Why Scotland can't play for draw or narrow defeat against Brazil

When Scotland take on the famous yellow shirts of Brazil in Miami, they will know a draw is enough to reach the knockout stage of the World Cup.

Even a narrow loss may well see them through to the last 32 as one of eight best third-place sides.

Scotland fans' new obsession is the table of third-placed teams in the World Cup as everyone tries to work out what exactly would take the national side through for the first time ever.

Head coach Steve Clarke and the players will be asked about their approach given that context, but how easy is it to play simply not to lose?

You can probably scrape through the history of football and struggle to find any coach or player say they will go out to aim for anything but a win.

Those involved with Scotland will do the same in their pre-match media this week - and you can bet your house on it being true.

But, with all the noise and talk outside the camp, might there be a subconscious effect?

As former Scotland player and manager Craig Levein told BBC Scotland: "I don't believe Steve will be playing for a draw because there's a dangerous element to that.

"Because you're in a mode where if you do lose a goal then getting shifted out of that mind space is difficult. I've been in that situation on a number of occasions.

"One of them was the Czech Republic game, the 4-6-0 [in 2010], where a draw would have been a really good result. The game wasn't great and neither team threatened, but we lost the goal to a set-piece.

"So you can plan all you want to play for a certain outcome, but football is so random that you're not guaranteed to get that."

Levein believes Clarke's demeanour and approach to training, the gameplan and team selection will be more influential in the players' mindset than outside talk of only needing a point.

The inclusion of winger Ben Gannon-Doak, for example, may send a message Scotland are going to be more aggressive going forward.

"You get a feel as a manager where the players are," Levein said.

"You're looking at it and you're thinking: maybe if we just put another attacking player on, it gives everybody the idea that it's time to take the shackles off and have a go."

Former Rangers and Motherwell midfielder Andy Halliday agrees that Scotland need to find more urgency when defending as a team against Brazil.

"When you're going to be this team that wants to sit in and frustrate then try and be as quick as you can on transitions," he said. "I think we need to be a lot more aggressive than we've been off the ball.

"I think every chance we created actually came from us putting pressure on Moroccan players and turning the ball over at the top end of the pitch.

"I'm not expecting a huge difference in possession [against Brazil], but I think, out of possession, we can't just allow these top players time and space on the ball and make it easy for them to just feel their way into the game."

Click here to read article