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Gordon Strachan CAN bring overdue success to Scotland:

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Shaun Maloney, a wonderfully intelligent footballer, is flourishing on his second venture south of the border.   The Wigan Athletic attacker has found the perfect manager in Roberto Martinez, whose desire to see his outfit play with inventiveness and elan suits the slight 30 year-old perfectly.  Maloney’s national team can only benefit from his continued development and effortless ability to switch between wider and central positions.

Martinez’s contribution to the Scots’ cause is significant.  Growing every time he steps onto the field under the tutelage of the Spaniard is the 25 year-old James McArthur.  Here is a player who competes on an equal footing with some of the world’s finest players in the Premier League’s frenetic engine rooms, and whose tremendous ability and knowhow will certainly translate onto the international stage.

Elsewhere, a player overlooked by a succession of his national manager’s, Chris Burke, was restored on the right-wing and immediately brought some directness and vitality to his team’s play, facets so notable for their absence during Levein’s tenure.

The threat from wide areas doesn’t end with Maloney and Burke.  Robert Snodgrass is enjoying the outstanding phase of his career, comfortably adapting to Premier League football with Norwich City.  Kris Commons, another player previously excluded from the Scottish set-up by the intransigent Levein, is a pivotal member of a Celtic team which so memorably negotiated a devilish Champions League group.

Steven Naismith is yet to replicate his Rangers form at Everton, but he is another Scot featuring at the high end of the Premier League after a lengthy period when the dearth of Scots at the top level of English football was a familiar talking point.  Also fitting that bill is James Morrison.  The West Bromwich Albion man is an integral part of his club team, and his creativity, vision, and range of passing more than stand up to the fiercest of opposition.

Completing Strachan’s raft of forward thinking alternatives are the dead-eyed Blackburn Rovers striker Jordan Rhodes, QPR’S industrious Jamie Mackie, Brighton’s Craig Mackail-Smith, Ross McCormack, who a fortnight ago showcased his bright present form with a superbly taken F.A. Cup goal for Leeds United against Tottenham Hotspur, and Celtic’s emerging winger James Forrest, all without forgetting the precocious Blackpool speedster Matt Phillips.

The range of attacking expertise and potential in the Scottish pool will not be the cause of envious glances from traditional European superpowers such as; Spain, Italy, Germany, and Holland.  Undoubtedly though, Strachan must be quietly confident that he is equipped to tackle all those countries with whom the Scots will be directly competing for a treasured tournament spot.  He will be assisted further by Michel Platini’s ludicrous decision to increase European Championship finals entrants by eight.

Another one of Neil Lennon’s Celtic mainstays is Scott Brown, Strachan’s captain for his first match in charge, still only 27, and a midfielder of some presence.  The new boss will be fervently hoping that Darren Fletcher returns fully fit from his latest lay-off, so allowing him to select a combative and savvy central pair.

Sturdiness in the heart of the pitch will be essential to protect the aforementioned shaky rear-guard.  In the full-back area, Strachan will benefit if Alan Hutton’s loan spell in Spain at Real Mallorca can revive the ex-Rangers man’s strangely stuttering career.  Charlie Mulgrew, whose goal at Pittodrie was evidence after only two days with his players of Strachan’s assiduous work on the training ground, is yet another Celt who has proved himself proficient in the rarefied Champions League environment.

It is in the centre of defence where the greatest disquiet lies.  Christophe Berra, playing his football at an ailing Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Championship and Andy Webster of Hearts was the slightly frail pairing employed by Strachan against Estonia.  The return of yet another Roberto Martinez disciple, Gary Caldwell, will refine the Scots’ backline.  Playing for the Wigan boss, Caldwell has improved immeasurably, both in his defending and sureness on the ball.

There isn’t a complete paucity of defensive reinforcements, but their quality at the highest level is yet to be fully examined.  At the forefront of those who may fill a centre-half berth in the long-term is Grant Hanley, 21 years-old and one of very few bright spots during Blackburn’s disastrous relegation season under Steve Kean.

If there were any fears that a playing career spent collecting trophies at Aberdeen, Manchester United, and Leeds United, and managerial roles in the Premier and Champions League’s, would take some sheen away from his national job for Strachan these can be dispelled.  After his victorious start he said;

‘I am glad it’s all over because after 40 years in football that is probably the most excited and nervous I have been before a game in my life.

‘I didn’t know how I would feel when I first took charge of the team.  Now I know.  It was an incredible experience.  I don’t think I expected that.  I thought I had done nearly everything in the game, played everywhere, and it kind of blew me away really.

‘I’ve been in the Champions League, I have had to beat AC Milan, Barcelona, Man United, and it wasn’t like that’.

Strachan’s gargantuan football brain will ensure his Scotland team play to their undoubted potential, feeding on their strengths and so avoiding mistakes of the recent past.  With pressure and expectations presently low, it would be a safe bet to assume that the ex-Celtic boss will soon raise both phenomenons.  Strachan and the Scottish football team may just be the ideal fit at the ideal time.

For more from me, head to my blog, or follow me on Twitter @McNamara_sport

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