Scott Brown

By Graham Barnstaple
March 27 2011

It’s always great to hear the media and pundits after International friendlies spout the normal rubbish about the game being a learning experience.

Well what did we learn this afternoon at the Emirates apart from the obvious fact that we are miles behind the Brazilians in technique and movement.

For me if we are going to play 4-5-1 against top quality sides we cannot isolate the one man up front in the way we did to Kenny Miller today.

The midfield need to get up quicker to support the striker, and Levein needs to find a system that allows this to happen.

At the same time we need to keep the ball better than we did today, and like Brazil look to win the ball back quicker by pressing higher up the pitch.

There are also a few players worth picking out for their contribution good and bad;

Gary Caldwell – restored some of his International reputation with some great blocks and tackles.

Scott Brown – needs to develop more to his game than running about snarling at people

Charlie Adam – he may be able to play the “Pele” pass across field but he needs to learn to be more careful with possession of the ball.

We still have plenty of time ahead of the next round of qualifiers in September and October with a Denmark friendly on August 10 and the Nations Cup, giving Craig Levein plenty of time to work on the points above or we will be stuck in 60s in the world ranking for some time.