interview Foundations laid for World Cup campaign.
Only four points were collected from the first four qualifying ties last year compared to seven taken in the second half of the campaign this year. Damage was done when only one point was taken from a possible six available when Scotland were in Lithuania and the Czech Republic last year.
Scotland’s confidence turned around when they scored twice against Spain at Hampden last October, on the night when Charlie Adam played in the qualifiers for the first time. Levein had more belief in his players after that and settled on a 4-1-4-1 formation after feeling their limitations meant he had to play without a striker in Prague.
“When a manager comes into a job, he’s coming in because you’re in a low situation,” said Caldwell, alluding to the state Scotland were in when Levein replaced George Burley. “You’re obviously not doing well for the previous manager and he’s been sacked. It always takes time for the new manager to find out what he needs to know about certain players. He needs to find a system that suits and it took the manager time to do that.
“We finally found something that’s positive and it can take us forward. I don’t think there’s any question of him not sticking around. He’s encouraged by what he sees and he’s excited by the prospect of qualifying for a major finals.”
Christophe Berra took a far more long-term view and said the Scottish education system had to change its emphasis. “I was looking in the tunnel against Spain and their best players are only five-and-a-half-foot tall,” said the Wolverhampton Wanderers defender. “They just move so well and that’s something for us to look up to. That’s for our next generation, the young kids, to change the way British football is.
“That’s something we should look to with young players, even at primary school age. Sometimes it’s not all about winning. If you can produce quality players like the Spanish do then it will benefit the national team in the long run. I think sometimes we need to get out of the style where it’s all about winning and being physical.”
One Scot whose game does rely entirely on skill rather than physique, Barry Bannan, said Scotland should forget about the controversial penalty which gave the Czech Republic their equaliser at Hampden last month.
“We lost out to a dodgy penalty against the Czechs, you can look at it that way if you want,” said Bannan. “But we can’t dwell on that and we have to move on. The World Cup finals in Brazil in 2014 is our aim. It doesn’t get much better than that.”
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