Steven Naismith has backed Scotland’s old guard to keep their cool in the World Cup qualifier against Greece at Hampden on Thursday night and explained how their “no ego” approach to international football is a key component of their success.
The national team can take a huge step towards the finals in Canada, Mexico and the United States next summer if they can win their third Group C match against opponents who beat them 3-0 at home in a Nations League promotion/relegation play-off match back in March.
But Naismith, who joined Steve Clarke’s backroom team as an assistant coach in August, has admitted that he admires the composure the likes of Ryan Christie, Grant Hanley, John McGinn, Kenny McLean, Scott McTominay, Andy Robertson and Kieran Tierney show when the heat is on.
He is confident the experienced campaigners – who helped the country to draw 0-0 with Denmark and beat Belarus 2-0 away in their opening qualifiers last month - will not panic if they fail to make an early breakthrough in front of a sell-out crowd in Mount Florida and will execute the manager’s instructions from kick-off to the final whistle.
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"They have an understanding of how a game's going to go,” he said. “In my playing career, you got to a point in a game where it was 0-0 and a nervousness kicks in, that ‘we must win this’ kicks in. That then influences your decision making and your game plan.
“But there's an understanding now, there's a process for the 90 minutes. We don't go from the first minute, especially when teams are sitting in a lower block. You need to do a lot of work before you can create chances. That can be frustrating. But I’ve seen that bit of confidence and calmness.”
Naismith continued, “The experienced players in this group don't have ego, they don't have any of that. They've got a drive to get as many camps as they can get, a drive to get to as many tournaments as they can get to.
“It's refreshing, it's brilliant, because it probably makes the coaching staff's job easier. The older ones here manage the group and we've got a bigger group of younger players just feeding into that experience now, which is only good for the future." Bournemouth winger Ben Gannon-Doak has a bright future ahead of him at international level and Scotland supporters were surprised when the former Celtic and Liverpool kid was left out of Clarke’s starting line-up against Denmark in Copenhagen last month.
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"There's decisions to be made all over the pitch,” he said. “I think it's very rare that a Scotland team comes out and somebody's not questioning why somebody is getting picked or not getting picked. That's down to the quality of the players.
“What we have to do as coaches is get the game plan right. I don't think people expected two strikers [Che Adams and Lyndon Dykes] to start and Ben or Billy [Gilmour] not to start against Denmark. But it worked out. What we worked on during the week came to fruition. But each team is different. "Last month the Belarus team suited Ben. He got loads of opportunities one v one in the wide areas. He is a talent, a young guy who's got brilliant attributes. He's also got a hunger to learn. But we've got a brilliant squad now. There doesn't need to be that pressure on him, the onus doesn’t need to be on him. The competition here is fierce.
“Ben's obviously also had a big move in the summer. He's probably not played as many matches as ideally he would have liked. But, again, he's a big player. He'll be learning every day in training. That's also really good for us.”
Naismith is quietly confident that Scotland can perform far better against Greece on Thursday night than they did against them at Hampden back in March. “I don't think we've been in a better place,” he said. “[Aaron] Hickey has come back from what's been a torrid couple of years and is looking like a different animal. You've got John [McGinn] and Andy [Robertson]. [Scott] McTominay is kicking on. So the squad dynamic is stronger. The confidence is clear to see in every session.”
