World Cup

[monks data]

World Cup Qualifying - Europe | Group Stage

Oct 5, 2017 at 7.45pm UK

Scotland
1-0
Slovakia Slovakia

Skrtel (89' og.)

FT(HT: 0-0)

Gordon Strachan: 'Scotland have midfield strength in depth'

By Daniel Lewis, Senior Reporter | 02 October 2017

Strachan: 'Scotland have strength in depth'

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.