Tuesday, 23 July 2013

Strachan Promises England Attack

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Scotland boss Gordon Strachan has promised to go on the attack when his side face England at Wembley next month.

The Dark Blues will travel to the home of the Auld Enemy on August 14 for their first visit to London in 14 years.

The match comes after Strachan masterminded a surprise 1-0 win over Croatia in last month's World Cup qualifier.

Norwich winger Robert Snodgrass scored in a tense Zagreb encounter that required the Scots to battle manfully to preserve their lead.

But Strachan says the team will look to give the 20,000 Tartan Army fans heading to the English capital a more entertaining display.

He said: "With the size of crowd we will have, there will be an emphasis on us to do a wee bit more with the ball. We're expecting to have more of the ball.

"With the system in Croatia, we had eight days training beforehand to sort it out. That was handy and definitely helped.

"So that's a system that we can fall back on and know that it works. If every player applies themselves 100 per cent, it works.

"Now we have to find a system for when we are at home that is more attacking and find out who the best players for that system are as well.

"We can't really call this an away game as such because the fans will want to see us attacking."

Strachan's 29-man squad includes Scott Brown - who missed the trip to Zagreb with a hip injury - but he has been forced to leave out the injured trio of Darren Fletcher, Steven Fletcher and Gary Caldwell.

However, the former Celtic boss says morale in the group is soaring after the win against Igor Stimac's side.

"There's no doubt about it, any time you win a game of football, that adds to the confidence of the squad and helps with the camaraderie," he said.

"People talk about nights out, go-karting, golf days [helping to boost squad spirit] - that doesn't make any difference. Camaraderie, team spirit and confidence comes when you win games of football."


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