GEORGE Burley likes his football teams to play with a sense of urgency and it was intriguing the Scotland manager highlighted "determination" as the quality his team will need most against Croatia in tonight's friendly international at Hampden.
Du
ring the short period when the former Ipswich and Derby manager was in charge at Hearts, he asked players to start games at a high tempo.
Favouring a 4-4-2 formation, Burley's Hearts not only chose to ally passing with movement but also pressed the opposition when they lost possession. It was a combination of silk and steel which Scotland will do well to emulate when Burley guides the national team through the qualifying process for the 2010 World Cup.
A diligent football man, Burley's preference for two banks of four in midfield and defence and a traditional striking partnership will only be implemented by Scotland if he feels the formation suits the players available. After all, Burley has been around the block often enough to understand that players dictate systems, not the other way around.
Having said that, Scotland made enough progress under the cautious tutelage of Walter Smith and Alex McLeish to encourage the side to play with a little more attacking ambition now Burley is at the helm.
Whatever the formation, the belief is Burley's Scotland will take more risks than their immediate predecessors.
Lacking a towering target man with a good touch to hold up the ball, it seems unlikely the coach will persist with a lone striker. The 4-5-1 formation which enabled Scotland to frustrate France in the qualifying programme for Euro 2008 made the side harder to beat but ultimately failed to secure a place at the finals. If Scotland's strength during a period of rehabilitation after the incompetent regime of Berti Vogts was to thwart the opposition, Burley needs to find a way for the team to express itself in attack more often.
When Burley guided Hearts to an eighth consecutive league win in 2005 for the first time since season 1914-15 he did so against Rangers thanks to a side which allied the strength of Edgaras Jankauskas with the pace of Roman Bednar up front; a midfield of Samuel Cammazola, Paul Hartley, Julien Brellier and Rudi Skacel which balanced ambition with pragmatism; and a solid back four of Robbie Neilson, Steven Pressley, Andy Webster and Takis Fyssas. In goal, Craig Gordon mostly kept a clean sheet.
Of that side, Pressley is part of Burley's backroom team this evening, Gordon will be in goal again and Hartley may feature in midfield.
Christophe Berra, who was on the bench for that 1-0 win, is also set to make his Scotland debut. More important than any individual connections with his work at Tynecastle, however, is the conviction that Burley knows how to shape a team and will add cohesion to any formation.
No Scotland manager of the past 40 years understood how to assemble a side more instinctively than Willie Ormond. Like Burley, Ormond was a quiet man who knew a player when he saw one. If Ormond was never a strategist of Jock Stein's calibre, his knowledge of how football players fitted together helped Scotland to qualify for the World Cup finals for the first time in 16 years in 1974. By the time the 2010 finals roll around, Scotland won't have kept company with the international elite for 12 years. Burley's intuition may prove just as important an asset today in ending a dry spell as Ormond's talent for blending a team did in the Seventies.
As for Burley's first game in charge, the friendly against Croatia will be no place to rush judgment on the manager. Although he will want a better start than Ormond – 'Wee Willie' lost five of his first six games, including a 5-0 hammering from England – it would be wildly optimistic to expect Scotland to turn into Brazil overnight.
Given the number of first choice men missing through injury – James McFadden and Barry Ferguson are the most influential absentees – and the handicap of weariness among many of the players who earn their keep in the SPL, Burley won't see Scotland at their best. That said, the manager has enough faith in his own ability to make the exercise worthwhile by accentuating the positive and moving to a system which encourages the players to create more chances as well as limiting the opposition.
Burley reckons that outsiders make too much of systems and tactics and what really counts is having footballers with the courage to play.
Perhaps so, but with players at his disposal of the calibre of Darren Fletcher, Alan Hutton and Scott Brown, it will be encouraging if Burley sticks with the style of play which made him a success in club football. The manager's attitude must be that of an impresario with a pragmatic streak.
The men who matter at Hampden• STEPHEN McMANUS v MLADEN PETRIC
Celtic captain McManus will skipper Scotland in Barry Ferguson's absence, and will be without his regular central defensive partner David Weir, who is being rested. That adds to his responsibilities, and it seems likely to be either club-mate Gary Caldwell or Hearts captain Christophe Berra who will start alongside him. McManus has performed well for his club this season, and is a tough opponent for any striker.
He will be required to snuff out the threat posed by Borussia Dortmund forward Petric, who scored the winner against England last November which ended Steve McClaren's reign and England's Euro 2008 hopes.
KEY BATTLES• SCOTT BROWN v NIKO KOVAC
With Ferguson ruled out by injury, Celtic's Brown could step in for a central midfield role. Booked 13 times already for his club this season, Brown's competitive edge has been as evident as ever but his performances have often disappointed.
The former Hibs man has also struggled to find his best form in the Scotland shirt but will be hoping to shine under the new manager.
Kovac and brother Robert have been mainstays of the Croatia team over the past decade and remain crucial figures as another major tournament approaches.
• KENNY MILLER v DARIO SIMIC
With Birmingham's James McFadden also missing out through injury, Derby striker Kenny Miller is likely to start in attack. Rumoured to be a summer target for Rangers, the hard-working forward has ten goals in 35 games for Scotland and has proved a difficult opponent for some of the world's best defences.
Simic is Croatia's most-capped player, with 96 appearances so far, and the 32-year-old versatile defender will be well prepared for Miller after an international career which began in the mid 1990s.
MATCH FACTS• Kevin Gallacher was Scotland's scorer in their first-ever clash with Croatia, a 1-1 draw in Zagreb in October 2000 in the 2002 World Cup qualifying campaign.
• The Croats' only previous visit to Hampden Park resulted in a 0-0 draw in September 2001 in front of 47,384 fans.
• Rangers pair David Weir and Christian Dailly were both involved in those games, but Gary Naysmith is the sole survivor for tonight's match.
• Croatia have three veterans of previous encounters against Scotland in their current squad, with Dario Simic and brothers Niko and Robert Kovac all expected to be involved.
• In their eight previous visits to the UK since the establishment of the Croatian national team in 1996, the Balkan outfit have drawn three, lost four and won only once.
• Scotland have enjoyed mixed fortunes in March internationals in the post-war period with seven wins, five draws and ten defeats.
• New manager George Burley recorded only three wins in his 11 Scotland outings as a player between May 1979 and May 1982.
DEBUT RECORDGEORGE Burley is out to maintain a 35-year-old record when Scotland take on Croatia tonight.
You have to go back to May 1973 for the last time a new Scotland manager sampled defeat in his first game in front of home fans.
Willie Ormond was in charge when it last happened, Northern Ireland winning 2-1 in Glasgow. In fact, Ormond had lost on the same ground three months earlier when England won 5-0. However, the SFA centenary match was not deemed an official fixture.
Since then eight managers have led Scotland at the national stadium and have remained undefeated.
• ALLY MacLEOD: June 1977: Scotland 3, Northern Ireland 0
• JOCK STEIN: October 1978: Scotland 3, Norway 2
• ALEX FERGUSON: October 1985: Scotland 2, Australia 0
• ANDY ROXBURGH: September 1986: Scotland 0, Bulgaria 0
• CRAIG BROWN: October 1994: Scotland 5, Faroes 1
• BERTI VOGTS: March 2003: Scotland 2, Iceland 1
• WALTER SMITH: June 2005: Scotland 2, Moldova 0
• ALEX McLEISH: March 2007: Scotland 2, Georgia 1
The full article contains 1497 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
