Fletcher is answer to Scotland’s defensive nightmare
IT IS difficult to guess, given the individuals at his disposal and the often contrary nature of the manager himself, the exact details of the cunning plan Gordon Strachan is concocting to, above all else, stop England scoring at Wembley. Might Darren Fletcher, though, be an interesting place to start? A possible ‘Kaiser’ in the making? It does not seem outrageous to suggest that Strachan has already toyed with the idea of using the Scotland captain in a defensive position.
Over the course of that souldestroying double-header with Lithuania and Slovakia, he was spotted on the training field with a notebook which appeared to feature the West Brom midfielder’s name in a central defensive position.
Fletcher, of course, has experience of playing as a centre-half. During an injury crisis at Manchester United several years ago, he even spent a handful of matches there with fellow midfielder Michael Carrick as his partner.
Yet, with Strachan conceding himself that the main priority ahead of what may yet prove his international swansong is keeping a clean sheet, would the national coach be open to tearing up his system completely and gambling on three at the back?
Using a third central defender still tends to be seen as something a little old-fashioned, a niche interest for those who grew up addicted to Italian football on Channel 4 in the late 1980s. It died when fashion dictated that teams should use just one striker, right?
Well, not necessarily. If anything, it is threatening to make a comeback. Such a system served Wales well during the course of Euro 2016.
Italy, under Antonio Conte, used it to good effect, too, before running into a Germany side that specifically switched from 4-2-3-1 to 3-5-2 before knocking them out on penalty-kicks. Brendan Rodgers introduced it to his Celtic players as an option earlier in the season, Mark Hughes has utilised it at Stoke City and the current Everton boss Ronald Koeman is known to be an advocate of its use in the right circumstances.
These would certainly seem to be the right circumstances for Scotland.
Those matches against Lithuania and Slovakia offered incontrovertible evidence that things cannot go on as they are.
If public confidence in Russell Martin and Grant Hanley, not to mention the players’ belief in themselves, was at a low ebb, it must be at rock-bottom now. We should have been 2-0 down against the Lithuanians after Hanley was caught out for a second time by goalscorer Fiodor Cernych, who blazed wide when clean through. There is no need to dwell on what unfolded in Trnava three days later.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, one unfortunate by-product of every manager under the sun rushing out in support of Strachan has been that the players have been slaughtered, routinely branded inadequate and sub-standard, without any meaningful analysis sought on the national coach’s misjudgments of recent months.
Martin and Hanley are limited, honest guys trying their best at a level they’ve had no preparation for at club level. There is less to lose, politically, from caning them than Strachan, though, so they get it in the neck.
The problem is that there is no obvious answer to our defensive issues. Bring in Christophe Berra? It is pretty much replacing like with like, is it not?
Why not do something completely different, then, and put the calming, experienced influence of Fletcher in the centre of the rearguard beside two recognised centre-backs, providing an organisational centrepoint and some added support and protection?
We have always been tempted to look upon Fletcher here in Scotland as a man to make things happen.
He knows the darker arts perfectly well, though. Arsene Wenger once did everything other than accuse him of ‘anti-football’ following an infamous Manchester United win over Arsenal.
He may not be the next Franz Beckenbauer, but he knows how to stop people. He knows how to win big games. He knows how to use the ball.
He is a man, with his reading of the game, who would be capable of starting moves from defence and guiding the team from the vantage point of having the entire pitch in front of him.
What is wonderful about Fletcher, as Strachan attested to last week, is that he would play there in a minute. He is a terrific professional, seemingly unencumbered by ego. Captain or not, he will do the job asked of him.
There are, of course, drawbacks with 3-5-2 and little time for Strachan to work on a game plan. The midfield three would have to be disciplined with the wing-backs prepared to graft hard, but Kieran Tierney and Andy Robertson on the left and Callum Paterson and Alan Hutton on the right all have good engines.
In that kind of set-up, Robert Snodgrass could be given a free role behind a main striker. We could even play two up front.
There might even be the leeway to give the 40-goals-a-season Leigh Griffiths a start. On second thoughts, that might be taking it just a little too far.