MX23RW : Friday, November 22 02:20:37| >> :600:141989:141989:
[monks data]
Scotland national football team
World Cup Qualifying - Europe | Group Stage
Oct 5, 2017 at 7.45pm UK
 
Slovakia national football team

1-0

Skrtel (89' og.)
FT(HT: 0-0)

Gordon Strachan: 'Scotland have midfield strength in depth'

Strachan: 'Scotland have strength in depth'
© SilverHub
Scotland manager Gordon Strachan insists that he has more than enough capable midfield options, despite being without a number of players.

Gordon Strachan has played down Scotland's growing injury concerns by insisting that his side can cope without the likes of Scott Brown, Stuart Armstrong and Matt Ritchie.

Celtic duo Brown and Armstrong recently pulled out of the Tartan Army's squad for the World Cup qualifiers against Slovakia and Slovenia with hamstring and calf problems respectively.

Newcastle United winger Ritchie followed suit by withdrawing on Sunday evening, shortly after producing a man-of-the-match display in the 1-1 draw against Liverpool.

Darren Fletcher, James McArthur and James Morrison are also unavailable for the double-header, but Strachan does not see any reason to be concerned as a number of other midfield players are hitting form.

"They're three good players missing, but it's a strong area for us," he told reporters. "We've added Callum [McGregor], who scored two at the weekend, John McGinn, who scored two at the weekend and was fantastic, and Barry Bannan, who was magnificent at the weekend with his team.

"That shows how strong we are and from there we could probably add another three or four midfield players. We're OK there."

Striker Leigh Griffiths only trained briefly on Monday afternoon, meanwhile, but Strachan says that it was not injury related.

ID:308653: cacheID:308653:1false2false3false:QQ:: from db desktop :LenBod:restore:3327:No Data Analysis info
Restore Data
Share this article now:
Newcastle United winger Matt Ritchie in action
Read Next:
Matt Ritchie withdraws from Scotland squad
>
rhs 2.0
Today's games header
1.15am
Steelers
@
Browns
Tables header RHS


Sports Mole provides in-depth previews and predictions for every match from the biggest leagues and competitions in world football.
Argentina's Lionel Messi kisses the World Cup trophy after collecting the Golden Ball award on December 18, 2022Sign up for our FREE daily preview newsletter direct to your inbox!