Weir will either start for Scotland or be out of squad

Published on Tuesday 19 August 2008 22:06

IN ORDER to maximise the chances of eliciting committed and harmonious performances from the Scotland players who face Northern Ireland at Hampden tonight, George Burley may have to convince more than a third of them that they are not merely keeping places warm for those who are temporarily indisposed.

The national team manager's predicament, even before the friendly – the last before the start of the World Cup qualifying – kicks off, is necessitated by the unavailability of five members of his original 24-man squad, four of whom would have been first choices.

Burley will have something of a job persuading the likely full-backs, Graham Alexander and Gary Naysmith, that they are not simply filling in for the absent Kevin McNaughton and Callum Davidson, but the chore will be less taxing in the cases of David Weir, who will partner Stephen McManus in place of Gary Caldwell, and James Morrison, the midfield stand-in for Paul Hartley.

It emerged yesterday that 38-year-old Weir has an agreement with the manager by which the veteran defender, from now on, will either be in the team or out of the squad. Having been omitted when the pool was announced last week, Weir's emergency call-up was a guarantee of a place in the starting line-up.

"I've spoken to Davie since I became manager," said Burley, "and he is perfectly wiling to join us when we need him. He is 38 now and his experience could be invaluable, but we have to look a year or two down the line when he'll be older. But, as things stand, I'm not going to bring him in and not play him."

At 22, Morrison is the second-youngest player in the group behind Hibernian's Steven Fletcher and the West Brom midfielder, given his first cap by Burley in the friendly against the Czech Republic at the end of last season, will surely realise that his appearance in tonight's match indicates the esteem in which the manager holds him.

"He's young, enthusiastic and talented and this gives him a chance to show what he can do," said Burley, who travelled to London last Saturday to be impressed by Morrison's performance against Arsenal.

Even so, the rather makeshift nature of the probable team is, as Burley conceded yesterday, not ideal in the context of the opening World Cup match against Macedonia in Skopje next month.

"Of course, the ideal is to have all of your selected players available," he said. "But that's why you need depth in your squad, with cover for every position. The nucleus of the team I would like to have in Macedonia remains and this match against Northern Ireland will be a worthwhile exercise because it will give us an opportunity to try one or two things and see how they work."

Among the "one or two things" Burley is keen to examine is the attack partnership of James McFadden and Kenny Miller and the effect of his own demands on the midfield quartet to be more positive in possession of the ball, more forceful in the matter of exerting pressure on opponents.

It is the one area he believes is in need of improving, especially in competitive away matches, and there is no denying that the line-up tonight has the appearance of one primed to support Miller and McFadden at every opportunity.

With the Celtic pair, Scott Brown and Barry Robson, partnering Manchester United's Darren Fletcher and Morrison in midfield, Burley seems to have made a declaration of his intention to distance himself further from the work of his immediate predecessors, Alex McLeish and Walter Smith.

"Whatever the line-up, whether or not it's the one you would like most," said Burley, "the principle of being more forceful from middle to front will remain. And we'd want to see more of that in away games, to take the game to opponents, rather than be a team who sits in and waits for the counter-attack. I'd like to see less square and back passing.

"Of course, at this level, you have to be patient and thoughtful in your distribution, you can't just rush in and lose possession cheaply. But the point is that we have players who can make incisive passes quickly and switch the play into forward areas and we'd like to see more of that.

"In that respect, it doesn't matter too much that Northern Ireland won't be similar to Macedonia. The main point of the exercise is to get our own team playing as we want them and to see how effective that can be. It does take any new manager a while to make his imprint on a team and there are things to be tried out, partnerships allowed to form among players in certain departments.

"If the ideal we have in mind works, we'll stick with it. If you look at our World Cup group, with Holland, Norway, Macedonia and Iceland, you can see that it's likely to be tight. An extra goal or two from midfield, more than we've had in the past, could make all the difference."

Burley's problems at full-back are unlikely to be eased by the time of the Macedonia match, as he revealed that Alan Hutton, first choice on the right, has less than a 50-50 chance of being recovered from the injury that has kept him out at Tottenham.

"I'm afraid it looks that way," said the manager. "But he's one we'll give every chance of making it. But we would need to see him play for his club and prove his fitness and, at the moment, that's looking less than 50-50."

PROBABLE TEAMS

Scotland (4-4-2): Gordon; Alexander, Weir, McManus, Naysmith; Morrison, Brown, Fletcher, Robson; McFadden, Miller.

Northern Ireland (4-4-2): Taylor; Baird, McAuley, Craigan, Evans; Shiels, Clingan, Davis, Brunt; Healy, Feeney.