Gordon Strachan has already lost three times to England as Scotland’s manager, emphatically so in last November’s World Cup qualifier against Gareth Southgate’s side and twice in friendlies before that when Roy Hodgson was in charge. It’s a sequence he hopes, and needs, to stop on Saturday.
The 60-year-old accepts there is a greater gap in quality between the countries now than in his own playing days. Yet he also estimates it is smaller than the one between the Celtic side he managed and Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United, when they met in Glasgow back in 2006.
Celtic won that particular ‘Battle of Britain’ in a Champions League group game against the odds. Shunsuke Nakamura scored a stunning free kick with 10 minutes left before Artur Boruc saved Louis Saha’s penalty in the final minute.
“I don’t think the gulf’s as big as that here,” said Strachan. “Absolutely nowhere near it. I feel far, far better about this. This is exciting. That was daunting, when you look at some of the players we played against with them. We’re far closer in this scenario.”
Perhaps that was merely fighting talk directed towards his own squad, whose clear inferiority to England’s he cannot afford to dwell on. Strachan has to convince them that they can take something from Saturday’s match at Hampden, at least a point by his own estimation, if Scotland are to retain any realistic hope of being in Russia a year from now.
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Yet the days when he would turn up from Manchester United, or Graeme Souness, Kenny Dalglish and Alan Hansen would arrive with an aura about them from Liverpool’s success are long gone. Perhaps the six Celtic players in his squad and probably in his team, too, assuming Kieran Tierney is cleared by a check tomorrow on the dental damage he suffered in the Scottish Cup final win over Aberdeen, will provide that confidence on the back of their invincible treble season over 47 games in Scotland.
It also included two Champions League draws with Manchester City, 3-3 in Glasgow and 1-1 at the Etihad stadium, which were encouraging in the context of Saturday’s meeting at Hampden, too. They suggested that the gap to England’s elite clubs, from which Southgate’s team will mainly be composed, is not an insurmountable one.
The Celtic six — Tierney, Scott Brown, Stuart Armstrong, Leigh Griffiths, Craig Gordon and James Forrest — provided the basis for March’s 1-0 win over Slovenia, which has at least put Scotland back in the qualification equation. “Over that winter period, they kicked on to something else as individuals and as a group and we took that into consideration,” added Strachan. “When you’re on a run like that, you feel really good about yourself and what you bring to the squad.”
Chris Martin scored the late winner against Slovenia as a substitute so could be an alternative to Griffiths, while Ryan Fraser’s form at Bournemouth makes him a tempting replacement for Forrest, who fell out of Brendan Rodgers’ starting line-up late in the season.
“He’s not scared of anybody, he’s like the Dortmund and Tottenham guys, who close down and pressure people and then play after it,” said Strachan, endorsing the 23-year-old winger. “Some can’t do both, they don’t have the fitness level and when they get the ball back they are tired, but he can.”
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Scotland created chances at Wembley in November, but could not take them or keep a clean sheet at the other end, so there’s plenty to work on this week. “Our unit defending was good, but it gets to a point where individual defending comes into it and you have to sort things out as an individual. Juventus are the best in the world at that. If it breaks down at any point, they have the physical ability to stop people scoring goals. We created as many chances as England, but the final pass makes a big difference. That’s up to us to improve. To relax at that point.”
Strachan needs something special from someone on Saturday. A free kick of the quality produced by Nakamura in November 2006 or a save like the one that Boruc produced from Saha’s penalty. Perhaps he needs both, if Scotland are to pull off their first home win against England since 1985, when he played in the 1-0 Rous Cup victory at Hampden.
