Republic of Ireland 1 Scotland 0

Scotland made four changes from the victory over Wales on Wednesday.  James Morrison and Gary Caldwell missed out through injury while Ross McCormack and Stephen Crainey were dropped to the bench.  In came Barry Robson, Phil Bardsley, James Forrest and Grant Hanley.  This meant a slight change in shape.  Steven Naismith moved into a more central position just in behind Kenny Miller, which meant that Robson and Forrest took up wide roles.  The result was a 4-2-3-1 shape, a slight modification from the 4-1-4-1 that Craig Levein has favoured recently.

Giovanni Trapattoni also made four changes to his starting line up.  In came Darren O’Dea, Liam Lawrence, Keith Fahey and Stephen Hunt for Damien Delaney, Keith Tracey, Seamus Coleman and Kevin Foley.  Their shape was largely 4-4-2 although Hunt tended to play a tucked in role to help out in the centre of midfield and Simon Cox would drop off to link play, leaving Robbie Keane to play on the shoulder of the last defender.

The first ten minutes were dominated by the hosts, who either looked to hit balls towards Cox, who would drop deep to link play, or in behind the defence and use the pace of Keane.  The problem was that Scotland kept a deep defensive line, denying space for Keane to exploit.

After that Scotland began to dominate possession and put together some decent passages of play without creating many clear-cut chances.  Their best attempt at goal came from a goal-bound, long range effort from Bardsley that was tipped onto the bar by Shay Given.

Despite Scotland’s dominance it was Ireland who took the lead through Robbie Keane.  Paul McShane intercepted a Scott Brown pass and drove forward, feeding Keane around the halfway line.  Keane was allowed to run from the centre circle to the edge of the box unopposed as Hanley’s inexperience showed.  Keane’s strike was poorly dealt with by Allan McGregor who really should have saved.  It was a well taken goal from the Irish captain although, from a Scotland perspective, the fault lies with at least three players.

Up to that point Charlie Adam had been the deeper of Scotland’s two holding midfielders, although whenever the Blackpool talisman broke forward Brown would provide cover.  After the goal, Adam became the more advanced of the two with Brown more focused on defensive duties.  A similar switch was made in the match versus Wales when Scotland found themselves a goal down going in at half-time.

Scotland continued to enjoy more of the ball but still struggled to create.  There were two things that stood out compared to their two victories earlier in the tournament.  Firstly, Adam and Brown had pretty poor games overall.  The pair misplaced far too many passes and they, along with Naismith just ahead of them, should really have done better against the central midfield two of Ireland.

The second factor regards the nature of the wingers.  Against both Northern Ireland and Wales, Naismith began on the right with Kris Commons on the left in former of the two matches, McCormack in the latter.  In both those matches, even though their starting positions were wide they would often break forward when their side had possession to form a front three with Miller.  This allowed the full-backs the space to overlap, something they failed to do at all in the first half last night and very seldom in the second.

Relatedly, Naismith is much more effective when starting on the right drifting inside than when playing just off the striker.  This is something Rangers manager Walter Smith identified and rectified at half time in the League Cup final in March.  The problem last night was that Naismith’s movement was much easier to track: When he stayed deep he was picked up by either Fahey or Keith Andrews and when he positioned himself more advanced he was marked by one of the central defenders.

Second half

The second half began similar to the second half with Ireland exerting more pressure on the Scotland defence.  This time their dominance was a bit more sustained but after twenty minutes or so it became clear that they were happy to gamble on protecting their lead.

This meant that Scotland began to enjoy more of the ball once again.  This time they managed to create a number of chances but unfortunately were not clinical enough in front of goal.  As the match entered the dying stages, Scotland’s play became more hurried and they displayed a distinct lack of composure in front of goal.  Both Naismith and Miller passed up excellent opportunities to level the scores.

Both sides made three substitutions each but the only one of the six that really made a difference was when a struggling Darren O’Dea was replaced with Kevin Foley, which meant that McShane moved into the centre alongside man-of-the-match Stephen Kelly.

Conclusion

After the match Levein insisted that his side deserved to win the match.  It is certainly true that Scotland enjoyed more of the ball, passed the ball about better and created more chances, however, most of their opportunities were rushed and in the final twenty minutes and they were not clinical enough in front of goal.

Other than poor finishing, Scotland’s downfall was down to the set-up of their midfield five.  Robson and Forrest were deployed as inverted wingers although Robson only managed to cut inside and whip in an inswinger on two occasions, both in the first half, and Forrest stayed out wide and didn’t see much of the ball at all.  The knock on effect was that Scotland’s full-backs rarely got forward.  Furthermore, Naismith was marked out of the match and not nearly as effective as when positioned on the right.

Looking at the tournament as a whole, and the progress of the Scotland squad overall, things are looking promising for Levein.  His side now look far more capable of attacking than they have in recent years and still have some key players missing, most notably Darren Fletcher, Steven Fletcher and Alan Hutton.  The main worry is that Levein will now have to wait until September, after the domestic campaigns are underway, to get his squad together for a competitive match.

