Boss Alex McLeish has stressed the importance of the collective ahead of Scotland’s crucial Nations League match against Israel at Hampden Park on Tuesday night.
The Scots go into the match buoyed by their convincing 4-0 away win over Albania on Saturday night where James Forrest notched his first two goals for the national team with fellow wide-man Ryan Fraser scoring his first in dark blue.
The win took Scotland level on points with Andreas Herzog’s side but after losing 2-1 when both countries met in Haifa last month, they need to win the final Group C1 fixture to qualify for the play-offs for the 2020 European Championships and McLeish believes that will take a team effort.
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— Scotland National Team (@ScotlandNT) November 19, 2018
He said: “It is not about setting targets for players at Hampden.
“If James plays a blinder the way he did the other night and makes three goals for somebody or he has to work back to save a goal then that’s all in the name of the game.
“It is hard to single out individuals from Saturday night. It was a great collective performance.
Morning!
Watch the goals as Ryan Fraser, Steven Fletcher and a James Forrest double seal a 4-0 victory over Albania in the UEFA #NationsLeague.#ALBSCO pic.twitter.com/eh2vzDLytC
— Scotland National Team (@ScotlandNT) November 18, 2018
“All I am looking for from every single player is to bring their highest performance level to the game. Everybody would be satisfied by that.
“Does that guarantee 100 per cent you can win? Maybe it doesn’t but one thing for sure, I am pretty optimistic after that. That is how you have to look at it.”
McLeish insists his squad worked hard to take positives from the defeat in Israel, where the 2-1 scoreline was no reflection of the home side’s superiority.
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Roar the team over the line on Tuesday night at Hampden.
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— Scotland National Team (@ScotlandNT) November 18, 2018
The former Scotland defender said: “Nobody likes to lose.
“When we lose and we know we have another game to prepare for, we have to show the resilience, but also it makes you work even harder to put it right and we did that in the Albania game with a fantastic performance from the players.
“We also respect Israel, they’ve been on a good run of form. We feel very strong here at Hampden and we would love to get the fans
right behind the players from the very first kick of the ball right through to the end.”
