Before people ask, I know some people may find it strange that Scotland are being discussed on a Rangers blog but after the sacking of George Burley from the Scotland National Squad, I just couldn’t help myself. Over the last day or so there has been quotes attributed to a certain former Rangers manager, Graeme Souness that the current batch of Scotland players are not good enough to qualify for a major tournament in the near future. In this article I will discuss whether I feel that the current generation of Scottish players are good enough.
Whoever inherits the managerial seat from George Burley has one hell of a task on their hands that is for sure. Scotland has plummeted down the world rankings under George Burley from once dizzy heights. Each and every time Scotland fail to qualify for a major tournament, the task only becomes harder the next time. Thanks to Burley’s disastrous spell as Scotland manager, Scotland have fell from 2nd seeds in the World Cup qualification draw to near the bottom of the 3rd seeds in the European qualification draw. Which could well mean that Scotland end up with 2 teams like Italy and France in their qualification group for Euro 2012 and unless there is a drastic turn around in the country’s fortunes then Scotland would have no chance in hell.
It wasn’t always misery and despair for Scotland, only a couple of years ago firstly under Walter Smith and then Alex McLeish Scotland became Marcello Lippi’s nation to watch out for. Oh how times have changed! Is it any wonder that Walter Smith is one of the favourites for the vacant Scotland position, after he raised Scotland up from the ashes of Berti Vogts reign? It does however remain to be seen whether Walter Smith would be interested in becoming the next Scotland manager.
With there being roughly 60 Scottish players in the Championship surely and the new regulation passed by FIFA allowing players to play for a nation where they have been schooled for 5 years, surely there must be some talent available to the next Scotland manager. If you look to the Championship you have players such as Steve Howard at Leicester who is powerful in the air, George Boyd at Peterborough United, the left winger was a major part of getting Peterborough promoted to the Championship last season and Nick Montgomery at Sheffield United who could be considered for a call up in the future.
Now that Burley has departed, the new Scotland manager should look to immediately get Kris Boyd back into the fold. There were signs against St Mirren before the international break that Boyd’s all round game is improving. Even when Boyd isn’t playing well there is always a chance that he will put the ball in the back of the net when he gets a chance, which does not seem to be in the nature of any of the forwards currently in the Scotland National squad. There are times where Scotland will only create one opportunity and in Boyd, would be a man that the majority of the Tartan Army would be confident would put the chance away.
Another major task for the next Scotland Manager would be to rebuild the entire defence, with first choice pairing Stephen McManus and Gary Caldwell looking more like a comedy act then a defensive pairing at times, the left back position wide open and Alan Hutton struggling to replicating the stunning form that earned him a move to Tottenham, all places should be up for grabs in that defence. With Danny Fox looking mediocre against Wales in the left back position, I would urge the next Scotland Manager to think about inviting Jay McEvely of Derby back into the Scotland squad or to have a look at Chris Armstrong of Reading. As for the centre back positions Christophe Berra seems an obvious choice to be at the heart of the defence but the question is, who should partner him? The likes of Steven Caldwell at Burnley, Neil Collins on loan to Preston and Darren Barr of Falkirk must be in with a shout.
The next Scotland manager will need to find the right balance in a team, the formation that seems to have worked best for Scotland in recent years is deploying 1 forward up front by themselves. Which we all know is widely perceived that Kris Boyd cannot play up front by himself. However if Scotland were to deploy an attacking midfielder just off him, then this could combat Boyd’s deficiencies. The ideal candidate in my eyes for the attacking midfield role would be Scott Brown of Celtic. The next manager will also need to realise that Darren Fletcher is not a creative midfielder, he does the defending and breaks up play, play him to his strengths.
As for the original question are Scotland good enough? Yes I think Scotland have players that are good enough at their disposal, it is just a matter of finding the right formation for the team and selecting the right players to play beside them. The Scotland team should be built around Kris Boyd (Scotland’s best finisher), Darren Fletcher (Scotland’s best midfielder), Alan Hutton (Scotland’s best defender) , Craig Gordon (World class goalkeeper), Scott Brown (Talented midfielder) and James McFadden (Capable of magic). Therefore my suggested starting eleven for Scotland would be the following:
——————————————Craig Gordon——————————————-
Alan Hutton————-Christophe Berra——–Neil Collins———-Jay McEveley
——————Darren Fletcher———————Nick Armstrong——————–
Kris Commons—————————————————————James McFadden
—————————————–Scott Brown——————————————
——————————————-Kris Boyd——————————————-
