AS his decision to select Chris Martin up front when Scotland played Lithuania in the second match of this Russia 2018 qualifying campaign last year underlined, Gordon Strachan can be a difficult man to second guess.

Supporters had spent days deliberating whether Sheffield Wednesday striker Steven Fletcher would be brought back in to lead the line or Leigh Griffiths would finally be rewarded for his goalscoring form with Celtic by being handed a start. Strachan, in that thrawn manner of his, went for neither of them.

Yet, his comments yesterday strongly suggested he is likely to put his faith in the experience of Barry Bannan and Darren Fletcher in a Group F meeting with Slovakia at Hampden this evening which his side need to win in order to keep alive their hopes of reaching the World Cup finals next year.

Many members of the Tartan Army would like John McGinn and Callum McGregor, who scored two goals apiece in the 2-2 draw between Celtic and Hibernian at Parkhead last weekend, to be given a chance in the absence of the injured Stuart Armstrong and Scott Brown.

But the Scotland manager was once again effusive in his praise of Bannan, a perennial favourite of his, and also took time to emphasise what important attributes Fletcher, who has been named squad captain this week in the absence of Brown, would bring to the team.

The 60-year-old also has a habit of talking up players before games who then find themselves warming the bench. So James McArthur, who has started in the last two games against Lithuania away and Malta at home, and McGinn, who has impressed him with his professionalism and skill levels, could certainly feature. Both men have qualities which could help their country.

It would, though, be a surprise if the Bannan and Fletcher, who have amassed over 100 caps between them, were missing from the starting line-up alongside Craig Gordon, Andrew Robertson, Charlie Mulgrew, Christophe Berra, Kieran Tierney, James Morrison, Matt Phillips, James Forrest and Leigh Griffiths tonight.

“People are talking about John and Callum and their performances at the weekend,” he said. “But some of the best performances I’ve seen in the last three weeks have come from Barry Bannan.

“That’s in different areas, different positions, as a sitting midfield player, on the left, across on the right at times. Mark (Scotland assistant McGhee) feels the same. Everybody who has watched him thinks technically he has been wonderful. He has a great range of passing.

“We’ve all heard about the other two lads and rightly so. But he has been the best I’ve seen. He has been in my thoughts for the last three weeks.”

Strachan continued: “I have to take into account what position he is playing in at his club. Does it suit this game? There’s a lot involved, but what I’m saying is that it’s unfair to forget guys like Barry.

“Guys go overboard about the home players and forget what’s happening elsewhere. Only because they see the home players. I get about and see them all. Barry was picked in the Championship team of the year last year. He is playing even better this year.”

Strachan, despite the fact that only standing 5ft 6in in his studs proved no impediment to him during his own playing career, is also wary of picking a team which lacks height and drafting in Darren Fletcher would help to ensure they are not overpowered at free-kicks and corners.

“You have to watch that,” he said. “At the weekend, Sheffield Wednesday against Leeds United was decided by two headers. It was decided by who wants to jump the highest. So many games are decided on set plays. You need to have a certain amount of height in the team.

“Darren (Fletcher) has that. It is a big thing. We don’t think we have to belt balls onto people’s head all day. It just comes in handy if you have a certain amount of height.

“Ask any coach in the world and they will tell you if the other team has at least five people in the box the other coach wants at least five people who can compete against them.

“You have to look at that sometimes unless you are Manchester City or Barcelona where you are going to have all the ball anyway. That’s a wee bit different.”

Scotland were, despite starting the game well and creating several decent scoring opportunities soundly thrashed 3-0 by Slovakia in Trnava last year and Strachan knows that his charges will need to be at their very best to overcome Jan Kozak’s men on this occasion.

The visitors, who can boast talents like Martin Skrtel, Markey Hamsik and Vladimir Weiss, are in second place in their section and effectively, with a home game against minnows Malta on Sunday, just need to draw in order to go through to the play-off.

They gave England a difficult game at Wembley last month - Gareth Southgate’s side had to come from behind to triumph 2-1 - and will certainly be every bit as fired up as their hosts given that a place in only the second World Cup in their history is within their grasp.

“We have to look and see what are the positives with their team and what are the negatives,” said Strachan. “We have to try and make sure those positives are not as positive as they could be.

“When I was with Celtic and we played AC Milan I thought (Andrea) Pirlo has to be stopped. So you have a look at that. It’s not man marking. Because I don’t think you can get away with man marking now. The old (Claudio) Gentile thing, when you are told to kick someone, is all in the past, all that is gone.

“It’s about filling areas and pushing players into areas where they don’t want to do. So there are big players, some right good players, in their side, but I think we all know that.”

The prospect of facing them in such a huge fixture for his country certainly isn’t keeping Strachan up however. Asked if he would sleep well last night, he said: “Absolutely, yeah. When you wake up in the morning you think: ‘Woah, there’s a game on!’ But tonight will be fine, the usual. It’ll be the same routine. I’ll have cup of tea, play a bit of Scrabble, watch a couple of episodes of Family Guy, then fall asleep.”

He added: “I think we know we could have been out of this thing four or five games ago. There was more pressure then than now. There is still pressure, no doubt about it. But there is more excitement about it than anything.”