The Scotland national team is ‘not a great environment’ for players or management staff due to the pressure on them to qualify for a major tournament, believes former international John Collins.
The ex-Celtic midfielder and coach joined Ally McCoist on Monday’s Alan Brazil Sports Breakfast to reflect on Scotland’s dreadful start to their Euro 2020 qualifying campaign.
Alex McLeish’s men suffered perhaps the worst result in the nation’s history as they were beaten 3-0 in their opener against Kazakhstan – a team ranked 117th in the world – last week.
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Alex McLeish’s Scotland side suffered humiliation in Kazakhstan
They followed that up by beating San Marino 2-0 on Sunday, but that did not relieve any of the pressure on McLeish as 3,000 travelling fans booed their boss after an unconvincing performance against the worst international side in world football.
McLeish has been urged to leave his post after Scotland’s humiliation in Kazakhstan and their next round of fixtures in June, a double header with Cyprus and Belgium, could prove make-or-break for his future in charge.
Scotland are looking to qualify for their first major tournament in 20 years, since the 1998 World Cup in France – where Collins scored in their opening game against Brazil.
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And the former midfielder believes the constant pressure to qualify had created a toxic atmosphere within the Scotland set-up.
Asked about the defeat to Kazakhstan, Collins said on Monday: “It was poor. I think they took the game too lightly, and when you do that the danger is you get turned over.
“We all thought after the game, oh Kazakhstan are quite a decent team, but then they go and get beat 4-0 by Russia, and that just makes it even worse.
“When some of our main players are injured, we don’t have to strength in depth. We can’t compete with the big boys, but we should still be able to compete with the Kazakhstans!
“It was an off day all round, I felt for the manager. Thank goodness we had San Marino after!
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There is something not right in the Scotland camp
“I expect Alex will stay in charge but he’s going to be under a lot of pressure throughout the campaign after that shocking start.
“Everybody is under pressure. We’ve been 20 years without getting to a tournament, so as soon as qualifying starts the pressure is on the manager, the pressure is on the players and it’s not a great environment.
“As sure as you get a bad result, the players get slaughtered, the manager gets slaughtered. It’s not a great place to be sometimes.
“I don’t like saying it, and it’s not nice to say it about the players, but the standard has dropped.â€
Listen back to John Collins on the Alan Brazil Sports Breakfast IN FULL above
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Toxic Scotland 'not a great place to be' for players or manager, says former Celtic star John Collins Written by: fpnews Posted on: March 25, 2019 The Scotland national team is 'not a great environment' for players or management staff due to the pressure on them to qualify for a major tournament, believes former international John Collins.
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He is also the Celtic player to have captained the Scotland international team the most times. Paul McStay , who captained Celtic during the 1990s, has won the most caps for Scotland whilst at Celtic with 76 appearances, [12] whilst Pat Bonner of the Republic of Ireland has made the most appearances for his country whilst a Celtic player (80 caps).
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