Faroe Islands 2

EVEN for someone who turned a whiter shade of pale at Cordoba during the Argentina World Cup in 1978 and again in Genoa 12 years later for the double helping of humiliation against Iran and Costa Rica, Scotland’s draw with the Faroe Islands left this observer feeling distinctly queasy.
Up until now, Scotland’s worst performances on the international stage were best remembered for providing evidence of a slacker mentality. Our boys could play all right, but heaven help us if they looked down their noses at so-called lesser opponents: that was when the covers came off and we fell into a black hole of our own making.

Those calamities were all the more poignant because the national team contained men of genuine ability. Where the managers of the day went wrong was in neglecting to fulfil the potential of the players. Indeed, it’s worth bearing in mind how, in the aftermath of the draw with Iran and the defeat by Costa Rica, the Scotland teams coached by Ally MacLeod and Andy Roxburgh bounced back with thrilling victories over Holland and Sweden. Now you can charge me with negative reporting if you like, but there’s absolutely no evidence to suggest Berti Vogts will inspire the worst organised Scotland side in recent memory to perform a similar volte-face in the months ahead.

After going down with all hands to France, Nigeria, South Korea, South Africa and Denmark in friendlies, Scotland’s shambolic first-half performance in Toftir simply continued the trends of indecision, inexperience and ineptitude which have been the hallmarks of Vogts’ reign. My initial reaction when the German was appointed as Craig Brown’s successor was one of surprise: if you own a Lada you don’t need a Mercedes mechanic to service your car. One could only guess that David Taylor, the chief executive of the SFA, and the association’s executive committee which sanctioned the appointment, believed the introduction of a high-profile name would pour fresh ideas into a machine in danger of running on empty.

If that theory was reasonable, the reality has been quite different. No-one would dispute Scotland needed a new man at the helm after failing to qualify for this summer’s World Cup finals. Indeed, Vogts himself made a fair point in suggesting the time for change should have come after the 1998 World Cup finals in France.
International management is not a job for life. While there may be nostalgia for the professional manner in which Brown prepared his sides on the pitch and the amount of time he devoted off the park to briefing all aspects of the media (the Scot would never have made the gaffe, for example, of signing an exclusive deal to write for one newspaper), the national team sorely needed a change of direction and a different man at the helm.

What the powers-that-be overlooked, however, was that with radical change comes high risk and the possibility things would get worse rather than better. This is exactly the position in which Scotland now find themselves under Vogts. The national team was in need of new blood all right, but an infusion of the wrong type has put an already sickly patient on the critical list. In looking to the example of neighbours England, where Sweden’s Seven Goran Eriksson replaced Kevin Keegan, rather than Ireland and Wales, where former internationalists Mick McCarthy and Mark Hughes are in charge, the SFA may have been tempted by a ‘sexy’ appointment rather than a practical one. If Alex McLeish or Walter Smith or Joe Jordan or Paul Sturrock or Eric Black or Jim Jefferies or any other Scottish manager you care to mention had been given the job then it’s doubtful if David Taylor would have been able to make his little speech last February about the sun shining, the birds singing and the arrival of a new coach.

By raising levels of expectation, the SFA hierarchy have only given themselves further to fall. For a start, Vogts’ long-term strategy, which presumably has the approval of the beaks, is seriously flawed. International football is not a kindergarten where you can groom players to rule the world in four years time. The only criteria for representing your country in competitive matches is picking the best players available irrespective of age. Under Brown there was a reluctance to introduce younger footballers and his team looked stale by the end of the regime.Yet by concentrating on so many untried and untested lads Vogts has thrown the baby out with the bathwater. In order to function effectively at international level, it goes without saying players should be first-team footballers at their clubs. If you wanted an example of the difference between a first team regular and a reserve then it was evident against the Faroes in the performances of Stevie Crawford and Kevin Kyle.

Unable to break through into the Sunderland side, Kyle is a strapping 21-year-old with phsyical presence but much to learn. The moment in the second-half when Scotland were chasing a late winner and his clumsy touch ran the ball out for a throw-in to the opposition did not belong in this class of football. A late call-up to the squad and kept on the bench until Scotland were two goals adrift, the Dunfermline man, by contrast, added a bit of pace, a touch of urgency and a sense of direction in the second-half against the postmen, the plumbers and the schoolteachers who made up the bulk of the opposition.

It was Crawford and the midfield hub of Barry Ferguson and Paul Lambert who rescued a point for Scotland in this match and it’s to players of experience that Vogts must look for redemption. God knows, there isn’t an abundance of riches available to the manager. But the ailing state of Scottish football isn’t half as bad as the performances of recent months would suggest. It should be abundantly clear from the manner in which the Faroes drove a coach and horses through the middle of Scotland’s back four that the side must revert to a 3-5-2 formation. Apparently, Scotland did use this system in training for Saturday but then changed to 4-4-2. All able coaches start by locking the back door. On the evidence so far, Vogts not only left the door ajar, he put up a sign saying ‘Welcome Burglars.’

Reliable club men such as Steven Pressley of Hearts and Colin Cameron of Wolves should never have been left out of the squad and in an ideal, injury-free world one would like to see a side along the following lines wear the blue jersey in the not too distant future: Douglas; Dailly, Pressley and Matteo; Burley, Ferguson, Lambert, Cameron and Naysmith; Crawford and Hutchison or McCann. What would differentiate this XI from the ones selected by Vogts is that everyone would play in a position they know, unlike the muddle in Toftir where the decision to stick Scott Dobie on the right flank in the second-half was bewildering and did both the young striker and the team a disservice. Just as Hibs had to bite the bullet last season when a string of poor results and performances confirmed Franck Sauzee was not the man for the job at Easter Road, so the SFA need to take stock of a desperate situation where, astonishingly, the pace of Scotland’s decline has quickened under Vogts’ command.