George Burley calls on Scots players to light up the way to Euro 2012

Published on Friday 13 November 2009 22:01

HE COULD, perhaps should, have been uttering a battle-cry prior to the first leg of a World Cup play-off.

Instead George Burley was yesterday highlighting the positives of a friendly with Wales, one which, he stressed, was the first step on the road to the European Championship finals in 2012.

Scotland are required to be forward thinkers since the imminent future is just a scattering of challenge matches. Like their opponents, the finals after the next finals must be the project. A third successive World Cup will get underway next summer in South Africa without Scotland's involvement, but Burley, right, is determined that the next European Championship finals will feature his side. It has to if he is to continue as manager of the international team in the long term.

He only just clung on after Scotland's latest attempt to qualify for a major finals ended in failure. But, like an adrenaline addict, Burley seems exhilarated by the near miss. The ultimate high will only be felt when Scotland again compete on the greatest stages. To have any hope of getting there means making the most of such fixtures as this afternoon's, even though it feels decidedly low-rent compared to the play-off clashes elsewhere in Europe. Burley quickly absorbed the disappointment of finishing third behind the Netherlands and Norway in Group 9. This process was made easier by the lively displays posted in the defeat at home to the Netherlands in the last match, and in the second half against Macedonia five days earlier.

"This is where we are," pointed out Burley. "We didn't qualify. And we haven't qualified for 12 years. So we are trying to build the squad, improve the squad, and get the games in that you can in order to make it stronger. It's a great job. I enjoy every minute of it. It is a challenge. If I hadn't seen the optimism and the passion that I did see in the last two games of the World Cup qualifiers, then I'd have been in a big low, but I feel we are getting better."

The Scotland manager is nothing if not relentlessly upbeat. A raft of call-offs against Japan last month meant some contended that the exercise had been diminished to the point of worthlessness, but Burley managed to return from the other side of the world with a quester's zeal. This despite Scotland's failure to manage a single shot on target. The signs are that today's contest in Cardiff will be a much more profitable assignment, with Burley inhibited by just five absentees. According to Burley, those who are missing, including Scott Brown and Steven Whittaker, should display some unease at the variety of options at his disposal. It is one positive consequence of the trip to Yokohama last month, although of those given a first run-out then, only the West Bromwich Albion midfielder Graham Dorrans is likely to start this afternoon.

"I've got options up front, in midfield and at the back," he said. "Lee Wallace has come in, and we've got Danny Fox – two guys who are new to the squad. In midfield Graham Dorrans came in Japan, as did Don Cowie. And Steven Naismith came in against Holland and did very well, and he is a young one as well. Up front we've got Kenny Miller and Steven Fletcher, who is doing very well, and now Derek Riordan."

It is hoped this vigour will be demonstrated against Wales, who Scotland have beaten only once in their last six meetings. This sequence of results stretches back to May 1983, and includes the 4-0 shaming delivered on Berti Vogts' side on Scotland's last visit to the city five years ago. While that might have been explained away as the consequence of experimentation, Burley is confident that he has identified the core of a side he hopes will take Scotland to the next European Championship finals in Poland and Ukraine. Others will continue to flit in and out of the side.

"I feel we have more competition for places," he said. "We have the nucleus of our strongest squad here. The Euros are getting closer and this is good preparation for that. I've been impressed with our training. One or two have shown me that they are desperate to be in our starting line-up. That is always encouraging for a manager. We now no longer have players taking things for granted, thinking that they are an automatic pick. That is what we need."

"I think we are progressing," he continued. "We've had some games at home which I was very pleased with. We have the nucleus of the squad that will, hopefully, take us into the Euros. In every squad you need competition. You need guys looking over their shoulder. And we've introduced a few younger players. There is a hunger and desire – that is what we are trying to build in the squad."

Burley's enthusiasm is shared by the Tartan Army, over 4,000 of whom are expected to be in the crowd today for Scotland's first visit to the new stadium. They will be heartened to hear Burley speak of the need to get the best from James McFadden, who has tended to be a peripheral figure under the manager.

"What we are trying to do is get James McFadden into the right positions to hurt teams," he said. "That is what we will try to do. McFadden has got ability that no-one else in the squad has got, so the more we can get him in those areas, the better."

The Birmingham City forward is likely to feature in a more central role against the Welsh, where he will be urged to make a menace of himself between the home side's centre-halves. It is hoped the likes of Ched Evans, the Sheffield United striker, don't manage to cause the same amount of mischief in the heart of the Scottish defence, where Gary Caldwell and Stephen McManus will look to banish the memory of conceding three goals to Falkirk in 45 minutes in their last game together with Celtic. As always, Burley backed his preferred centre-half pairing.

"They are two very strong characters," he said. "If you went to war, you want these two guys in the trenches with you. Of course you get ups and downs in football, everybody gets those. But when you play for the Old Firm every game is magnified. They are used to that. Their characters are never in doubt."

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