GORDON STRACHAN last night admitted he desperately needs more of his Scotland players regularly performing in Europe if he is to lead the country into the next World Cup.

The national team head coach remains confident his squad are capable of reaching the Russian finals two years from now; however, he still wants many more of his charges taking part in either the Champions League or Europa League.

From the current Scotland set-up, only the Celtic players in recent times have had even limited European experience and this is something which greatly concerns Strachan who believes the step-up from second tier football, where many of his squad play, is a huge challenge, especially for those with no real knowledge of operating at the top level of the game.

“Are we going to be at the World Cup draw? I think we will be in it, yeah,” said Strachan. “The players give me confidence, as does the backing we get from the country. We do need to pull out a big result away from home in our group.

“But we have only got four players in the squad who are playing in the Premier League and it’s not the top teams. We know that. It would be wrong to say they were in the top sides.

“In the squad at the moment (for the friendlies against Italy and France) we have nobody who played in Europe. That is worrying and it is why I hoped leaving the players out who will be going for Europe next season would help them because if I have players playing in Europe then it helps us.

“When I was at Celtic, and Alex McLeish and then Walter Smith were at Rangers, I think we had eleven Scots who played in Europe and the national side. Rangers got to a final, we made it to a last 16 and it was fantastic. That is a great learning curve.

"It’s unfortunate that we are taking players from Championship clubs. To go from there to playing against the best players in the world! It says something that we don’t know the squad until the English Championship play-off is done.”

Strachan was tempted not to take any games at the end of a long season, especially as he was always going to leave out many of his established players, but is glad to have matches against two genuinely good sides.

His view has always been that if a couple of fringe players can show up during even the most low-key of non-competitive games,then they will have been worthwhile.

And Strachan insisted taking on the best of opposition is the only way to see if they can handle the likes of Italy and France, who are favourites for their own European Championship tournament this summer

“If you go to the English Premier League there is usually a fantastic standard, Spain as it well, but at international level you can go from the sublime to the ridiculous," said Strachan. "People say we played such-and-such a team and it wasn’t international level, this is top international level.

“We have to play against Germany and Poland last year. That’s the top level. We need to find out if we can play at this level. It is beneficial for the players, they will confident and we want to win these games.

"It is about us getting better and giving players such as Callum Paterson an opportunity, Barrie McKay as well. We produced some players in our last two games.

“But those two guys I mentioned were playing in the Championship a year ago, the Scottish Championship. It’s a heck of a leap up. If you watch the final at the weekend, Real-Atletico, and I watched the Liverpool-Sevilla game, you need to be a right good player to appear on that pitch.”

John McGinn, the Hibernian midfielder, was man of the match on his debut against Denmark but unless he moves from Easter Road this summer faces another season in the Championship.

Strachan would never say it but he would prefer the 21-year-old, a favourite of the Scotland manager, to move although he did point out that second tier football has not held him back so far.

“It depends on what he wants to make of it,” said Strachan when asked about McGinn’s future. “That didn’t hinder him in any way this season. I keep saying to people, you determine where you go in football. He had a big decision whether to go to America or Hibs and look where he is now.”