GORDON Strachan has oft lamented the lack of a superstar among his Scotland squad, citing Wales’ good fortune to have Gareth Bale and the predatory powers of Poland’s Robert Lewandowski. He has a point. It is difficult to imagine too many kids running around Cardiff or Warsaw with Fletcher or Snodgrass printed on the back of their replica shirts.

Marek Hamsik is another who falls into the talisman category. The midfielder may not have the same glamour appeal as the afore-mentioned players but his influence for both club and country cannot be overstated. All being well, the 29-year-old will earn his 94th cap for Slovakia when they welcome Scotland to Trnava on Tuesday night. A national hero, he is similarly cherished at club level having been with Napoli since 2007 and recently signed an extension to stay for a further four years.

Hamsik recently passed Diego Maradona’s club record for league goals and now has his sights set on overhauling the Argentinean for goals scored in all competitions. Hamsik, though, would appear to be as humble as he is talented. “It’s an honour to be near Maradona but he always played at a different level,” he said, with a deferential nod to the man who almost single-handedly delivered the only two league Scudettos in Napoli’s history.

Hamsik is also a patriot and an ambitious one, too. “Of course I’d like to win a World Cup or a European Championship with Slovakia,” he added, perhaps unrealistically. Still, having reached their first Euros this summer, this country of just 5.5 million people is at least moving in the right direction. Next on their to-do list is qualifying for the World Cup for the second time in their relatively short history and Hamsik will have a significant role to play in their attempts to do so.

“Hamsik is the biggest threat to Scotland,” said Stan Varga, the former Celtic defender and a one-time Slovak international. “He broke Diego Maradona's record at Napoli so that tells you how good he is. At the moment, Hamsik is a better player than anyone in the Scotland team.

“Slovakia has a lot of good players but he's the main one. He's a vital player for Napoli too and he showed what he can do at the Euros when he scored a fantastic goal against Russia. When he's performing on his day, he's a very good player for us.

“I don't want to say Scotland have average players but none of them are really top, top players. None of them are playing for a really big team. Even for us, Hamsik isn't playing for a Manchester United or a club like that. But he's a player who can make a difference for us. He stands apart from anyone in both sides.”

If Hamsik is the lead soloist in the Slovak ensemble then there are other noticeable contributors in the chorus line, with Martin Skrtel, once of Liverpool and now at Fenerbahce, expected to return from suspension to bolster the backline on Tuesday night.

“The Slovakian people also rely on Martin Skrtel at the back,” said Varga, now managing Tatran Presov in his homeland. “He has a broken nose and was suspended for the game against Slovenia but hopefully he'll be back for Scotland.

“Everyone here knows about him from playing at Liverpool. I like him because he's a tough player, a good defender. He should have stayed in Liverpool but maybe the coach didn't want him. He's an old-fashioned defender, that's his style.

“He played at Liverpool for nine years and in one of those, he played every minute of the season. So he's a quality defender. He picked up a red card against England [in the first qualifying game] but that's his style, so sometimes that can happen to him.”

There will be no Vladimir Weiss, however. The one-time Rangers forward was dropped by manager Jan Kozak after being stopped by police in Bratislava and reportedly refusing to take a breathalyser test.

“I can't talk about Weiss because I don't really know what happened,” Varga said. “They caught him in the morning. But we'll see after the investigation what the truth is. He's a very good player for Slovakia and they'll miss him. The coach couldn't pick him after what has happened, he had no choice.”

Slovakia will provide the answer to a future pub question about the opposition in Sam Allardyce’s only match in charge of England. The concession of such a late goal to Adam Lallana was an undoubted blow but not terminal to Slovakia’s qualification prospects, reckons Varga.

“Everyone was down after the England game. We should have had a draw against them, which would have been a good result. But it doesn't change our ambition for the group.

“England have changed their manager. Or, should I say, the manager changed himself! So there are plenty of games to go, it's still open. After one game, we can't say we don't have a chance of winning the group.”

- Stan Varga was speaking at a William Hill media event ahead of Slovakia v Scotland. William Hill is a proud sponsor of the Scotland national team