Scott Brown will not be told to lower his aggression when he goes toe-to-toe with Liechtenstein tonight.

But he will be told to raise his game.

The Celtic midfielder needs no reminding that, like Lee McCulloch, he is just one booking away from serving a one-game ban.

However, it was not the fact Brown got a yellow card in the opening Group I game in Lithuania that concerned manager Craig Levein, or persuaded him to replace the combative Hoops captain with 15 minutes of the contest remaining.

He simply believes Brown can play better, and has thrown down the gauntlet to him to do precisely that.

Levein said: “I’m sure Scotty won’t mind me saying that I think he can play a lot better. He knows that himself.

“I pick players based on what they do, and what Scotty does is get in people’s faces, and win the ball high up the pitch and play with an aggression that Scottish people like to see our players play with.

“I think not training has been the biggest problem for him. Because of his foot injury, he has been playing games and not doing so much training.”

Levein must strike the balance between keeping Liechtenstein pinned back, and having the creative players good enough to make possession tell.

He is confident that the former can be achieved, but, as always, the latter is what will define the performance.

Levein has challenged captain Darren Fletcher to step forward – literally – to lead by example.

He said: “I feel that, particularly in midfield, we have got bags of energy,

“We have got fit players who are capable of keeping the tempo high.

“But to exploit a situation against a packed defence, you need to be able to expose people, and you only do that by moving the ball quickly.

“That’s something we will have to do for the 90 minutes.”