Tam McManus: Scotland had the players to qualify but Gordon Strachan didn't use

them properly his time is up

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This time. That was the slogan that the Scottish FA have had emblazoned all around
Hampden and churned out constantly on their social media outlets for the past year
to help make us believe that this time it would be different. This time we would
not let down an entire nation desperate for a seat at the big table and not to be
watching another major tournament on TV.

This time we wouldn't fall agonisingly short of qualifying for a major championship
and not grace the biggest of international stages for the tenth time in a row.
Twenty years of hurt were going to be wiped out this time.

After the first four games of the campaign, we had a measly four points from a
possible twelve. Back-to-back 3-0 defeats last October and November made Gordon
Strachan's future look bleak. Scotland supporters were in disarray and the knives
were well and truly out for our manager. We looked dead and buried. Then it
happened.

Read more: Scott Mullen: There was nothing glorious about latest Scotland failure?

We got that unmistakable whiff of hope. Hello my old friend, it has been a while.
You know that waft in the nostrils we got when we beat France home and away. That
sniff of glory we got when Griffiths popped his second goal high past Joe Hart to
put us 2-1 up against our oldest of enemies or when Martin Skrtel slid a cross past
his own goalkeeper to put it back in our hands. Then we could almost taste it last
night when the imperious Griffiths smashed a low volley past Jan Oblak to put us in
front.

But always in the back of your mind you had that nagging feeling that somehow we
would find a way to blow it. You thought to yourself, I have seen this movie
before. We will find a way to turn this into yet another episode of 'Glorious
Failure'. And boy we did. A dreadful second-half performance against a side with
little to play for consigned us to the outside looking in yet again. But we
shouldn't have been in a situation, where we needed to beat a stuffy and
unspectacular Slovenian team. Our slow start ultimately cost us a crack at the
play-offs.

But what now for the manager? It is surely now time for a change.

Read more: Outclassed Scotland fall short in Russia 2018 qualification bid as focus
switches to Gordon Strachan's future

I have said from the very start of this campaign that we had the players to qualify
for the World Cup in Russia next year. We just had to pick the right ones. We
haven't. It has been a campaign of fine margins but at least give yourself the best
possible chance of being on the right end of them.

England were always going to win the group but second place was certainly
achievable. However, for me, Gordon has made some grave errors in not only team
selection but formation. He hasn't got the best out of what he has had to work
with. He was ridiculously cautious early in the campaign and one game sticks out
like a sore thumb. The Lithuania game at home. One striker, Chris Martin, at home
against a team who had won two games in three years, versus Malta and San Marino.

Lithuania are dreadful and a team you simply need to pick up six points against. If
we had, wed have been in the play-offs. It is a fact. But Strachan left Leigh
Griffiths, who is the best striker we have available by an absolute country mile,
planked on the bench. An abject performance and team selection was only rescued by
a late goal, an equaliser.

Read more: Gordon Strachan ducks questions on his own future as Scotland come up
short in Russia 2018 play-off bid?

You can actually argue that it was a
night. That left us needing snookers
going with one striker, not even our
with two away to Slovenia is totally
of that one poor decision early on.
point gained given our performance on the
after one game. When you think about it now,
best one, against Lithuania at home and going
bonkers. But we needed to go chasing because

Look at Griffiths' performances since Strachan actually put him in the team. He has
been every inch a top-level international striker and very nearly put us in the
play-offs.