Scotland v Wales: Strachan’s men won’t get physical

IN THE way that dogs are often said to resemble their owners, perhaps Scotland are already beginning to adopt the characteristics of their new manager, whose attempt to mount a World Cup salvage operation begins at home against Wales this evening.

Gordon Strachan concedes that Scotland will have sent out more physically imposing teams than the one he will place his faith in at Hampden Park tonight. That points to the inclusion of the likes of Shaun Maloney and possibly even Chris Burke, who shares both physical and playing traits with Strachan. Scotland will attempt to bring some sophistication of their own to a clash many have already blithely predicted will bear the hallmarks of a typically rumbustious British derby.

Wales, of course, hope to include their own antidote to the often brutal results when two British sides meet. The prospect of Gareth Bale gliding across the glistening Hampden turf has already prompted Dundee manager John Brown to suggest resorting to agricultural methods to deal with the danger. “You can’t run with no legs,” proposed Brown rather grimly on a radio programme earlier this week.

That comment was relayed to Chris Coleman at Hampden Park last night, although he was already aware of it. The Wales manager described such talk as “neanderthal” but was happy if Scotland wished to employ such tactics. ‘Then we’d be playing against eight or nine men,” he said. “Because there is only so many times you can do that these days before you are off the pitch. Maybe in my day, 25 years ago, fair enough. But not now.”

He needn’t worry. Just a few hours earlier, Strachan pursued a similar theme, having also being asked whether Scotland would be taking tips on halting Bale from Brown. “The days of ‘Chopper’ Harris are gone,” said Strachan. “You don’t get a name like Chopper Harris these days.”

Let the players play is Strachan’s mantra. He appears happy to lend his name to this manifesto because, as he views it, Scotland are blessed with players who are can profit in a climate where a mis-timed or crude challenge will be instantly punished. It is the kind of landscape the guileful Strachan will have relished as a player. Now Scotland manager, he has, due to player availability, been left with a team he admits would struggle to prosper if the game descends into a purely physical battle.

Both Strachan and Coleman will be heartened to learn that Antony Gautier is officiating tonight. The French referee is someone known to be a strict enforcer of the rules, meaning he is likely to spot if a player has had his legs removed. Even if that had been Scotland’s less-than-subtle gameplan, Strachan would struggle to nominate a hatchet-man from the players he has at his disposal. “We have got a young bunch,” he said yesterday. “I had a look at them this morning and thought: ‘they really are quite young and fresh’. It’s not as powerful as the team has been before so we have to use the skills we have got.”

Asked for his philosophy, he said: “The philosophy is that we have players who can pass it. The longer you can keep it the less chance the other team have of scoring. We have to trust ourselves. I just like watching good footballers and today’s surfaces, rules, and everything else mean that people like to see the top players in the world play and have space without being kicked out the game,” he added.

“That’s better for everybody and the same rules apply to us. Maloney, Burke, [Robert] Snodgrass. It allows them to play their football. Years ago they might have been stopped quite crudely. I think we have players in the team that can beat people and take them on.”

Strachan won’t be sending out a team with the intention to simply avoid defeat, something of which his predecessor Craig Levein was often accused.

“If you have a lot of good defenders with a lot of height and physical strength you can get away with that,” said Strachan. “With the squad I have now I don’t think there is enough in it to do that.”

Given that Strachan has not felt it necessary to change the pre-match hotel base preferred by Levein, it was difficult to avoid letting the mind drift back to the previous manager’s reign, and wonder what might have been had a clearly legitimate goal stood in the first match against Wales, five months ago.

Indeed, Strachan himself questioned whether he would be sitting where he was yesterday had the ball not been adjudged to have gone out prior to Steven Fletcher heading in what would have been Scotland’s second goal. Coleman also contemplated this sliding-doors scenario yesterday. He knows that, with ten minutes remaining of that night in Cardiff and Wales trailing 1-0, he was the one on the verge of losing his job.

“I felt sorry for Craig,” he said.

Strachan, too, referred to the luck that is needed to succeed in football. “Has it ever been explained why that goal was ruled out down there?” he asked. “Seriously. Has it ever been explained? Normally when a goal [isn’t given] there is some sort of explanation. We know it didn’t go out of play. But I don’t think anyone has ever actually said what that goal was disallowed for. I might not be sitting here but for that,” he added. “At some stage in my career I would like to have been sitting here but I would rather we had won the three points that’s for sure.”

It was typical Strachan. An arch patriot. He would rather that Scotland had a more realistic chance of qualifying for Brazil 2014, even if at was a cost to his own personal ambitions.

“With Scotland, you can make millions of people happy,” he added, looking slightly flushed at the prospect. “The problem is, you can also make a nation miserable.”