ANDY IS PART OF THE FLYING SQUAD
Levein’s vision comes to fruition as Scotland’s pace men are unleashed to devastating effect
Pages 6-7
CRAIG LEVEIN will forever be panned for Prague and
that formation. Wearily aware of this, seven years on, the new Hearts boss landed the punchline first last week by claiming the style of his team would be one striker up front — ‘just in case’.
Since his entire Scotland coaching career will remain synonymous with one ghastly tactical call, let’s be fair in the aftermath of Lithuania on Friday night and recall a best-laid plan of Levein’s that unfortunately never saw the light of day during his reign.
Here was Levein talking in May 2012 after a relentless pursuit of a young former England Under-20 winger by the name of Matt Phillips, which persuaded the Blackpool wide man to swap international allegiance to the country of his grandad’s birth.
‘Going into this qualifying campaign — away from home in particular — if you have really frightening counter-attacking pace, it does make a huge difference,’ said Levein. ‘And I’m very excited by Phillips and James Forrest. I’d love to play the two of them.’
That particular one-two punch of counter-attacking speed never was unleashed on either flank of a Levein team. Nor had Gordon Strachan been able to find a fit-enough Phillips and Forrest combination — until Friday evening in Vilnius.
And there was Phillips, criminally earning only his fifth cap, blending beautifully with Celtic winger Forrest — who had drifted over from his right-sided role — to help craft the opening on the break from which Andrew Robertson smacked Scotland into a 2-0 lead.
Phillips was a star man right from the off with his pace and power proving to be a match-up nightmare for a back-peddling, befuddled Lithuanian defence.
The West Brom winger has skirted around the Scotland scene to no reasonable impact since Levein handed him a dubious debut in a 5-1 thrashing against the USA during what amounted to little more than a squad vacation in Florida. He played in Belgium in Levein’s last game, appeared as a substitute in the Czech Republic as Strachan played just about anyone eligible in two March friendlies last year and laboured like everyone else in the 1-0 pre-Euro 2016 friendly defeat to Italy.
Fifteen months on, Phillips has become an accomplished English Premier League pick for his club and a weapon that Strachan could not ignore.
Pairing him on the left flank with Robertson (right) created a £15million headache that crippled the hosts.
Robertson was walking on air into the match anyway, what with settling into life as a Liverpool player and welcoming his first child into the world. Giving him Phillips to work with as Scotland’s qualifying resurgence went into overdrive was quite the bonus.
‘It was the first time I’ve played with Matty and I was happy with how we worked,’ enthused Robertson. ‘We linked up well. I went round him and sometimes he went inside and got a shot away, which is fine. ‘He gave me the ball at the right times and I managed to give him it early and get him in one-v-one situations, so I could leave him and not invade his space too much. And, defensively, I thought he helped me out massively in two-v-one situations. I thought it was a good performance down our side. As it was on the other side.’
As a Hull player over the last three seasons, Robertson’s club team faced Phillips with Queen’s Park Rangers and West Brom in Premier League and Championship action. Broken arm, broken ankle and a host of niggling injuries prevented Phillips from being at full pelt for much of that time.
There appear no such worries now for the strapping 26-year-old.
‘Matt was always on the left when we played against West Brom, so I have never played right up against him,’ said Robertson. ‘You know what you are getting against him — big, powerful, and good end product. I recall watching him quite closely from the bench in one game when I’d just come back from injury and thought he was a great player.
‘He is getting better and better. I think since moving to West Brom he has stepped up to a whole new level.
‘Against Lithuania here, he was maybe unfortunate not to get a couple of assists and maybe even a goal.’
The display from Phillips has cranked up the competition for places in wide areas of the squad. Matt Ritchie replaced Forrest on 66 minutes and took a hand in the settling third goal from James McArthur, while Ryan Fraser was left on the bench to dream of destroying Malta on Monday and a lack of club action cost Robert Snodgrass his place.
Then, as Robertson points out, there is the small matter of a £15m Scottish winger sitting waiting at West Brom to welcome hero Phillips back home — 20-year-old new Tony Pulis signing Oliver Burke.
‘The likes of Ryan Fraser and Snoddy never got a game and might be a bit frustrated, but maybe the gaffer will decide to make changes for Malta,’ said Robertson.
‘But you could change both wingers in this Scotland team and I don’t think people would look on us as being weaker.
You know what you are getting with Matt — big, powerful and an end product
‘Oli Burke is a great young prospect and hopefully can kick on.
‘He is kind of similar to Matty but I just think Matty has got that wee bit more experience just now and he has worked massively on his end product.
‘Oli can learn from watching Matt and the good players at West Brom. He’s only young and, if he can keep on getting experience, he can turn into a top, top player for us.
‘And that is only the wings! We’ve got the squad depth now.
‘We have great options all over the park and if we can keep that going and the lads can keep doing well for their clubs, it will only be good for the country. We’ve young lads bursting to get on the pitch and do well. It’s a great mix.’
To Robertson’s delight, Strachan once again found a way to accommodate his two ace left-backs. Kieran Tierney tucked in on the right side of the four-man defence, leaving Robertson to fulfil his natural role.
Robertson, 23, has great admiration for his younger colleague’s approach to playing out of position in World Cup qualifying.
That’s a task likely made easier by being able to look up in any direction on the pitch and see that any one of five club team-mates are there to help him — Craig Gordon, Stuart Armstrong, Scott Brown, Leigh Griffiths and Forrest.
But Robertson is keen to stress that the Celtic connection is not the sole ingredient of a magic formula discovered midway through an ailing Russia 2018 campaign. ‘KT has done brilliantly,’ said Robertson. ‘He’s a young lad and sometimes that makes it easier. Nerves start to build the older you get.
‘Would he rather play on the left? I am sure he would but going on the right to get us both in the team I think is brilliant. I don’t think anyone let us down.
‘Of course, everyone touches on the linking up between the Celtic lads but I don’t think the guys that come in have to adapt to the Celtic way of playing. I think they have to adapt to the Scotland way, which is as it should be.
‘I do think it helps having so many at the same club. But I don’t think you can tell that the others don’t play for Celtic because we link up well. People focus on Celtic because there are so many of them but we play the way the Scotland manager wants us to play. Which is the one he thinks best suits all the players and it is good mix.
‘I think all of us were comfortable on the ball. When it went back to Craigy he was calm and he was composed, playing out from the back. That’s something we’ve maybe not had at times. It’s been a great result.
‘But the typical thing would be all the fans, all the players, all the media to get carried away with it and we can’t do that.
‘We need to concentrate on beating Malta then, after that, we can say: “That was a good month, we got six points and we move on to the end of the campaign”.’
Robertson’s 30th-minute strike — his second goal for the Scotland — was extra special as it could be celebrated back home by girlfriend and new mum Rachel, who gave birth to Robertson’s baby son Rocco last weekend. The highlight footage waiting for him when he is the age to appreciate it had just been greatly enhanced by his father’s performance for Scotland.
‘I’ve got hundreds of messages on the phone from my missus,’ said Robertson before preparing to comb through every one of them on the team bus to Vilnius Airport. ‘He (Rocco) probably slept through the whole match. He’ll not know what is going on but we will maybe show him when he is a wee bit older.’