No Miller or Maloney in Scotland’s starting line-up?
Celtic and Rangers in-form players not selected!
Okay, until the official Scotland team for the match against the Czech Republic is announced, it’s all gossip and hearsay but it appears that Kenny Miller may be missing. If Miller is fit and available to play, we can’t get our head around this idea that he may not be selected.
BBC Sport are reporting that Jamie Mackie will make his debut for Scotland in preference to Miller.
Craig Levein and the Scottish medical staff may feel that Miller has just got the legs for one game out of the double-header but if this is the case, surely he plays the first game. If Scotland take anything from the Spain game, it will be a massive bonus, however, surely a point in Prague is the least we should be looking for?
The Czech Republic have already lost at home in this campaign so they are hardly unbeatable and a positive Scotland result will place the Czechs under a whole heap of pressure. It is likely that Scotland will sit back with the hope of hitting on the break and Kenny Miller is the best Scotland forward for this style of game.
Miller is in the goal grabbing form of his life, having already scored 10 league goals this season and surely if there is a reason to pick a player, this is it.
If you want a reason for dropping an international striker, you drop one that hasn’t scored in over two years and hasn’t grabbed a goal in a competitive match in over 3 years. Oddly enough, this never happened to Miller but as soon as he broke his barren spell with a strike against Liechtenstein, Kenny Miller now finds himself on the sidelines for this game.
It’s a very strange decision, who knows if we will ever get the real reason for Miller’s omission but it has us perplexed. As it is Scotland and Rangers, some are immediately jumping to their own conclusions but we’re cautious to avoid that. We just want to say we can’t think of any good reason why Kenny Miller is not starting this game.
Another strange decision is the fact that Shaun Maloney has not been included in the starting line-up. With Miller and Maloney not picked, we are left with the strange situation of Celtic and Rangers in-form forwards (both Scottish internationalists) are not deemed good enough for the Scotland starting line-up.
Those who don’t like the big two will take great comfort from the fact that Levein doesn’t seem to take playing well for these clubs as a reason to select them…but surely everyone wants the best team to take the field.
The BBC site lists the Scotland team as:
Scotland: (4-1-4-1) McGregor, Hutton, Weir, McManus, Whittaker, G Caldwell, D Fletcher, Dorrans, Morrison, Naismith, Mackie
It is only after the game will we know if the gamble taken by Levein pays off, if it does, brilliant and the manager has earned his wage. If it fails, many will want to understand the reasoning behind the selection.
Okay, we’ve said our piece about the team and we won’t know if it will be right or wrong until after the game…but what do you think?
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