touches provided by players not big enough or brawny enough for far too many coaches.
It wasn’t so long ago, remember, that Strachan himself was lamenting that lack of height and physique in his team. If we were to compete with the supermen of a nation like Belgium, he reasoned, we needed to be bigger, faster, stronger.
But Strachan, whose first Damascene conversion came when he realised that the stuffy lot who had been struggling under his predecessor could actually hasn’t been bound by this single tenet.
So far in this campaign, the athletes of Germany and Poland, not to mention a pretty brutish Irish bunch, have all been countered not by stocking the starting line-up with hard-running refugees from rugby’s second row — but by using the gifts of our little fellas to make the big lads look lumbering and ungainly.
Like evolution i tself, this is nothing new. The best coaches have always been able to change. Any manager who prattles on about ‘sticking to our principles’ while the fourth goal is conceded is a charlatan who should be drummed out of the business.
Under Strachan, Scotland have shown themselves capable of coping with very different challenges.
One generally accepted scientific fact is that species, including our own, haven’t evolved at a steady rate. There have been periods of accelerated advancement over the millennia and, in the case of homo sapiens and our antecedents, it’s noticeable that major jumps — particularly in brain size — have occurred during t he most challenging periods.
Well, Strachan took over a team on i ts uppers, nursed them through to the end of one doomed campaign, then found that he’d been thrown i nto a horribly difficult qualifying group.
Instead of cursing his luck, he has done what the smartest animals have since the first spark of life. Put himself ahead of the curve. And changed Scotland’s fortunes dramatically.
Once tomorrow night’s minor hurrah against the Auld Enemy is out of the way, our next serious fixture — we’ll discount Gibraltar — is in Ireland next June. It’s a genuine opportunity to severely enhance our own chances.
Of course, Gordon Strachan hasn’t lasted this long in the game, as red in tooth and claw as any wild environs, without recognising the need to be ruthless, opportunistic — and adaptable.