Scotland v Serbia: Scots team aim for redemption

Gordon Strachan described the players as having been left “confused” by the opening 25 minutes of the 2-1 loss, but he stressed that no player would be discarded on the evidence of this performance alone. Indeed, one addition has been made to the pool, with full back Paul Caddis, currently on loan at Birmingham City from Swindon Town, having been drafted in following two further call-offs yesterday.

Russell Martin has returned to Norwich City after straining a hamstring in training while Kris Commons has stayed behind in Scotland due to a family issue. Strachan admitted that it was a slightly shame-faced Scotland squad that departed from Glasgow airport yesterday morning. In their tread has been left one of the most undistinguished campaigns in Scotland’s history, with this current attempt to qualify for the World Cup  finals in Brazil reaching a nadir on Friday. If Serbia win tonight, it will be the first time in Scottish football history that the national team has lost four consecutive matches.

Strachan was still trying to fathom it all out yesterday. Having watched a re-run of the game over the weekend, he rated it as “worse than I thought”. He challenged the players to redeem themselves in the games ahead as he seeks to establish who can carry the responsibility of improving on Scotland’s recent efforts in qualifying campaigns, with the latest one shaping up to become the worst yet.

“Everybody is getting another chance,” Strachan said. “There is nobody who played on Friday who will be discarded because there are good players there.”

Strachan conceded that he would “tweak” the team that started against Wales, although this was required whatever had been the outcome of that game, with Steven Fletcher ruled out because of injury and Robert Snodgrass suspended after picking up a red card. Rhodes is expected to make his first competitive start in attack. Strachan does, however, wish for “continuity” in some vital areas of the park, and the manager hinted that Grant Hanley, who recovered from a distinctly shaky opening spell on Friday to score Scotland’s goal, will keep his place alongside skipper Gary Caldwell in the centre of defence.

Although assistant manager Mark McGhee appeared to suggest in one interview yesterday that Scotland could still qualify, one bookmaker rated the chance of this happening at 500-1. Strachan was being slightly more realistic than his old Aberdeen team-mate, with the manager admitting that it was now about preparing for the Euro 2016 campaign. “I have to do that [make changes] and I apologise to any fans who think that I’m devaluing the game,”  he said in Belgrade yesterday. “But I need to find out now if people can play away from home in a World Cup game and in a big atmosphere.

“I need to find that out now because there’s no point in waiting until one of these big games comes around in the next campaign. I need to find out now if they can do it, if they can deal with the demands that we’re making of them. And I need to know now.”

One player who looks likely to finally get his chance after several substitute appearances in recent competitive games is Rhodes, who Strachan admitted had been treated possibly unfairly in his short Scotland career to date. After scoring 23 goals for Blackburn Rovers and Huddersfield Town this season, the Tartan Army are impatient to see the 23 year-old striker handed the chance to prove himself. He has struck three goals in his two starts so far for Scotland and his next opportunity to make a claim for a regular place is set to come this evening at the Karadjorje Stadium.

“We need to see Jordan,” stressed Strachan. “We always think, ‘Jordan is a goalscorer, so we can stick him on for the final 15 or 20 minutes’. But that’s not right for him. When he’s at his best he plays with two strikers but that won’t always be the case at international level because not that many teams do it.”

However, Strachan pledged not to leave Rhodes isolated in attack, something the manager recognised had happened in the opening stages of Friday night’s game, as first Steven Fletcher and then Kenny Miller looked stranded. “I’m not going to leave him on his own,” said Strachan. “I will never leave him on his own. That’s what we are trying to do – make sure they are not left on their own.

“In the first 20 minutes, if we look back, we left our main striker, Fletcher then Kenny, on their own. That cannot happen.

“He will find it different from the normal way of playing, but he is not going to be a lone front man. I will never play a lone front man.”

Although he accepted Wales profited from being bigger and more physically imposing than their opponents on Friday, Strachan is not yet minded to change his philosophy about the game. “We don’t have many big players,” he said. “At times Wales were more physical than us. My thoughts were that we would be able to pass the ball past a physical side, which we didn’t. I’m not going to change from what I think,” he added. “I do believe Scottish players can beat players and do bits and bobs.

“We have to give ourselves a platform to do that. I’m not going to just pick a team with someone who is 6ft who can just tackle and fill in holes all over the place.

“I really couldn’t do that,” he added. “I couldn’t watch it. It’s not me. There may be special occasions when I have to do something like that.

“But generally if we want the game to go forward we’ve got to be brave enough to do something about it. I’m not talking about being stupid, but being brave.”