Scotland went into their first World Cup qualifier with Serbia at Hampden yesterday in good spirits.

The Scots feel they have their best squad of players for years and will have felt slightly frustrated by drawing 0-0 with the visitors.

Opportunity

Craig Levein’s side are in a tough group alongside Croatia, Belgium and Serbia. Serbia are one of the higher rank teams of the group in the FIFA rankings, but are currently in a transitional period under new boss Sinisa Mihajlovic.

However, the Serbians demise has been greatly exaggerated. They may have struggled in recent games but they looked a decent team against a Scotland team who were lacking ideas. In truth though this game was there to be won by Scotland and they failed.

Cutting

I believe Scotland manager Craig Levein got his substitutions all wrong. His first eleven looked decent enough with quite an attacking team lining up against Serbia, once again though Scotland lacked the cutting edge in front of goal.

Kenny Miller has been a great servant to Scottish football, but I think it is now time for Levein to let the likes of Jamie Mackie and Jordan Rhodes have their chances in the starting line-up. Levein has also cut his nose off to spite his face with the continued exile of striker Steven Fletcher.

Fletcher gives you everything that Miller does, plus more energy. Unfortunately both Fletcher and Levein seem unwilling to bring a truce in their phoney war.

Goals

Scotland have struggled to score enough goals in recent years and its cost them dearly. The current Scotland squad is probably their best for a long time. In Jordan Rhodes they have a player that has been a prolific scorer of goals, albeit in the English lower leagues.

However, the Scotland team are in need of a goal scorer and Rhodes could just be the answer. The Scots face Macedonia on Tuesday in what’s already being described as a must win game. Scotland should win the game, but with Scotland you just never know.

Can Scotland qualify for the World Cup?