Derek Johnstone: Scotland's squad just isn't good enough - and that is not a reason to sack Gordon Strachan

I don’t think he should be sacked. We can’t keep chopping and changing managers.

Like everybody, I was really disappointed with the result against Slovakia on Tuesday night and there were always going to be calls for Gordon to be replaced.

He is the man that makes the decisions and he has to handle the criticism when things don’t go well.

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It is a terrible result and it has not been a good start to the campaign. But we can’t keep bringing in a new manager and changing everything at that level every couple of years.

The reaction from many is to sack the manager, pay off him and his backroom staff and then find the money to bring in a new management team and we start again.

I think Gordon will get until the end of the campaign, though. He and the SFA will assess the situation then.

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I know everyone is a bit down and everyone is up in arms but I don’t think it is the right thing to get rid of him. Who would you get in to replace Gordon?

I think you keep him until is mathematically impossible for Scotland to qualify. You let him see out the campaign.

Too many people have high expectations for Scotland. They look at Slovakia, Slovenia and Lithuania and think we are certainties to get second behind England.

When the draw was made, those teams would have been delighted to get Scotland. We think other nations are minnows but teams want to get Scotland these days.

The fans that are calling for the manager to go are the same ones that were chanting his name after the game against Gibraltar at the end of the last campaign. They wanted him to stay but all of a sudden they want him out.

We can’t go on having manager after manager when he has the same players to pick from. They are giving their all, but they are not good enough at the end of the day.

I am sure they work their socks off, but the squad lacks quality all over the park.

We know there are huge problems at the back and the goals we gave away on Tuesday night were so soft and so avoidable.

Gordon will have put in the hours to try and stop those situations happening but it is about how players react and perform on the day. Once again, they weren’t at the standard required.

That is the bottom line right across the park. These players are the best that we have got but they are not at the level that we need unfortunately.

You have to look at what Gordon has got to work with and he has not got the best squad in the world.

There were maybe some people who got a bit carried away after the 5-1 win Malta but everything that had gone wrong for us in 18 years we got back that night. We got the rub of the green with the referee and some of the goals.

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We are not a great side, we are a workmanlike side and there are no stars in the squad. Our great strength was getting into teams and we struggle to score goals.

Chris Martin played against Lithuania when he hasn’t been scoring at club level and Steven Fletcher barely had a chance on Tuesday night.

There were calls for Leigh Griffiths to play but the manager has to look at it and take everything into consideration.

It is his decision. He is with the squad and he knows who he wants to pick.

When you don’t get the wins you need, you have to be prepared for the criticism.

It is a terrible result and we are not looking great but the group is still wide open. We could have done with more points, of course, but the players have to believe they are still in it.

Gordon said that the Lithuania game on Saturday wasn’t a must win. Well, I can assure him that the next one against England is a must win now.

It doesn’t look like anyone will run away with this group. With three games gone, I don’t think it is time to change the manager.

If he has lost the dressing room and the players don’t want to play for him, then that is different. But when you listen to them, they feel he is still the man for the job and Gordon will take heart from that.

He is not a quitter and he won’t come out after three games and say ‘give it to someone else’. He will stand by his decisions and he will want to see it out.

I said before a ball was kicked in this campaign that I didn’t think we would qualify and I am thinking that even more now. But we are still in it, just.

The reality is that we are just not good enough. We haven’t qualified for a major finals for 18 years and that shows no signs of ending unfortunately.

There are a generation of fans that have never seen their country at a World Cup or a European Championships and that is sad. But we haven’t been good enough to get there and we still aren’t good enough.

We don’t have the players. They are doing their best, but they come up short time and time again.

That will be the case whether Gordon is the manager or not.