Scotland 3 Northern Ireland 0

Scotland completely dominated and ran out worthy winners against Northern Ireland in their opening match of the Carling Nations Cup on Wednesday night.  Craig Levein opted to field a striker this time in a 4-1-4-1 formation that pressed their opponents high up the pitch at every opportunity.  Northern Ireland were happier to sit off and allow Scotland to have possession.  They lined up as a 4-4-1-1 with Steven Davis on the right of midfield, as opposed to the centre, and Paddy McCourt just off Rory Patterson in attack.

James McArthur was a late replacement for Scott Brown after an injury during the warm up.

 

Northern Ireland began the better in a scrappy opening five minutes which saw both teams hit direct passes from defence.  After this initial period, Scotland began to settle and pass the ball around well.  Charlie Adam had been deployed as a deep-lying regista and, along with both full-backs, was dictating play.  One thing that stood out throughout the match was the space he and his second half replacement Barry Bannan were given.  Off the ball they were always in space and with possession they were not closed down and allowed to pick a pass.

Scotland’s pressing was so relentless in the first half that Adam even found himself charging down Northern Ireland goalkeeper Jonny Tuffey at one point.

For Northern Ireland, McCourt attempted to drop deep and link up with Davis and McGinn but the combination didn’t bear much fruit.  One chance for McGinn, after a McCourt through ball, was saved comfortably by Allan McGregor on ten minutes but other than this there was very little to trouble the Rangers goalkeeper.

Northern Ireland then pushed Corry Evans wide, moved Davis inside and looked to focus their play through him.  They put together some nice passing at times but did so without causing any problems for the Scotland defence.

Kenny Miller missed his first opportunity of the match on fourteen minutes but was on hand to give the Scots the lead five minutes later.  James Morrison won a corner on the left which was taken by Adam.  His outswinger was headed into the goalmouth by Phil Bardsley, who had peeled off the front post unmarked, and Miller stabbed home from two yards after the ball had bounced off Steven Craigen and Grant McAuley.

Scotland should have led 2-0 minutes later when Stephen Caldwell sent a free header over the bar after another excellent Adam delivery from a corner and Kris Commons had his shot blocked after he, Bardsley and Morrison linked up well on the left.

The more Scotland dominated, the more they got their full-backs forward and joining in with play which meant that they always had a man free in the middle third.  Added to this, the movement and pace of the Miller, Commons and Naismith – which became a front three in attack – and towards the end of the half, Scotland looked like this when in possession:

Scotland’s formation was not as rigid as Northern Ireland’s.  Morrison and McArthur would interchange and Commons and Naismith would often drift inside, allowing overlapping runs from the full-backs, and form a front three with Miller.

A McArthur cross eluded Tuffey in the Northern Ireland goal on thirty-two minutes to give Scotland a 2-0 lead.  The ball was intended to be hung towards the back post for Miller, was inaccurate and sailed into the top corner.  The Wigan midfielder, making his first start for the national side, admitted as much post-match.

The half ended with Scotland still completely dominating and chances from both Morrison and Bardsley were dealt with well by Tuffey.

At half time Nigel Worthington switched Northern Ireland to a 4-4-2, bringing on David Healy for midfielder Grant McCann and withdrew Rory McArdle, who had a torrid time trying to keep up with Commons, for Lee Hodson.

Notably, Healy's first action was to chase down a full-back, something the team had failed to do in the entire first half.  He instantly improved things for Northern Ireland and linked well with the midfield on a couple of occasions.

However, he failed to inspire a comeback and on fifty-one minutes Scotland stung together a succession of fifteen passes, which led to Commons making it 3-0.  Davis lazily allowed Naismith to run past him off the ball and when he received possessio at the edge of the box, he was able to deftly play Commons through with his first touch.

With the match sewn up Levein decided to give a few players a rest and another few a run out, making a triple substitution.  Adam, Bardsley and Naismith were replaced by Barry Bannan, Mark Wilson and Robert Snodgrass, while Northern Ireland brought on Oliver Norwood for Davis.  All three Scotland substitutions were straight swaps which meant that they retained their shape.  Bannan slotted into the position vacated by Adam seamlessly, added yet more pace to the side and appeared to have the same range of passing as the Blackpool midfielder.

More substitutions meant that they game petered out with Scotland keeping possession yet playing without much urgency and Northern Ireland content to sit back and not embarrass themselves further.  One more chance fell the way of the losing side but a tame free header from Patterson was straight at McGregor.

Overall Scotland showed that they have a lot of small quick players at their disposal who can not only retain possession but can also cause defences problems.  Levein ordered his full-backs to push on and this is ultimately what caused Scotland to dominate the midfield area.  The movement and pace of the front five and the overlapping runs from Hutton and Bardsley (along with a poor defensive display from Northern Ireland) meant that they were able to turn the possession into chances.

This was an excellent performance from the Scots and with players like Darren Fletcher and Graeme Dorrans still to return, they sit in a promising position level with the Republic of Ireland on both points and goal difference.