Scotland debuts for Wilson and Bannan
It's never a good sign when your selection of friendly opponents is being criticised before you've either comfortably beaten or been embarrassed by them, however it's understandable why Scottish pundits and fans are confused by the decision to face the Faroe Islands.
Of course, a morale-boosting stroll would be nice but September's struggle past Liechtenstein showed that can't be guaranteed, especially as the Faroe Islands held Northern Ireland last month. Their boss Brian Kerr won his last trip to Scotland too when in charge of Republic of Ireland in 2003.
So it feels like Craig Levein is putting himself in an awkward position, because only a victory by four or more goals will be genuinely viewed as encouraging, while a narrow win or draw will be ridiculed and a loss would be deemed such a disaster that it would see his job under threat.
Levein shrugged off the suggestions that it was a pointless game though when quizzed by journalists following nine withdrawals from the squad, insisting that "I can say 100 per cent that this game will provide me with a lot of information; if I discover another two players then I will be delighted with that."
In fairness to the former Dundee United manager, his team tonight does still feature eight Premier League players - with Liverpool's Danny Wilson and Aston Villa's Barry Bannan set to debut - two of the Championship's leading goalscorers - Kris Commons and Jamie Mackie - and Celtic starter Shaun Maloney.
You can't help but feel though that whereas friendly results like a 3-0 defeat to Sweden can be shrugged off, an unfavourable scoreline this evening will be a lot harder to recover from. In deciding upon the fixture though, Levein clearly has total confidence that there will be a positive outcome.
What do you think? If you see Scotland stuffing up, they are [1.16] to lay...
Published: 16 Nov 2010
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