ALEX McLeish knows that if Scotland are to overcome Albania tomorrow night, they will have to do it without the Hampden Roar. The guttural explosion of noise that used to inspire the national side and intimidate opponents in equal measure will be difficult to muster in the old bowl when it will likely be less than half full.
At the start of the Uefa Nations League, a competition that represents perhaps Scotland’s best chance of qualifying for a major tournament in over two decades, apathy around the country’s team reigns. That is not a new phenomenon that can be laid at McLeish’s door of course, but rather the end result of those 20 years of failure.
There is a whole generation of Scotland supporters who have known nothing else, and so, failure has become the expected norm. Worryingly for McLeish, that generation includes a fair amount of the players within his squad.
The Scotland boss knows that it is only they who can change those perceptions, and he admits he has to guard against that lack of expectation seeping into his men when they pull on the dark blue.
“There is a perception of ‘Ach, we’ll not do it’ or ‘They’re not going to do it, again.’,” said McLeish. “The determination is to change that perception and the only way we are going to change it is by getting victories.
“We know at Hampden the players are going to have to raise their game, we don’t know how much of a crowd will be there. It would be brilliant for the lads if we got a big supportive crowd.
“It’s not as attractive as Belgium but it is a competition. If you look at our big Hampden triumphs, we have always had the 40-50,000 crowds. Hampden doesn’t look the same when that’s not the case. I think it has evolved into that. The only thing that can change it is us.
“There is a passion in there. Andy Robertson has come in this week as captain and already he’s on group chats with the players and it’s about togetherness. He’s running it well assisted by two or three others on committee and they will take us forward.”
Nothing brings punters back through the gates quite like victory, but McLeish is determined that wins will not be delivered at any cost. He wants to play with a certain style, an ideal that saw his side severely punished against the Belgians when their passing game came unstuck.
“Working with the coaches, working with the players very closely, we are in agreement about how we want to play,” he said. “We don’t want to park the bus on the edge of the box for 90 minutes. We want to try to play, we want to try to play out. I think we are still a work in progress in that.
“We did in in training when there was no pressure and last night the Belgians were positioned exactly as we saw in the videos, we showed the players. They played out in training, no problem. But when it comes to ‘Wait a minute, that’s an international superstar I’m up against and he might dispossess me....’ maybe those things kind of creep in. It’s about the confidence and empowering themselves to know they can do it. And they can do it.”
The challenge for McLeish is to ensure that the individual errors that were so cruelly exposed on Friday evening don’t shake his player’s confidence in the mantra he is putting across to them.
“The players are annoyed with themselves about Friday night,” he said. “Ryan Jack was caught on the ball, and it’s a goal. It’s not maybe a goal at this level when you’re caught that deep in defence.
“Ryan should be looking at that and thinking that he’s got to do things quicker at this level, and that’s an absolute fact.
“I have stressed that the loss of easy possession can have devastating consequences. The boys have never had a bigger lesson than [Friday] night. That can be a good thing, it’s educational.
“There’s a lot of kids here. John McGinn got a throw out from Craig [Gordon] and he’s turned into his opponent. [Mousa] Dembele is a guy who reads the game so well, he’s powerful, he’s quick, and that’s the difference at this level.
“I’ll ask John if that happens to him again, what would he do if he doesn’t know what’s behind him or he doesn’t get a shout? They should be telling him and screaming at him ‘man on’, and then you just get the foot under it and maybe even put it out for a corner or a shy.
“[But] we want to pass it assertively, with a purpose, not being tentative with it. I think that has blighted the Scots over the last 10 years and it’s something we have to make better. We have to persevere and not resort to just lumping the ball up the pitch.”
As well as the lapses when in possession, McLeish is trying to cut out the lapses in defence that have been the Achilles heel of Scotland at key moments in previous campaigns. Poor marking does not constitute glorious failure.
“I’ve been keeping tabs with the Scotland national team obviously, I love my country,” he said. “I watched Gordon’s [Strachan] campaigns and there have been some great performances, and the defence in general haven’t played badly, but then there was always a killer moment.
“You look at Georgia, and the same with me in Georgia, there was a killer moment in the Lithuania game at Hampden and Poland at home too. Killer goals, and that’s what we have to eradicate.”
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