Craig Levein has confessed his infamous 4-6-0 formation was a product of his Scotland side being so poor.
And the former international boss has insisted the team's ongoing misfortune can't simply be the fault of managers.
Scotland failed to qualify for a major tournament with Levein's successor Gordon Strachan and the jury remains out on current incumbent Steve Clarke.
Levein 's reign is most remembered for his decision to play without a striker in a Euro 2012 against the Czech Republic in Prague.
And, ahead of a Nations League meeting with the Czechs on Monday, the 55-year-old has revisited that infamous night with typical honesty.
"I'm not being funny but we weren't a good team. I'm being deadly serious," Levein told The Mail on Sunday.
"George was in before me, Gordon after me. We're all just the same, aren't we?
"After or before me, no one has done all that much better, have they? It can't all be about the managers, can it?
"That's been proven already, I would have thought. I think 99 per cent of people would have said at the time: 'That's a reasonable appointment', about all of us.
"Then, one or one-and-a-half campaigns later, you're not the guy. It always falls back on the manager. Every time.
"Not long before I got the bullet, we played Wales and should have beaten them but Gareth Bale destroyed us himself. We didn't have a talisman striker. Or a creative winger. Or a really exciting central midfielder.
"We had good, hard-working players. And it's the same now. We don't have someone at the top end of the pitch who can change a match. And I can't remember when we did.
"Is it going to be Billy Gilmour? I don't know. He looks like a very promising player. To get in that Chelsea team is great, so for him to be out injured really is a great shame."
