SO much for Kris Boyd being brought back in from the cold:

the forecast is for the temperature to drop to -7ºC in Molde tonight. When the Scotland squad's flight landed in Norway at tea-time yesterday there was not a player more thrilled to be disembarking than Boyd, back in the picture after a three-year absence which was beginning to have a look of permanency.

Not even the weather was liable to dent his pleasure. It was dark and cold, with driving rain and the threat of snow, but Boyd was not likely to be upset by the conditions. He has snuck back into the international fold and the issue of his return dominated the agenda at manager Gordon Strachan and captain Scott Brown's usual pre-match media conferences during the day.

Boyd is 30, he is in the squad because four players ahead of him in the queue - Steven Fletcher, Jordan Rhodes, Ross McCormack and Matt Phillips (who Strachan had intended to play up front) - are unavailable. He will not start in the Aker Stadium tonight. None of those factors affect the interest and intrigue over Boyd returning for Scotland.

Strachan has heard all the criticisms which have been fired at Boyd over the years: that he is too lazy, that he carries too much weight, that he does not do enough work on a pitch, that he is only a penalty-box poacher who makes no broader contribution. They are not descriptions he recognises. In July 2010, he signed Boyd when he was manager of Middlesbrough. It was not a deal that worked or kept him in the job - Strachan left in October the same year - but his admiration for Boyd remained undimmed.

"Scottish people go for the 'run about, kick them, shove them and bite them'-type players," said Strachan. "They identify with that, anything out with the 5ft 7ins, 5ft 8ins player. Alan Hansen, they go: 'what's he doing, passing? Get him up the pitch so he can boot people up in the air and we can scream and shout'. Billy Stark was similar, Gary McAllister was similar. It was incredible that he got any abuse whatsoever because he was a top, top player.

"Scottish fans and Scottish people sometimes don't identify with that. There are different types of player and you have to take them for what they are. As long as they can add to the group with what they've got then that's fine.

"I feared Boydy for a while when he was at Rangers and I was at Celtic. And when I was no longer there I admired him. It was a shame I didn't have enough time to work with him at Middlesbrough because he loves his football, you know. He's a connoisseur of football, he takes in everything and he works hard at training. Again, the body shape and height, people tend to think 'no', but he works as hard as anybody I've worked with."

Boyd turned up at the squad's Renfrewshire hotel within two-and-a-half hours of Strachan telephoning him on Sunday. There was more to his inclusion than simply being in the neighbourhood, though. Strachan made other calls to some players who had previously served him well but had been omitted this time, including Leigh Griffiths. "I've left a message for Leigh so he knows why he wasn't included. You can't get to Leigh, though: I've left three voicemail messages for him! He's always under consideration for a place and I spoke to everyone whom I felt deserved a phone call and an explanation."

Ross McCormack and Matt Gilks withdrew from the squad yesterday, further depleting Strachan's resources for the final fixture of his first year as manager. Russell Martin will be preferred to Christophe Berra as the central defensive partner for Gordon Greer. Strachan's nine matches in charge have delivered steady, if sometimes stuttering, progress and the promise of more to come. The pattern of play has been a settled 4-2-3-1 but Strachan will use tonight's game - to call it low-key would be an act of wild exaggeration - for some experimentation.

Fletcher, Grant Hanley and Charlie Mulgrew started against the United States on Friday but will play no part tonight. Craig Bryson will start and it is likely that Lee Wallace, Charlie Adam and Ikechi Anya will also be in Strachan's side at kick-off.

That could mean Robert Snodgrass and Anya playing wide of Naismith, although Strachan hinted at mixing up his usual formation. "There are all sorts of different ways you can play when you have the ball," he said. "We're going to try something a wee bit different. We don't have to win by lots of goals: I just want to see that this particular system can be used later on. We've worked on it for the past few days just to put some pictures in the players' minds. We could have made Sunday a rest day but it was the best training session we've had this year.

"It was fantastic in terms of what we asked them to do and because it was a bit different. I wouldn't say that it's a Plan B because it could become Plan A. You never know. But I wouldn't want to sit around now and then try it in seven months' time. So let's have a look at it now."

Scotland (possible) Marshall; Hutton, Martin, Greer, Wallace; Brown, Bryson, Adam; Snodgrass, Naismith, Anya