ALEX McLeish last night claimed handing five players their Scotland debuts had resulted in a flat display in his first match back as manager and vowed his side would improve when he has had more time to work with his squad.
The national team slumped to a disappointing 1-0 defeat to Costa Rica in a friendly international at a half-full Hampden last night after conceding a 14th minute goal to Marcos Urena.
McLeish, who was appointed head coach of his country for a second time last month, admitted their defending for the goal had been disappointing along with the first-half performance .
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However, the 59-year-old felt starting newcomers Oliver McBurnie, Kevin McDonald, Scott McKenna and Scott McTominay and then bringing on Jamie Murphy had been partially responsible for the performance.
He is hopeful that Scotland supporters will remain patient and give him time to build a new team before the inaugural Nations League gets underway later this year.
“I would expect common sense to prevail,” he said. “There was a lot of changes, five new caps, not a lot of rhythm, just five days training. We will need to be together a lot longer than five days. Thanks goodness it’s not competition. I am disappointed with the defeat
“We were off the pace in the first half and didn’t get the tempo I wanted. We were halfway there but never the full way in terms of pressing. The second half was much better.
“The new caps – five guys – meant there wasn’t a lot of fluidity. You have to take that into account. It also reminds me of when you’re playing a League Cup game and you’re rotating your squad.
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“I saw some good things and some not so good things before picking the next team to play. We did have a couple of chances, but we weren’t as clinical as Costa Rica.”
McLeish added: “For their goal our defenders backed into the box and he got the 45 degree finish. But we need to engage forwards. We cannot stand on lines and stay in zones. That’s one of the things I’ll speak to the players about.
“It was common sense we looked at new young players after seeing some great club form. There were a few who did really well. I have to look for pluses, but I do need to get the right system and right personnel.
“We are Scottish and need to show certain traits in our game that the opposition have difficult with. We did that in the second half. We missed some passes, some miscontrol. But we thank the crowd for coming to support us and singing when we were a goal down.
“McBurnie had a great second half chance to score, but he is just a kid, really young. He has been playing with the 21s in the last year. But he has been scoring goals in the English Championship.
“That’s why we gave him his chance and he did some things which were effective. But he’ll look at some other things he could have done better with. He had a good chance. Getting into the positions is important, but at this level you need to be clinical in there. He will probably have a sleepless night on that.
“I thought McKenna had a good game. He got drawn out from defence, but went the whole way and made sure he pushed his opponent away from goal. There was a lot of intelligence in his performance.”
Costa Rica manager Oscar Ramirez was delighted that his side had got their build-up to the Russia 2018 finals underway with such a hard-fought away victory.
“It was a game that really helped us,” he said. “I am really happy with the performance, with the ball possession against a team that press. We counter attacked sometimes and played a possession game at other times.
“I changed the system in the second half. I was happy with how the players managed the pace of the game. That is something they will have to do in the World Cup. The team was very compact. The feeling is very positive. We have started the game with a win.
“It was difficult to know what to expect from Scotland because they had a new coach in Alex McLeish. In the second half they put more people in the middle, but we still enjoyed a very good game."
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