Matthew Harold: Strange choices in Levein's Scotland squad

Lee McCulloch’s Scotland inclusion, baffling?

By Matthew Harold

So Craig Levein has decided to welcome back Rangers midfielder Lee McCulloch into the international fold. There is one question that has to be asked about the 31-year-olds inclusion, were exactly does he fit in?

The Rangers midfielder is having somewhat of an Indian summer at Ibrox this season, but adding McCulloch to the national team seems rather strange. Because if you’re going to pick someone that age, you’ve got to believe that he will be an automatic choice, or close enough to being so. 

With the current Scotland midfield the way it is, McCulloch would probably be around sixth choice for a central midfield berth, with Darren Fletcher, Scott Brown, Kevin Thomson, Paul Hartley and Barry Robson all likely to be ahead to McCulloch in the pecking order.

The main reason that both Hartley and Robson will be ahead of McCulloch in Levein’s plans is that as manager of both Hearts and Dundee Utd he expertly rejuvenated both players careers, changing them from wingers into two of the best central midfielders in Scotland at the respective times.

So it leaves you asking, why is McCulloch in the squad. Surely the spot given to him could have gone to someone such as Hamilton’s James McArthur to give the exciting youngster a chance to experience what it will be like for him in the future, if he continues his progress.

By giving a spot to another 30 plus player looks like a move straight out of the Craig Brown book. So if Levein continues to pick these type of players then it will affect the future of the country.

With only Paul Dixon and Gary Kenneth being the new faces in the squad, questions have to be asked.

Will Levein continue with the same faces that ultimately cost his predecessor George Burley his job?

The reinstatement of Rangers striker Kris Boyd will not completely change the team. Although it is great to have someone of his goalscoring stature in the line-up, he will not be the only one that has to step up his game in order to hopefully take the country to Poland and Ukraine in 2012.

The rest of the players involved in the national team, need to understand that things are becoming desperate for Scotland. The team must make it to Euro 2012 to avoid making it 16 years since we made it to one of the big tournaments.

So if Levein wants to be a Scotland legend, then he needs to understand, that as well as looking at the present, he also needs to look to the future and bring on the young talent that is being developed throughout the SPL to keep the national team strong and hopefully qualifying for tournaments for years to come.