View From The Wing- Benfica

"If you don't give the ball away then you don't have to chase so much. And the less you have to chase, the fresher you are mentally and physically,"

Said Mr Strachan after he blamed tiredness on last nights defeat. It’s true and the aim is to stop it happening. So how do you stop it happening?

For one you stop buying players from Scottish teams, unless they are extra special, and you stop buying expensive and not so expensive foreigners who don’t improve the team. You then rear your own players that are comfortable on the ball and your scouting has to be spot on in lesser known countries- that produce technically better players than us Scots- to sign talent before the big guns get interested.

Thing is that all takes time. We have only produced one player who looks comfortable on the ball at the highest level, and even then he has be prone to terrible performances, in the last 20 years and oor scouting and signings seem to amount to raking the championship and SPL clubs.

Yes, we have bought players wie supposed CL quality but you have to ask have they flourished wie the journeymen and technically poorer youngsters that they have been paired wie, which means that we have to play an unnatural style?

Blessing is, the record for games without an away win in the CL is 31 games. We have 16 to go until we beat that but unless GS produces miracles on the training field then we will be mightily close to that 31 figure before we get near wining away from home…..

Forza