Craig Levein likely to play safe after dodging a bullet

Published on Wednesday 8 September 2010 16:00

CRAIG Levein is blessed with enough intelligence to realise that he dodged a bullet on Tuesday evening, though for him and others there will still be ramifications after a night when Scotland stretched out the pain and anguish to a new extreme. The dust was still settling yesterday. But few were mistaking the previous night's drama for valour.

• Craig Levein was unable to contain his relief as Scotland avoided one of the worst results in their history, by scoring a 97th-minute winner against Liechtenstein, despite only five minutes added time being indicated on the big screen. Picture: Ian Rutherford

Equally, few can now anticipate Scotland being anything other than ultra-cautious in up-coming outings after a night when a team perhaps did not die, but their licence to play with adventure did. This permit had been granted by Levein against what he later described was his "better judgment".

Scotland will have to find a more willing team of patsies than Liechtenstein if they want to experiment with the system that was once standard, but is now a talking point.

If Liechtenstein, ranked at 141 in the world, won't play ball when Scotland open up and employ two forwards, then Levein might have to run his finger further down the rankings, to the likes of Montserrat and Anguilla at the 200 mark, if he wishes to find possibly more accommodating opponents. But the manager would rightly note that Andorra, who were only one goal worse-off than Liechtenstein in their 3-1 defeat by Republic of Ireland, are lodged in 201st place. Levein will have had his thinking about football buttressed further by what he viewed on Tuesday.

Liechtenstein worked tirelessy for one another and so very nearly grabbed a point. They carried no passengers. Alarmingly, they could be held up by Levein as an example to Scotland.

Levein knew it anyway, but what has been revealed by 180 minutes of competitive football - or, thanks to the generosity of a Ukrainian referee, make that 187 minutes - is that Scotland are in a struggle and a half to make the play-off place, with Lithuania having also announced themselves as very real contenders.

Something that has been signalled by the first four results from Group I is that it is unlikely to produce a best placed runner-up, the prize for which is automatic entry to Euro 2012. There is too much mediocrity on display, just as there was in Scotland's last campaign.On that occasion Norway, who finished second behind the Dutch, were the only runners'-up not granted a place in the play-offs, on account of their record being the worst of all the others.

There is a long way to go - after next month's double-header with Czech Republic and Spain, Scotland are not in competitive action again until September next year - and Levein has been guaranteed at least another 12 months in the post following Stephen McManus's late, late intervention. Even two defeats next month would not constitute a sacking offence, and neither would they leave Scotland out of the running for second-place.

That a defender, a centre-half no less, should emerge as Levein's saviour is highly appropriate, after a week dominated by debate about the manager's tactics. His approach, certainly out in Lithuania when Scotland returned with what now looks a productive point, had been regarded as dour and defensive by many, but Levein had appeared unmoved by the first stirrings of a critical backlash since he was appointed manager last year.

Rightly, the 3-0 friendly defeat to Sweden had been disregarded due to the influx of newcomers and absence of experience. But can Tuesday night be dismissed so easily? Seven of the ten outfield players who defeated France in Paris three years ago featured against Liechtenstein at Hampden. One of the few who didn't play in Paris, James Morrison, came on and did Levein a turn, following a 45-minute workshop from James McFadden in how to play yourself out of the Scotland team. "I was really pleased with James Morrison's performance," said Levein, pointedly. "In the second half he brought energy and enthusiasm and desire to do the work, and he also brought fantastic ability on the ball."

Conversely, this had to be interpreted as outlining what McFadden had not brought to the party, further confirming what Levein suggested earlier this week when he mentioned the player's maverick ways. The burning question, Levein explained, was not whether the Birmingham player would start against Liechtenstein, but will he be in the team to play Czech Republic in Prague next month? After Tuesday, reporters won't need to waste any breath trying to pin Levein down on that one. McFadden can surely not expect anything more than a cameo against Spain four days later either. "I made the substitution because I felt he (McFadden] was off the boil," said Levein. "Again, that's my job. I felt we needed something different."

Although he admitted swithering over his formation on Tuesday, Levein denied being influenced to any degree by the reaction of the fans and media to last week's 0-0 draw in Kaunas. In a lecture theatre which still hummed with a mixture of relief and disbelief, deep in the bowels of Hampden, he was asked outright by one reporter whether he had felt "brow-beaten" into changing his tactics. "I made the decision, after thinking about it for a long time, to try and get an early goal in the game.That was the plan. To try and get off and running.. so it becomes less of a toil. But that didn't happen for a number of different reasons."

Levein, who still looked haunted by the time he faced reporters half an hour after the final whistle, had endured the kind of night he will do everything in his power to avoid experiencing again.