Sunday, 9 September 2012

Subs were brought on too late says Scotland manager Craig Levein

Scotland boss Craig Levein has admitted that he brought on subs too late during his side's World Cup qualifier against Serbia, which ended in a 0-0 draw.

Levein brought on Celtic's James Forrest with just over 20 minutes remaining and in the final 10 minutes threw on Jamie Mackie and former Huddersfield Town hitman Jordan Rhodes, who joined Blackburn Rovers in an £8 million deal.
Though, Scotland's delivery let them down in a first half of few chances at Hampden Park, but the home side did create more opportunities in the second half which will give Levein and Scottish fans hope.

However, lone striker Kenny Miller and Steven Naismith failed to hit the target. Forrest had one of the Scots' few efforts on target in stoppage time, Vladimir Stojkovic making a good save for the Serbians, who will be happier with a point than Scotland.

The result means that, after the first round of fixtures of the 2014 World Cup qualifiers, Scotland and Serbia trail Belgium and Croatia by two points in Group A. An average performance from the Scot's, but Levein has to get the team to create more opportunities as well as find the killer instinct upfront to convert the opportunities into goals, though based on Jordan Rhodes's goal scoring last season for Huddersfield I think he should be given the opportunity to start, perhaps with Kenny Miller.

At the end of the day not a disaster for the Scot's given their previous performances, though there's still work to be done for this Scottish side to qualify ahead of Belgium and Croatia who I feel are the favorites to qualify given the quality both sides possess. Long way to go for Scotland!

No comments:

Post a Comment