I HAVE to admit I was surprised when the SFA came out last night and said they were unanimously backing Gordon Strachan to carry on as Scotland manager. It’s not the decision I would have made. Personally I felt the time had been right for a change.

Strachan is a good manager and you can tell the players enjoy working for him. You also have to acknowledge that those same players have let him down too many times.

The truth is, however, that we are only four games into a World Cup campaign and it is already defective as we are not going to qualify, no matter what the SFA and Strachan say in their statements. There is far too much for us to do to have any real chance of even making a play-off spot. So in that case what is the point in sticking with the status quo?

Read more: Herald comment: The SFA have rewarded failure by unanimously backing Gordon Strachan

For me, the team has plateaued under Strachan over the last two years, and in recent months that plateau has started to become a decline. Come January he’ll have been in the job for four years so it’s not a knee-jerk reaction. You can’t say he’s not had a fair crack of the whip.

Given the way the last campaign ended, the farcical summer friendlies and then watching other small countries doing well in the Euros, I felt that positivity was at a premium going into these World Cup fixtures. We started well with the win in Malta but that was an expected victory.

And then we go into the Lithuania game and, regardless of people saying they would be dangerous opponents, we should be winning a home game against the second-worst team in the group. We then go to Slovakia chasing our tails and got an absolute hiding. The performance level was way below what was expected, and there was no pace in the team which is vital in international football.

Read more: Herald comment: The SFA have rewarded failure by unanimously backing Gordon Strachan

So England away almost became a must-win match given our predicament. And the ironic thing is, it was probably our best display in a while under Strachan. The team selection was right, the performance was decent and there were other positives. But none of that really matters. We lost 3-0 again and that is the bottom line. Do you think Martin O’Neill is interested in how the Republic of Ireland play? I’m pretty sure he would take points over performance every day of the week. And that is the attitude Scotland needs to adapt. So it’s all very well saying we played well at Wembley but did we gain any points? No, we didn’t. And that’s what we need above all else. Pats on the back for losing 3-0 to a very average England side won’t earn you qualification for a major tournament any time soon.

From our last three games we have taken one point from nine, scored one goal, and conceded seven. Those are the facts laid down bare and it’s nowhere near good enough. That is why this campaign is all but over and we aren’t going to qualify for Russia.

The SFA, though, have decided to back their man, although they haven’t said what will happen if we don’t beat Slovenia in March or England in June. It could get to next summer and our situation hasn’t improved any under the same manager when we could have given a new man seven months to bed in with new ideas, new players and a new philosophy. So that feels like an opportunity lost.

But if Strachan is staying on then the most pressing thing he has to try to achieve over the rest of this campaign is to make Scotland hard to beat again. Defensively we need to tighten up, make us more pragmatic and less expansive.

Read more: Herald comment: The SFA have rewarded failure by unanimously backing Gordon Strachan

The style of football may be more boring but I’m sure a lot of fans will be happy with dull football if it means we start picking up points and, ultimately, qualifying for tournaments again. Even the likes of Spain can sometimes find themselves frustrated by teams that sit in and play as a tight unit. In the first instance this is what Scotland have to try to become as the goals we’ve been shipping of late have been very soft.

I found watching the Euros in the summer quite boring at times but there is no arguing that that way of playing can often be effective for a limited side. We started off well against England last week and didn’t concede for 23 minutes but then end up shipping three goals. So there are vast improvements needed defensively. That has to be sorted out first to provide us with some sort of foundation that we can then hopefully build on.