T-minus 2 days … The excitement builds

By: Ian Rose | November 15th, 2007

Two days and counting until the huge match in Glasgow. As Martha has reported over at the Italy blog, Kenny Miller’s been running his mouth off about gunning for some Italian knees. No real surprises here. Kenny’s always been a bruiser. I would be okay with him playing tough, physical football, but since we are probably only going to have one pure striker (two tops) on the pitch at any given time, I’d prefer he was thinking about the ball and the net and the joining of those two things. I’ve never been shy about my opinion that Kenny Miller is my third-choice striker for Scotland, and this doesn’t change my mind. We’ll see.

With that in mind, here is the formation I would play against Italy. Though Scotland has played a lot in the 4-5-1, I really think the team is much more suited to a 4-4-2. We just don’t have the sort of star lone striker that can make the 4-5-1 work. So, here is my starting eleven for Scotland v. Italy.

Gordon
Naysmith - McManus - Hutton - Weir
Brown - Ferguson - Hartley - McCulloch
Boyd - McFadden

Big Eck is more likely to start Miller for Boyd, but I really hope he does go with two strikers. A draw won’t do, and we can always pull back later in the match with more defensively-minded substitutions if we have the advantage.

Traditionally, our biggest enemies in this fixture have been Luca Toni and Andrea Pirlo, but let’s face it - there are a lot of players on this Italian side that can hurt us. If I had to bet my life on something, I’d probably say a draw, but what kind of fan would I be if the team put so much into this campaign and I didn’t reward them with just a little faith … so, I’m predicting a 2-1 victory for Scotland, on the strength of goals from McFadden and Ferguson, with a Pirlo free kick going the other way. I’ll be praying and kissing my scarf every few minutes for the next two days, hoping I’m right for once.

This will be my last post before the match, since I’m heading into the city (relatively speaking) to catch the game. If anyone sees a tall spikey-haired gent with a Scotland shirt and scarf walking around Portland looking as if he has a pint or two in, chances are he’ll answer to “Ian”. Good luck to Scotland - this is an absolutely huge match, and as proud as I am that we’ve gotten to this point, qualification would really be a dream come true. Alba Gu Brath. More after the game.