Czechs and balances leave Scots short

Chief football writer

Monday 5 September 2011

ANALYSIS Craig Levein's side must look beyond Saturday's injustice to find true reason for failure

SCOTLAND2 CZECH REPUBLIC2 Jan Rezek hurls himself to the ground to earn his side a late penalty. Picture: Stewart Attwood Alan Hutton rises with Petr Jiracek for the ball. Picture: Stewart Attwood

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michael grant chief football writer at HAMPDEN michael.grant@heraldandtimes.co.uk

There is an initial blaze of anger about some incident or other -- this time a poor referring display and a diving Czech -- then a collective sigh and a look at the grander scheme of things. If Jan Rezek’s cheating and Kevin Blom’s decision-making were ugly, the bigger picture is no oil painting either.

Right now it is impossible not to feel that Craig Levein’s praise of his players and their supposed transformation over the past year simply does not square with what they are delivering on the pitch. Levein is an impressive advocate of his men and has patently been successful when it comes to bringing professionalism, focus and commitment to a squad now featuring several Barclays Premier League players.It is to his credit that the culture of mass call-offs has been removed. Everyone sings from the same hymn sheet. Clearly they respect their manager and buy into what he is trying to achieve. That is all fine, but they have not performed when it matters.A manager is entitled to purr over what he sees when the players are together or how wonderful they are in training; the rest of us on the outside have to go on results and displays. Scotland have taken just 33% of the points they’ve contested in Group I, which is why they will be nowhere near the play-offs.The talk of a Scotland squad transformed doesn’t square with the fact Levein has taken fewer points from his first five qualifiers than George Burley took from his. The 0-0 draw in Lithuania was mediocre and it took a 97th-minute goal to put away Liechtenstein at Hampden.The now infamous game in the Czech Republic was barren and unambitious and even a stirring showing against Spain was undermined by the loss of three goals, including a poorly defended cross to hand the world and European champions their late winner. On Saturday they could have won, but did not rise to the occasion or play better than the Czechs.Too many goals have been conceded. The disgrace of Rezek’s dive and Michal Kadlec’s penalty for 2-2 would have been irrelevant if it had been a 90th-minute consolation for the Czechs rather than an equaliser, but Scotland had already lost a goal.The Czechs pinged the ball around the box before the unmarked Jaroslav Plasil deflected it over the line. Scotland were carved open after only four minutes and Milan Baros should have scored, and he again burrowed right through at the start of the second half.Having gone ahead and lost the equaliser it said much about Scotland’s spirit that they rose again to regain the lead through Darren Fletcher’s excellent goal, but, again, they were unconvincing when protecting a lead.The defending was panicky, clearances were hoofed away or nervous, and the team sat so deep it was simply asking for trouble and, boy, Rezek and Blom delivered it.There was little of the comfortable, composed defending or possession which might be expected from a growing team laced with Premier League players. They looked like a side not used to winning games.If the 3-0 friendly defeat in Sweden 13 months ago was the nadir, the rebuilding job still has quite a way to go. There have been only three clean sheets in 11 games since then. Scotland have conceded in every qualifier since the opener in Kaunas and that is a debilitating weakness for a team chronically short on goalscorers.Kenny Miller’s suspension against Lithuania tomorrow night is a headache because his opening goal on Saturday was the 15th of his international career. This morning the top scorer in the squad is Fletcher, with five.Levein has the sort of trusting, supportive relationship with his players which meant he did not criticise their performances on Saturday evening and my bet is that he still will not see much wrong with them when he faces the media again this morning.He was right to fulminate about Blom being cheated by Rezek, of course he was, and it would have been utterly infuriating to have a winning position snatched away by such a bad call. Roman Hubnik’s subsequent kick at Christophe Berra’s leg wasn’t much of a foul either, but he did make contact, so it was more of a penalty than the one Blom gave.The most glaring penalty of the day came earlier, when Charlie Adam stamped his studs on Baros’ ankle.There is promise, there is potential. There was patience, intelligence and 11 passes involving eight different players in the build-up for Miller’s goal. That was a sign of a team capable of more. Miller’s vision and precision when he passed for Fletcher’s goal was also brilliant, and so was the captain’s run and clever finish.But there was not enough: not enough to put away the decent but unremarkable Czechs, not enough to take a grip of the game, not enough to keep possession for long enough, not enough working of a goalkeeper making his debut, not enough to claim the team will finally deliver.So far the qualifying performances -- and certainly the results -- simply do not back that up. A failing campaign, and a referee being blamed for it, are nothing new.

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Czechs and balances leave Scots short

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