Dubai: Former Scotland midfielder Gary McAllister says the Tartan Army can still finish above England to qualify for their first World Cup in 20 years.
Ahead of Friday’s trip to Lithuania, Gordon Strachan’s side are fourth in their qualifying group, six points off leaders England, and four behind second-placed Slovakia, with four games remaining.
Only group winners qualify automatically for next year’s finals in Russia, while runners-up enter a play-off.
Despite odds being stacked against them, McAllister, who was capped 59 times for Scotland between 1990 and 1999, but missed their last World Cup at France ’98 due to injury, said anything was still possible.
“It’s been a strange group and it could still go quite a few different ways,” he told Gulf News this week, while speaking to promote his involvement in next month’s DSA Open golf tournament at Emirates Golf Club.
“You’d have to say England are favourites but you never know, they are capable of losing games as well and are unpredictable as far as I’m concerned. Whether we’re fighting for first or second that’s the goal, we might have to get there via a play-off, but it would be nice to jump up.
“We’ve a big game against Lithuania coming up and they are all big games now. The run in, for us, is such that we can’t afford to lose many,” he added of Malta and Slovakia at home on September 4 and October 5, before Slovenia away on October 8 — all of which follow Friday’s Lithuania game.
“I’m a big fan of Gordon Strachan,” he said of the Scotland coach with whom he played alongside at Leeds United (1990-96) and under at Coventry City (1996-00). “I wish him all the best and think they’re capable. The pressure is on them a bit but I think they’ll rise to it and I think we can sneak our way through.
“He’s done as well as anyone could possibly do,” he added of Strachan, who has been in charge of Scotland since 2013. “He’s got the team playing in a certain way, with an attractive style, he’s got young players in there and he’s used experience. I don’t know if anybody else is capable of doing a better job in all honesty.”
Asked why Scotland, who qualified for five consecutive World Cups between 1974 and 1990, haven’t qualified since 1998, McAllister replied: “It’s a mystery to me. When I look back I was very fortunate to have played in the 1990s when we qualified a lot. But it’s puzzling as to why we’ve not been back. We’ve come close a few times. I think we’re missed at major tournaments as our fans bring a lot, and it would be nice to get back there.”
A commonly cited reason is that Scottish players are being overlooked in favour of foreigners at top English clubs, but McAllister said: “We’ve got Andrew Robinson at Liverpool now and Oliver Burke at West Brom. The situation in Scotland is such that clubs don’t have money so homegrown talent has got a real chance of quality game time. We can’t keep looking for excuses, we’ve just got to produce and detect the good ones.”
Scottish coaches too are a dying breed, with this season being the first in Premier League history where there’s not been a single Scottish coach or assistant at any top 20 club.
“A lot are out of work and I’d imagine they are becoming wiser and are waiting to pick the right job because sometimes they are rushed into decisions and make the wrong one. It will be interesting to see where managers like David Moyes and Paul Lambert go next. It’s strange to see that we don’t have a lot around in clubs at the moment, it’s not good, but it goes in cycles and we’ve not had a bad run for a small country.”
