DAVID Weir has still never seen a formation lose a game of football. The former Rangers and Scotland defender, believes it was Alex McLeish’s players, and not his 3-5-2 shape, which was to blame for the 2-1 Uefa Nations league defeat in Haifa, and said the players were ‘weak-minded’ if they were using that system as an excuse.

“They are professional footballers,” said Weir, now working on the backroom staff at Brighton and Hove Albion, and speaking on behalf of BT Sport. “You look at the best teams and they change formation within games, with the ball, without the ball.

“Formation is sometimes used as a stick to beat the coach but he picks that formation to win the game,” added Weir. “He picked that formation and it beat Albania then he picked it and we lost to Israel. So was it the formation that lost to Israel? Or the players? In my mind it wasn’t the formation, it was the players who lost the game.

“The players have got to adjust and adapt. And if players are moaning about the formation then they are weak minded in my opinion. Because a formation has never lost you a game. It is players that win or lose a game.”

Weir was no stranger to being accommodated in a back three, whether it was Rangers’ run to the Uefa Cup final in 2008 or his early days with Craig Brown’s ultra-conservative Scotland side.

“I always thought ‘the more people around me the better!’” he joked. “Everybody thinks three at the back is a new thing, a fashionable thing, but when I first came into the team under Craig Brown in 96/97 or whatever it was we were playing three at the back and that wasn’t the first time it had been done. There are strengths and weaknesses in every system, pros and cons. But ultimately it is about the players.”

Weir admits that the Israel match – in which John Souttar was sent off, and even star performers such as Andy Robertson and Kieran Tierney appeared ill at ease – was a ‘hard watch’.There has been a backlash in some parts about altering the team’s shape to accommodate both Andy Robertson and Kieran Tierney, but Weir is with McLeish and his predecessor Gordon Strachan about the need to find both a starting spot. “You definitely want both of them in your team in some shape or form,” he said. “It is just sod’s law really that two of our better players would ideally play in the same position. But hat is what managers get paid for, to try to give your team the best chance of winning. You could say the same about the goalkepers, Allan McGregor, Craig Gordon, David Marshall in the past. We have top goalkeepers and maybe in some other positions we don’t have that strength. You need to find a system that allows your strengths to work and hides your deficiencies.”

While he hopes that collectively Scotland won’t be as poor collectively as they were in Israel on Saturday night against Albania, he knows we are still searching for consistency under a new manager. Having been pitted against teams ostensibly round about our level in the Uefa Nations League, there is no divine right to finish ahead of sides like Israel and Albania in this battle for back-door entry into the 2020 Euros.

“You would hope [they wouldn’t be as poor again],” said Weir. “But they don’t go out to play poorly, they don’t go out to lose. It is just circumstance.

“That is the frustrations of being a coach. You are sending out pretty much the same team again after a good performance and you would expect the same result. But it doesn’t always work out that way. There are so many intangibles that affect it. Sometimes you have to give the opposing team and manager credit for understanding your weaknesses and exploiting them.

“The way we are up here there are going to be highs and lows. It is going to be disaster or brilliant, there is very rarely anything in between. So it is not unthinkable that we don’t reach the semi-finals [of the Nations League], because it is possible. We are still top of the group so we are still in a good position. But we have got Israel at home and Albania away so it is up to us, up to the performances on the pitch.

“This is the level we are at. It is no coincidence we are in amongst Albania and Israel because we have not qualified for a tournament for 20 years, where do we expect to be? This Nations League gives you an opportunity to progress, so it is a fair benchmark of where we are. You look at the squad and there are a lot of good players there, a lot of players who deserve to be playing at big tournaments. But deserving to and doing it are two different things. You only earn the right by beating the Albanias and the Israels and managing to navigate the next bit as well.”

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