ZLAT’S THE WAY TO A FRONT TWO FOR SCOTS
Strachan: I’d drop lone role if I had a world star
FIND him his very own Zlatan and he’ll gladly abandon the system that forces a decent group of well-regarded strikers to compete for a single starting spot. You see? Gordon Strachan isn’t nearly as inflexible as some insist.
In all seriousness, the Scotland head coach has settled on his lone-forward set-up because it suits the t y pe of pl ayer we have in abundance. The creative sorts who can support from the flanks or wreak havoc f rom a starting position just shy of the front line.
Explaining that only the arrival of two world-class strikers could make him tinker with the one-up formation, Strachan acknowledges that he faces a familiar conundrum ahead of tonight’s Hampden friendly with Denmark.
Talking up Celtic striker Leigh Griffiths, a player he praises for turning around his own career at club level, the national team boss left enough wiggle room yesterday to justify starting either established first-choice Steven Fletcher or more recent favourite Chris Martin.
That the choice of forward remains definitely an either/or equation is, according to Strachan, merely a reflection of the players at his disposal. For the moment, at least.
‘Listen, I will change it to two if I get two great ones,’ he said. ‘I will change my system to wherever the great players come from. But, at this moment, this system works for the group of players we have got where we are strong.
‘But I will change it, don’t worry about that. At this moment, the way we play is suited for the group of players we have had in the last couple of years.
‘If there are great players that come, it might be like Sweden — they play with two up front because they have Ibrahimovic and he needs someone round about him. Fine. I will do that.’
Asked outright if he thought Fletcher and Griffiths could play together, the manager declared: ‘We will soon find out. I am not saying it is going to be tomorrow. But there will be opportunities in the future.
‘But I don’t know. Then you would have to reinvent the four behind, you cannot be as expansive when you have two strikers. So you can’t just say: “Let’s play two strikers, two men out there and…” it just doesn’t work.
‘You have to still be able to fill gaps. The middle of the field is where it is won and lost. If they’ve got command of the ball, you have to make sure that area is filled. So with two strikers, you have to narrow the midfield. If you say two are going to play together, what four do you play in midfield?
‘It’ s a different ball game altogether. The middle of the park is where you need to outnumber them. If you don’t do that you cannot put the ball wide, or forward. Now some people play with three at the back when they play with two strikers, so they still have plenty bodies in midfield.
‘So it depends who your top, top players are. And your top, top players might change from three months ago. They might blow you away. But, at this moment in time, the way we are playing, we think it’s all right in terms of scoring goals.
‘Will we try a change tomorrow? We’ll see. I can’t promise anything. As Archie Knox often said, Alex Ferguson used to change his mind from his office to the dressing room.’
There is a school of thought that suggests Griffiths, our domestic game’s top scorer with 35 goals in all competitions, will never get a better chance add to his one start for the national team — being thrown in out of necessity in a 1-0 away win over Croatia almost three years ago.
A nod and a mumble was the first response when this theory was put to Strachan, ever reluctant to paint himself into a selection corner — yet unstinting in his praise of the 25-year-old.
The former Celtic boss said: ‘He’s a far better player than he was when I gave him his first start against Croatia.
‘Everything. Strength, understanding, better in the air, better movement i n the box. Everything has improved.
‘He was getting knocked aside that night, yes, but they’re big boys, those central defenders. I think they’ve knocked a few people aside, those lads.
‘Leigh has made himself a better player and, of course, confidence helps as well. It gives you that wee bit of extra pace.
‘Three years ago, he was on loan to Hibs. He looked at that and thought: “No, this isn’t for me.”
‘So he’s the one who has changed his career. I don’t think there is any one coach or person who has done it for him, he has changed it.
‘People talk about this manager or that coach changing a player. You determine your own path in your career.
‘And he has been inform, absolutely on form, even in finishing in training there. But there’ s more to it than just finishing, believe it or not.’
Fletcher was pencilled in to start in Prague and then dropped out of the squad, his illness and subsequent recovery meaning he could well pip Griffiths to the No 9 jersey tonight — although Strachan pointedly included Derby County striker Martin the equation, saying: ‘And Martin.
‘ Martin does well, he brings something different, holds the ball up. He’s probably the best at keeping the ball. But they’re all different, they’ve all got different skills.’
Taking two friendlies at a time of the season when players are under pressure for their clubs, picking two squads in order to have a look at some players he has never worked with in training before, it was all part of a plan for Strachan.
If the idea was to potentially increase the number of possible international footballers at his disposal, though, he was quick to throw in a reminder of his other priority, saying: ‘And to win.
‘But it gives me the chance to speak to 30-odd players about the last qualifying campaign and say: “This was good, that was good. How good was that? Can we improve at this?”.
‘Something that happened in the first half on Thursday came up, so we worked at that in the last couple of days. That’s been great.
‘To get them here and look at videos — and have their opinions — and yesterday we did something with the goalies, we can reference for the future. It’s all been good stuff.
‘ If it all goes to plan against Denmark, I will have given myself more problems than I thought, which is good, which is what I wanted. In saying that, you need to watch sometimes.
‘You can have one or two games where people just aren’t playing so well and it doesn’t really work. I need to curb my enthusiasm just a little bit.’
