Terry Butcher calls for Scott Brown to walk in John Wark’s footsteps

Terry Butcher believes that Scott Brown has so much ability, that Scotland could cast him in more than one role but the act he would really love the midfield player to copy is that of John Wark.

By that, the assistant manager is referring to the dynamic former Scotland player who became the talk of Europe two decades ago, rather than the one who “starred” on screen alongside Sylvster Stallone and Pelé in Escape To Victory when Wark’s Glaswegian accent was so broad that it was dubbed.

Like his Ipswich Town colleague, Butcher was also on the set of Escape To Victory in 1981. That coincided with Ipswich’s rise to prominence as they won the Uefa Cup that season and Wark scored 14 times to establish a record for that competition. Wark also scored seven times in his 29 appearances for Scotland, despite the fact that he was a defensive midfield player.

In stark contrast, Brown has yet to find the net for his country after 15 caps. The Celtic midfield player was employed in the last encounter with Iceland, the 2-1 win in Reykjavik last September, to suffocate any danger around the box from Eidur Gudjohnsen, the Barcelona player. That was at the expense of Brown’s obvious attacking instincts.

Butcher will urge Brown to advance with real intent tomorrow evening in the World Cup qualifying group nine match at Hampden Park.

“I wish that we could clone Scott,” the Scotland No 2 said. “If we could, we’d have a terrific side. His engery levels are amazing. He was everywhere against Holland but I don’t think we’ll ask him to do a holding role in this game.

“If Gudjohnsen drops off – and we expect them to play 4-4-1-1 – Scott could be pivotal in marking him but Scott loves going forward and you saw that in the second half against Holland. He was trying to take the game to the Dutch defence and when he does that, someone else has to sit back.

“At Ipswich, I played with John Wark, who was supposed to be a sitting midfielder and yet he was one of the top scorers in Europe the season we won the Uefa Cup.

“With these sorts of players you just feel that if you see a chance to do some damage, do it.

“We want to be on the front foot against Iceland and Scott Brown can certainly take the game to them.

“The Holland game was incredible because their movement was so good, which is why [Steven] Naysmith didn’t overlap much. However, the system that Holland use is not the one that Iceland play.

“It’s about us. We have to be more positive and we have to attack them and play on the front foot. We might go 4-3-3, that’s positive, though it depends on the wide players and strikers that you use.”

Scotland and Iceland are locked on four points from four matches, eight adrift of leaders Holland, while the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Norway trail behind, having played a game less.

George Burley, the manager, hopes to be able to recall Stephen McManus to stiffen a defence that conceded three times against Holland on Saturday after making a rapid recovery from the ankle injury that kept him out of the match in Amsterdam. However, Kris Commons, the Derby County forward, will miss the game with a calf strain.

“The players said it was an education,” Butcher said. “Virtually all the Holland team have played in the Champions League this season and not many of ours did.

“They are playing for the top sides in the world and they and the other top six nations are definitely pulling away from the rest of the world – their skill levels are still improving while ours stay the same.

“However, Iceland will be more of a British-style game.

“I’ve no doubts we have the bottle. Pressure is trying to pay your mortgage. These lads are going out to play football and play for their country and do a job which they love. We have beaten Iceland already and they use a system that we know and have players that we know.

“It does not have to be silky football against Iceland. We did not play attractive football in Reykjavik. The game was played at a tempo that we wanted, whereas Holland set the tempo the other night. “ Scotland have yet to win a game at Hampden under Burley, and those two strikes in Iceland are the only competitive goals of his reign. “We know we have to score more goals but just now, all we have to do is score one more than Iceland,” said Butcher.

“We are all frustrated that we have not won at Hampden for a while or scored there and we need to do everything we can on wed to change that. We need to make more opportunities and be more positive and we will pick the team we feel can deliver that. We think the players are hungry.”

Taken from timesonline.co.uk