THE first Scotland under-21 match after the A team had failed to qualify for yet another tournament was always going to serve as a useful barometer to see whether the next generation might be the ones to finally break the cycle of failure. In that respect, the outlook was not especially heartening as Ricky Sbragia’s side stumbled to a 2-1 defeat in the first home game of their own European Championship campaign.
In mitigation, though, this was perhaps not the best occasion to properly assess their potential. In France they came up against a side of class and guile, with players employed across an array of elite European clubs. That Scotland were able to contain them, and then score a late consolation through Billy King with just 10 men on the park after Ryan Gauld was sent off, was a sign of those typically Scottish traits of being dogged, committed and whole-hearted. But in terms of more desirable qualities - passing, movement, technique and so on - these were two teams a world apart.
"Personally, I think we have got to have a little bit more belief,” said captain John McGinn. “In the first half you could see Ryan Christie and Ryan Gauld were causing them a lot of problems. We have got the ability, but we just couldn't get the ball to them enough. They had strength and pace and they used it to their advantage.
“I’m out there playing against [Adrien] Rabiot, who is in and out of the team at PSG. [Aymeric] Laporte is rated at something like £35 million and being linked with Barcelona and Real Madrid. We are not going to be playing players like that every week in Scotland. We have to look at what they do and how they play against us. To play against these guys was a great experience. They were strong, physical boys who could take the ball down well. That's what we are aspiring to. It will be the same Tuesday against Iceland as they are a good team, too.”
It is perhaps unfortunate – or symptomatic of a wider problem – that the areas in which the Scottish senior team are most deficient seem to be the same positions in which there are no convincing understudies ready to step up. Just like the A team there are an abundance of mostly short, tenacious and talented ball-playing midfielders – Ryan Christie, Ryan Fraser, Gauld, McGinn and so on – but little in the way of either commanding centre halves or prolific goalscorers. Jason Cummings led the line on Saturday with typical diligence without ever really looking like scoring, while the manner of the two goals conceded – an unfortunate own goal and one conceded after a poor clearance - did not further enhance the reputation of the defence.
This under-21 campaign will also serve as a series of auditions for the forthcoming World Cup fixtures and McGinn admitted it is quite a big gulf to try to bridge.
“This is the level before the A squad. I know there is a lot to prove before you get there but Gordon Strachan has shown before that he is willing to put young boys in. It’s up to us to work as hard as we can and show we are ready for it. There is a lot of improvement still to be made. But we are all willing and everyone wants it as badly as each other. That’s a good thing.”
Scotland will be without Gauld – who hit the crossbar with a first-half shot – for the visit of Iceland who lead the group. “Ryan was disappointed [at the sending off], but he was just trying to get back for the team,” added McGinn. “We'll miss him on Tuesday but we have got other boys who are capable of replacing him.”
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