Scots look on bright side but it's another dose of les bleus

IT was interesting that Scotland manager Gordon Strachan chose to see his team's recent miseries in a broader context during his post-match musings after the filleting by France.

Olivier Giroud heads the ball just before Laurent Koscielny scores. Picture: Getty

He didn’t confine himself to talk about double-header duntings caused by the outclassing in Metz on Saturday night that followed the Italians’ total superiority over his men in Malta the week before.

These two games, which would appear to have served no purpose beyond reinforcing what poor men of Europe Scotland are when set against major tournament contenders, Strachan made half of a four-game package.

The friendlies won away to the Czech Republic and at home to the Danes in March were part of the continuum to prepare for the World Cup qualifying campaign that begins in September. Played four, won two, lost two sounds a heck of a lot more acceptable than played 180 minutes and never forced even a simple save from two opposition keepers. Yet the problem with chucking in the Czech and Danish wins to improve the landscape is that Strachan himself was anything but thrilled by all too many aspects of these decidedly fortunate victories.

Of course, we shouldn’t read too much into two end-of-season friendlies against two top teams with their juices flowing as they prepare for the sense-sharpening combat of the Euro 2016 finals. However, let’s look at not four games but the nine that Scotland have played in the past 12 months – starting with the deeply unimpressive 1-1 draw against the Republic of Ireland in Dublin that sowed the seeds of Scotland’s Euro 2016 qualifying failure.

In patches, Scotland were decent against both Germany and Poland but their defensive inadequacies – writ large here on Saturday in the errors that allowed Olivier Giroud to finish with elan for his early opener and, after he had hit a second, let his team-mate Laurent Koscielny make it 3-0 with a routine header direct from corner – then and now appear frankly unconquerable. Strachan can’t be blamed for that, since he can’t magic up a centre-back that plays to any sort of standard in British football.

The Scotland manager will find a growing number of detractors because of the poverty of the displays in, what deserved to be acknowledged, were invidious 
circumstances this past week. His 
players retain genuine enthusiasm and regard for his methods, though Robert Snodgrass, pictured right, has returned to the international fold in recent months after being sidelined for a year-and-a-half with a dislocated kneecap. He won’t give headspace to fingers being pointed at the Scotland manager.

“I’m not focussing on that,” said Snodgrass. “I think he has done a terrific job. I think he is the best man to take us forward. He has proved that when we have beaten some good teams. You can’t judge anyone based on friendlies. It’s as simple as that. I don’t think you can sit and talk about this manager or that manager. As a team 
we have got to do better in certain stages of the game.

“We can’t concede three goals in the first half. If you do that it doesn’t matter if you have ten top managers on the sidelines. That’s what your job is, it’s what you have to avoid and ultimately that’s what you have to do to win games. We can sit here and talk about this or that. But the manager is shaping things up nicely for the World Cup campaign.”

That is seriously open to debate and even Snodgrass, perhaps unwittingly, betrays the direction of travel in ruminating on whether there has been any progress at international level in his time out with injury. “It’s hard because it’s been all friendlies I have come back to,” he said. “When I went out we were beating Croatia back-to-back and they were fourth best in the world.

“We have had two good results against the Czech Republic and Denmark. But we have gone that step further taking on two favourites for the tournament. We have lost, but only when the campaign starts will we see if there is progress or not.

“These games are against teams preparing for the Euros and we have not quite made it. The manager was trying to give debuts to people.

“It’s not the full squad you would say will start in games. He is trying different things with Russell Martin at right back and Barrie McKay making his debut. Stephen Kingsley as well. It’s all things the manager wants to try out.”

In a captivating atmosphere at a corking Stade Saint-Symphorien, Scotland were like a drugged bull and France the matador as interested in the show as much as the slaughter. Praise be to the Lord for that because, at 3-0 after 39 minutes, the final scoreline looked set to eclipse the 5-0 defeat to which Scotland succumbed in the first game of Berti Vogts’ tenure. It is to be hoped that there won’t be any other cause to recall those days in the year to come.

Yet, the ordinariness of the current playing pool – wherein the more notable performers are at an age, or career 
stage, that seems to have blunted their previous edge – has shades of that time. Strachan might still be well capable of getting the most out of his players. Alarmingly, it could be just that this
most is far less than it was at the start of the last qualifying campaign.

Referee:

S Delferiere (Bel

Attendance:

25,000