Solidity remains the priority in Craig Levein's gameplan

Published on Monday 6 September 2010 19:29

AN understandably tense atmosphere could be detected amid the baronial turrets of the Scotland team hotel yesterday. The players are facing their first must-win match for their country since the meeting with the Netherlands a year ago. Even then, however, the subsequent defeat was considered to have been made more meritous due to the valour displayed against opponents of unquestionable stock.

• Craig Levein and his assistant Peter Houston, left, discuss tactics for tonight's match while watching the Scotland squad go through their paces at training at New St Mirren Park yesterday. Picture: SNS

Such a plea of mitigation is not available tonight. Although Liechtenstein must be handed respect, the Scots know that their chances of qualifying for Euro 2012 will shrink to nothing should they fail to beat a principality whose land mass can fit 16 times into that of Luxembourg. They are aware they must fetch a win for the manager, although Levein, who has himself faced the first mild wafts of criticism following successive games in which Scotland have failed to find the net, has absolved them of the further demand to achieve this in style.

Levein has not been inhabiting an ivory tower at the team's base. He is alert to the clamour for Scotland to be dashing and adventurous. But the message being emitted from Mar Hall yesterday is that the Scotland manager, who made his name as an elegant defender but insists on graft from his teams, is not for turning. Solidity remains his guiding principle, however bad the "carping", the word Levein chose yesterday, gets.

This requirement to have all his players working selflessly for one another makes victims of those who cannot guarantee him a shift.

The Scotland manager seemed sterner yesterday than he has at any point in the past, certainly in the time since he was appointed to this post in December. It is not altogether surprising. He is preparing for a match where even a win is not enough for many. Scotland have to win well, although Levein was correct to question what right they have to thrash anyone. Scotland don't do multi-goal wins. In addition, he argued that Liechtenstein are not as dismal as everyone wants to portray them.

Having at last accessed a DVD of their 4-0 defeat at home to Spain last week, Levein finally feels qualified to speak on the subject.

"I am not trying to persuade anyone otherwise," he said, when it was suggested to him that he was seeking to play down expectations of a 3-0 win, which in these austere times would amount to Scotland running riot. "I am just saying this team are not what people think they are. I am saying it's a football match and you have to give a level of respect to the opposition."They have had results in the past when they have punched above their weight. Going back to David and Goliath, there are situations where a team which everyone expects is going to win do not win.

"We can go back to Hamilton beating Rangers in the Scottish Cup," he added. "There are hundreds of situations where a team which is expected to win have not won. There has to be a recognition that this is not a team of nobodies, where nobody knows what they are doing. There are guys with 80, 90 caps, who play together on a regular basis and know each other. A lot play for the same team. I have watched their games - they know what they are doing."

The setting of Scotland's headquarters, in the shadow of the Erskine bridge, called to mind what he said when he announced his squad a fortnight ago. Levein offered a graphic description of where you would find him if Scotland succeeded in reaping just a single point from the forthcoming double-header. "Hanging from the Forth bridge," he imagined. Two points, he had already explained, would leave him "really disappointed". So of course Levein knows the requirement is for victory tonight, although nowhere does it state that this has to be collected in carnival style.

He wasn't hired by the Scottish Football Association to make watching Scotland more enjoyable. Levein was recruited to make the team more successful. "If they (the SFA] want somebody to come in and get the team winning 5-0 in every game then I am not sure if Jose Mourinho is available," was one memorable line uttered by Levein yesterday, although it won't have escaped his attention that even Mourinho is a pragmatist first, entertainer second. The less photogenic Carlo Ancelotti has brought a more free-flowing brand of football to Stamford Bridge, while also maintaining their status as winners.

Chelsea might be the closest thing there is on these isles to a team who can be successful as well as entertaining, but this is because they have the players. In most cases, two or three world stars vie for each position. Levein's options are more restricted, highlighted yesterday by his concern at the calf injury sustained by Steven Whittaker against Lithuania. With Kirk Broadfoot having returned to Rangers after going over an ankle in training, the manager would have been relieved to see Lee Wallace do enough to prove his fitness for a place in the team.

Had he failed to make it, Jay McEveley of Barnsley, without an international start for three years, was on stand-by to play left-back.

But exercising the minds of most in the aftermath of Friday's stalemate in Kaunas has been Levein's plans in attack. While he has included Miller, Boyd and McFadden in his starting line-up, Levein insisted: "The public expectation for me is to win the game. That is the only public expectation that permeates in my head."

Levein's argument is that no formation can guarantee goals. "Putting a team together is about balance," he said."Everyone wants to see McFadden, Boyd, Dorrans, Adam, Morrison and Miller. But when you start doing that you have to ask what formation would you put them all into?"

Despite what those in the stands might urge, it won't be gung-ho from Scotland tonight against a team ranked 141 in the world. "I think this is the best way to qualify," said Levein. "I may be wrong, there may be better ways, but in my experience at clubs in the past this is the way I have found to be best. All I am asking is give me an opportunity to go down this road and see if I can get it to work."

He disputes the well-established theory that Levein is a by-word for unattractive, if always well-drilled, teams. He felt that a similar job had to be done with Scotland as he accomplished at Tynecastle and Tannadice. At both clubs the rot had to be stopped first. There then came the opportunity to develop a style more pleasing on the eye.

The dictaphones had been whirring for over 28 minutes by the time Levein finished speaking. He stressed that he had simply wanted a chance to explain himself, and he had done so - in detail. The Scottish performance tonight may have to be as painstaking, the audience as patient.