Big week for Levein

Stewart Fisher

Sports Writer

Sunday 7 October 2012

THE prodigal son has returned to the fold.

After months of tension Steven Fletcher's return to the Scotland squad was surprisingly easy Photograph: SNS

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Stewart Fisher

Now all Craig Levein needs to do to qualify for Brazil 2014 is perform the footballing equivalent of the loaves and the fishes. From Ally MacLeod at Anfield, via the highs and lows of Ninian Park in 1985, to the brutal end to George Burley's reign, Scotland managers have often been defined by their encounters with Wales and the rapprochement Levein reached with Steven Fletcher last week was a tacit admission that Friday's fixture at the Cardiff City Stadium could also have major consequences for the current incumbent. Win in Wales and Scotland might be able to start feeling good about themselves again ahead of the excursion to Belgium the following week. Lose and all bets are off.

Having stopped worrying about the £12 million man within his own ranks, the Scotland manager can at least now start fretting about how to confront the multi-million pound talents in Chris Coleman's team. Although Craig Bellamy didn't make the squad, Liverpool paid £15m for the water-carrying abilities of Joe Allen in midfield this season, Arsenal's Aaron Ramsey's value would be a similar figure, while who knows what Gareth Bale would fetch on the open market. But it was always thus, wasn't it? Ryan Giggs never did get that chance to grace a major finals with his country, while the last night of Jock Stein's life saw him put out a three-man backline expressly to shackle the world-class abilities of Ian Rush and Mark Hughes. "If you look through their team, with everyone fit, they are a formid-able-looking side," Levein said. "Bale is just a top, top player who any club in the world would be happy to have – he's an impact player and one of the best in the world. But they've got other exceptionally good players in the team. The biggest difficulty with Wales, as it has been for us, has been strength in depth. If some of their big players are missing then it's obviously a lot more difficult for them."They are not as bad as Pot Six – not anywhere near it. And we've got this additional history and this British conflict or whatever you want to call it."Whether that 6-1 defeat to Serbia led to an evaporation of Welsh confidence, or fostered a siege mentality capable of galvanising the squad, is impossible to determine. "It's always the big question, isn't it?" the Scotland boss said. "Whether a big defeat results in teams coming out and having a real go in the next game or whether it has left some damage, I don't know. But I think in international football it's quite hard to get that quick bounce because you've got that period of time between games."Trying to stop Bale is the kind of conundrum which the great strategists of world football struggle with. Levein is likely to lean heavily on the athleticism of Bale's former team-mate Alan Hutton, a rather scary prospect given the latter's lack of playing time under Paul Lambert at Aston Villa. The matter is further complicated by the fact Bale has been known to pop up on the right side at international level, where the most likely options are Danny Fox or Charlie Mulgrew."Bale has been playing wide on the right a couple of times recently as well as the left-hand side," said Levein. "I watched the game against Serbia and he did a couple of great things in that game. The Alan Hutton situation is difficult in that he's not playing regularly, but you wouldn't have known it looking at his last two performances for us. He's one of these guys who is lucky that he's extremely athletic and he has been training all the time. It's not an ideal situation, don't get me wrong, but I feel more than most he would cope with it."The loss of Steven Naismith to a two-match ban on Friday was a blow, albeit an expected one, but all in all it was a good week for the Scotland manager. Fletcher's return may have hogged the headlines – brokered, if reports are to be believed by his Sunderland team-mate Phil Bardsley – but the availability of his namesake Darren and Scott Brown, two men with an inspirational quality, gives this Scotland team a far more solid look. Gary Caldwell is likely to shuffle back into central defence, with Wigan's James McArthur anchoring the midfield. James Morrison should make up the midfield contingent, and pressure will be irresistible for Steven Fletcher to start, whether as lone striker – a role he has been playing for Sunderland, albeit supported by Stephane Sessegnon – or wide. After months of tension, it was all surprisingly easy. "Mick [Oliver, the national team scout] texted me with Steven's number and said he wanted to speak to me," Levein said. "At that point, I had a choice. Do I sit and wait? I thought: 'Ah f**k it'. I just phoned him."

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