THE good news: sometimes you can have months to chew over a poor result and performance in international football, such as the malaise which afflicted Scotland in Georgia. Gordon Strachan’s side at least have a chance to atone immediately but the bad news is that coming into town are Germany, the World Champions, who after their stumbles early in the campaign are now winning matches at the business end of their Euro 2016 qualifying campaign with typical Teutonic efficiency. Here Chief Sports Writer Stewart Fisher runs the rule over the fixture and clutches at a few straws as the Scots prepare to tackle mission impossible.
PIVOTAL PLAYERS
Some players will be more important than others but if you are to get a result against the Germans then the entire starting eleven and all the subs must be on their mettle. There can be no passengers in a match in which Scotland must defend and (occasionally) attack as a unit or else be ruthlessly exposed by the penetration and quick thinking of this Germany side.
David Marshall, assuming he continues in goal, will be required to have a red letter day, Grant Hanley, on the assumption the brawny Blackburn Rovers centre half bolsters the Scottish back four, must win his headers in the penalty box against Thomas Muller, while Chris Martin, who Gordon Strachan has hinted could start the match for the first time since the 3-1 friendly defeat to England, must win headers in both boxes and give Scotland a platform to keep some quality possession in the Germany half.
WHAT IS THE PROBABLE STARTING LINE-UP?
Strachan has hinted that he will freshen up the side following the Georgian disaster and no-one who watched that match would quibble unduly. Indeed, no-one’s place should be safe, although the Scotland boss’s room for experimentation is limited. I expect him to start with David Marshall at the back, a back four of Alan Hutton, Grant Hanley, Russell Martin and Steven Whittaker; play a solid three-man midfield maybe with either Charlie Mulgrew or Darren Fletcher joining Scott Brown and James Morrison in there, and Shaun Maloney and possibly James Forrest ahead of Ikechi Anya on the flanks. I will take him at his word with the suggestion that Chris Martin will get the nod up front ahead of Steven Fletcher and Naismith. Personally I would love to see James McArthur get a chance in a deeper midfield role.
KEY CLASH
Chris Martin v Mats Hummels. I am writing this on the assumption that the Derby striker gets the nod up front but it could equally to apply to Fletcher or Naismith should they be preferred, or even Leigh Griffiths. Both Fletcher and Naismith have struggled for first team duty for Sunderland and Everton this season and appeared rusty in Tbilisi on Friday night so Strachan may be prepared to change the approach and go with the Derby man. What Martin lacks in mobility and pace, he makes up for in strength and he will need to use that to the full to pin a world class defender like Hummels, and hold the ball long enough to feed supporting midfielders. While this experiment wasn’t exactly successful against the English, Scotland midfielders will need to hit this target man with accuracy if they are to have success.
TACTICAL BATTLE
With the exception of Marco Reus, Joachim Loew has many of his World Cup winning chess pieces back in place and he will deploy them in the confident expectation of winning the match. Assuming he doesn’t rest too many following the exertions of Friday’s victory against Poland, with the likes of Mario Gotze and Mesut Ozil picking up pockets of space, they will expect to dominate possession and pose a huge threat to Scotland’s defenders.
The hard part for Scotland will be striking the balance between dropping off the game by sitting in behind the ball, and pressing the opposition, particularly with 50,000 fans roaring them on. They will need to commit bodies forward in attack or else Martin, Fletcher, Naismith or whoever will be a lonely figure up there.
SCORE PREDICTION
Sorry ... but I’ll go for Scotland 1 Germany 3. But even in that eventuality all may not be lost. Assuming Germany can also take care of Republic of Ireland in Dublin, winning against Poland and Gibraltar in October would still be enough to secure Scotland a play-off place.
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