Welcome to international football George Burley- first up Croatia!

Internationals / Alsy / 24 March 2008 / Leave a Comment

Morgan in the driving seat- Allsy tells us why key injuries to the likes of Barry Ferguson and the form of Croatia are hardly what George Burley would have wanted in his first match in charge of Scotland

So the era of George Burley begins against Slaven Bilic's talented Croatia. In naming un-capped Steven Fletcher and Christophe Berra, Burley injected some youthful talent into a promising squad but, following this weekend's games, four Rangers players pulled out. Welcome to international management.

Lee McCulloch has a thigh injury, Christian Dailly a broken toe while keeper Allan McGregor has also withdrawn. Burley will feel the loss of his captain Barry Ferguson (ankle problem) the most. Ferguson controls the tempo of Scotland's play and was central to the progress made under Alex McLeish.

Both England and Scotland failed to qualify for Euro 2008 but where McClaren's side heaped themselves in shame, Scotland rose to the challenge (in a group that included France and Italy) and secured some fantastic results before narrowly missing out.

McLeish left for a bigger wage packet and a Premiership relegation battle so the Scottish FA offered Burley an escape route from a faltering Championship campaign with Southampton. Regardless of the fact that this will be Burley's first game he will be under some pressure from the fans to demonstrate that recent improvements have not been squandered.

Everyone in Scotland is now waiting to see what Burley will do! When Burley played his last game for Scotland in 1982 he could number McGain, Souness and Dalglish among his teammates. As manager he's not blessed with similar levels of world-class talent but he does have an impressive squad equipped to compete against the best.

He'll be expected to play 4-4-2 but may opt for the 4-5-1 formation that brought McLeish so much success. Without Ferguson the spine of the team will have to be altered in centre midfield - it's the perfect opportunity to play Scott Brown alongside Darren Fletcher. Brown's transfer from Hibs to Celtic came with plenty of fanfare but the 22-year-old still needs time to bed into his new side. Burley would be smart to be bold in his selection in my opinion.

A burgeoning injury list has already taught Burley one important lesson of international management. Another is to start young players who might blossom at international level as there are too few games available to experiment in. It certainly worked with Craig Gordon, Alan Hutton and Stephen McManus so I expect Burley to throw Brown into the mix until his consistency levels catch up to his obvious talent.

You can back Burley to claim his first victory as Scotland manager at [2.78] or have Croatia to win at [2.74].

Considering the assured manner in which they qualified for Euro 2008 I would have expected the odds to be shorter on Bilic's team.
McClaren dismissed England's defeat in Croatia as an aberration until they beat England again at Wembley 3-2 despite having already qualified.
Bilic has certainly made the best of his squad but the loss of Eduardo da Silva will test his fledgling managerial skills. I still expect Croatia to do well and if more of the squad played in the Premiership few would consider them a one-man team. Eduardo scored ten goals in twelve qualifying matches but his partner, Mladen Petric, also scored seven in ten matches.

In defence Robert Kovač and Dario Šimic are always formidable opponents but, even when Eduardo was fit, all the talk has been of 22-year-old Luka Modric, the boy-wonder of Croatian football. His midfield battle with Brown should be a memorable one.

More importantly, Bilic has instilled a team ethic into his squad that Burley would to well to emulate. Bilic has just turned down a £2m-a-year move to FC Hamburg and instead opted to oversee Croatia's World Cup campaign for the next two years on his fixed annual salary of £50k.
No one can doubt his commitment to Croatia and I expect his players to respond in kind with a committed performance in Scotland this Wednesday night. The best the home side should hope for is the draw at [3.3.].
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