Caldwell: Scots must squash Oranje

19 March 2009 07:32
Caldwell is likely to form the centre of Scotland's back four with Celtic team-mate Stephen McManus when the countries meet in a World Cup qualifier in the Amsterdam ArenA a week on Saturday. With the likes of Arsenal forward Robin van Persie and Real Madrid quartet Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, Wesley Sneijder, Arjen Robben and Rafael van der Vaart to contend with, Caldwell will rely on his midfielders to close the Dutch down. But a five-man midfield showed they could perform such a role 18 months ago when Scotland restricted France to few chances in their 1-0 away win in Paris. Caldwell said: "I don't think any defender in the world can cope with the threat they have on your own. "You have to do it as a team, you have to have midfielders working hard as well. So it's going to be a massive team effort needed. "There are so many, you would be man-marking six of them if we tried to stop all their threats. "You just have to be in good positions as defenders and don't allow them any space." Caldwell added: "That's their main area of attack, the line of three that is behind their main striker. "Robben, van Persie and Huntelaar on his own, then they have Sneijder and van der Vaart as well. "Those four or five players make up their attacking threat and we will have to deal with them all." Such a formation is likely to leave Kenny Miller up front on his own but the Rangers striker is confident in such a role. "If selected, and that's the road the manager wants to go down, then I'll be more than happy to do that," Miller said. "It's one I've done before against good teams, Italy and Ukraine. I did it against Norway away from home. "They have all been tough games so, if I'm given the role again, I'm more than happy to do it." However, Miller is not banking on a starting role despite injury to James McFadden. Chris Iwelumo, Steven Fletcher, Ross McCormack and David Clarkson have all played for Scotland under Burley and Miller knows he faces competition. "We've got five strikers in the squad and everyone scored apart from me at the weekend," Miller said. "So everyone is coming into the squad in good form." Scotland have failed to take their qualifying group by the scruff of the neck but they are in second place ahead of the double header against Holland and Iceland, who visit Hampden on April 1. And Caldwell remains optimistic Scotland can carve out a play-off place, at least. "If we can get four points out of the two games, then second place is a real possibility," the Celtic defender said. "If we can get six, then I'm sure Holland will start to worry about us. "So it's still all to play for but I think, after these two games, we will know a lot more about where we are going to go."

Source: Team_Talk