Caldwell: negativity around Scotland team must change

Richard Wilson

Sports writer

Thursday 13 September 2012

Gary Caldwell has defended Craig Levein and urged Scotland supporters to get behind the manager and his side.

Gary Caldwell has defended Craig Levein

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Richard Wilson

The national team's first two World Cup qualifiers, both at Hampden, ended in draws, with the final whistle greeted by widespread booing on both occasions. Levein and his players are still defiant, and Caldwell is adamant the team can improve their fortunes, as long as the fans remain fully behind them.

Caldwell also criticised the media for its coverage of the national squad. He associated the derision of the fans to the tone of newspaper reports after the 0-0 draw with Serbia on Saturday. According to the Wigan Athletic defender, doubts have to be discarded, even if the performances so far have hardly been rousing."The negativity which surrounds this group – whatever agenda people have against the manager or the players – has to change," said Caldwell. "We need the whole country to get behind this team. We need the positivity to come back. Who's got a problem with the manager? We haven't – we support him."At times we, as players, haven't been good enough and we'll admit that. That's down to us – it's nothing to do with the manager. The media and what they write affects public opinion. You have to take responsibility for that. I don't think his tactics are negative. We could have gone gung-ho against [Macedonia] and lost, because they're dangerous."Following the 1-1 draw with Macedonia on Tuesday night, Scotland have two points from their opening two games, while Serbia, Belgium and Croatia all have four. The gap is surmountable, although the best two teams in the group – Belgium and Croatia – have met already, and Scotland have yet to play an away tie.The reaction of Levein and his players has been to emphasise that there are still 24 points left to play for, but the Scotland fans were disgruntled with the level of performance in the two games at Hampden. When Levein's image was displayed on the big screens, booing broke out. Caldwell believes it is misguided to question the manager's future. "If you change the manager, nothing else is going to change," he said. "We're going in the right direction but at this moment there are too many people trying to cause disruption. The whole country has to be positive. We're a better team than we were two years ago, but to prove it you've got to win games – and big games. We haven't done that and that's down to the players."We have to stick together and stay strong as a group – we don't want to use negativity as a motivation. We want the [Hampden] atmosphere back, because that's what will propel us to Rio. Let's try and be positive and help the team. It's too easy to pick holes and to be negative."

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Caldwell: negativity around Scotland team must change

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