Manager insists he will keep faith in Iwelumo

Published on Sunday 12 October 2008 23:14

IF GEORGE Burley's tenure as Scotland manager is not to be defined simply by one excruciating moment, his faith in the credibility of Chris Iwelumo as an international footballer must somehow be justified in the remaining games of a World Cup qualifying bid which already seems to be slipping out of his grasp.

As it stands this morning, it is difficult to believe Iwelumo's staggering miss in front of a gaping goal at Hampden will not come to be remembered as the incident which fatally damaged Scotland's chances of reaching the 2010 finals in South Africa. Yet just as he believes the big Wolves striker provided enough evidence on his debut to suggest he has a long-term future in the dark blue jersey, so Burley remains defiant that Scotland can emerge from their truncated five-team qualifying section with the requisite points tally to at least secure a play-off place.

As he digested the repercussions of the dispiriting 0-0 draw with Norway, a result which leaves him with a record of just one win from his first six games in charge of Scotland, Burley defended the decision to introduce Iwelumo and Steven Fletcher as 56th minute substitutes for James McFadden and James Morrison while the proven goalscoring pedigree of Kris Boyd was again disregarded.

"Chris Iwelumo showed enough in his general play during the 35 minutes he was on to suggest he can cope with international football," insisted Burley. "He gave us someone who is very good in the air and if we play him, we need movement around him.

"It was about a pairing. Norway have some big lads at the back and Chris is six foot four, he would give them problems in the air. I needed a lot of movement around him and I know Steven Fletcher has got that. He is a very clever and talented player, so I felt that combination would be right. When they came on, I thought they worked very well together.

"We have a squad and we need a balance in the squad. There are partnerships and combinations all over the pitch. Every game is different and you need different things.

"Steven dropped a wee bit deeper and big Chris was a target man. They played off each other very well. I wanted the balance and those two gave us the balance. They gave decent players a lot of problems and I was pleased with those two.

"Chris would score with that chance 99 times out of 100. It was one of those where it came to him quickly. He is obviously very disappointed. But we know he can score goals, he has been doing it for fun this season with Wolves,

"I don't think it will damage his self confidence. Strikers miss chances. It didn't affect the rest of his game. Even after missing the chance, he looked sharp, bright and lively. He was a big threat to their defence.

"He accepted responsibility. He kept winning headers and bringing people into the game. The fans got behind him and stuck with him because he kept showing for the ball, he never hid."

Burley will travel to Oslo to watch Norway play Group 9 leaders and top seeds the Netherlands on Wednesday night. On the reasonable assumption the Dutch will go on to win the group and take the automatic qualification place for the finals, the best outcome for Scotland would be an away victory.

With his own 17-point target now looking highly ambitious, Burley will also be aware that finishing second in the group offers no guarantee of a play-off place. The eight runners-up with the best records will contest those two-legged ties. In Scotland's group, all results will be counted in determining that records, while in the other eight six-team groups the results against the bottom placed country will not be included.

"Maybe 17 points is too high a target, but you always set a target high," said Burley. "But Norway drew at home to Iceland, we have drawn this game at home and that shows it is possible other teams will drop points at home.

"It makes it more difficult but it's still possible. Norway have two points, we have four. It's going to be tight and very competitive. We have to try and take something from our away games as well. We will look to win in Norway and it would be great if we could get a point in Holland. It can be done."

Burley admitted that the tactics he employed on Saturday, with McFadden as the lone striker, backfired but felt they had been justified by the success of a similar approach in the 2-1 win over Iceland in Reykjavik last month.

"I wanted to keep the continuity going from Iceland and James McFadden played up front himself that night with two players wide of him," he said. "We wanted to keep that going, but Norway made it more difficult for us. I knew before the game that I could change it and bring big Chris on if I needed to.

"Tactically, I think we got it right when I changed it. They made it hard for us and our system didn't work, so we changed it. It worked after that. We got the ball and passed it and Scott Brown was magnificent.

Our aim was to get the ball down and pass it through our midfield, but we didn't pass it well enough. At times we were a little bit sloppy in possession. Norway were not giving us time on the ball and we mentioned that to the players at half-time.

"That's why we changed it. I decided to leave it 10 minutes into the second half. I didn't feel we were putting enough pressure on their back four or giving them enough problems. Once we changed it, I thought we did.

"The opportunity was there to win it, during that spell when we completely dominated. That was the time we needed to finish it off. If we had scored that goal, I think we would have got the three points."