Carew, Iversen? No reasons to be too fearful

The Norwegian line-up is impressive… but so is Scotland's home record

IT WOULD be easy to get in a flap over Norway, easy to crane your neck at big John Carew and worry about all the goals he scores, easy to scratch your head at Steffen Iversen and wonder why he was so average for so many clubs over so many years and yet so prolific (of late) for his country, easy to be concerned by Morten Gamst Pedersen of Blackburn and John Arne Riise, now of Roma, and their penchant for the long distance piledriver, easy to turn up at Hampden on Saturday with frayed nerves and sore memories of the aeon (well, 13 months and five matches) that's passed since Scotland had a clean sheet in a competitive game. There's lots to worry about if that's the road you want to go down. But it's a road we've all been down before.

Been there and worried about the Lithuanians coming to Glasgow in the last campaign. Think back, there was real apprehension before that one. Been there and worried about the arrival of Thierry Henry's France, Shota Arveladze's Georgia, Andriy Shevchenko's Ukraine. All those games at Hampden were won by Scotland. Most of them were tense but that's the Hampden way. You know you're going to age when you go there to watch a full-blown international. It's just a question of how many years you're going to lose to anxiety before the last whistle is heard. That's the thrill.

So there are two ways to look at the threat of the Norwegians. Carew: 21 international goals, sure. But in 71 games and most of those goals came against the likes of Armenia, Slovenia and Hungary (that's a third of the 21 accounted for already). On one side you have his Premiership form (four goals in six games so far this season) and on the other you have the opposition (Stoke, West Brom, Sunderland and Man City). Hats off for the goals, but...

Scotland will respect him and Iversen (who can be seen from a certain light as another flat-track bully) but fearing them is another thing. There are no grounds for that kind of thing.You'd fear Riise's thunderbolts only he hasn't hit one for an awfully long time. You'd fear Pedersen and his rockets but he's not in the Blackburn team any longer. So no rockets for ages. The way Scotland's defence is (shaky at the best of the times) you'd fancy one of that lot to score on Saturday but that's not the end of the world as far as Scotland is concerned. At least, it shouldn't be. Not when the opposition managed to concede two at home against Iceland last month. Not when they conceded two more at home to Uruguay in May and three away to Montenegro and March and certainly not when they conceded three away to Wales in February. Norway have shipped 14 goals in their last seven games. Scotland are good for a couple on that form. And barring a car crash in their own defence (David Weir's return will reduce that possibility) then a couple should be good enough for the win.

It'll be physical, though. This doesn't promise to be an oil painting of a football match. Norway are big and strong. More than half the team that drew with Iceland were 6ft-plus. Iversen is 6ft 1in and strong in the air, Carew is 6ft 4in, Brede Hangeland, the defender from Fulham, is 6ft 5in. As a team their function is to get crosses into the box and to muscle teams out of it. As for corners? It's like a demolition derby in the penalty area.

Burley says his boys are ready for all that. A game of attrition? His lads play games of attrition every weekend. No worries on that score. "The physicality, it's not something our players are not used to. It's something you look forward to. The defenders are up for that.

"I've seen Carew a number of times for Villa. He's in form, scoring goals, very difficult when the ball is at his feet, uses his body very well and, like Iversen, he relies on crosses coming into the box. His strengths are British strengths but he needs ammunition from wide, that's where he scores his goals. We're wary of Iversen as well but we're not going to say 'you go and man mark him'. That's not in our equation. He plays in behind two strikers, the same position as Eidur Gudjohnsen but Iversen is a wee bit more direct. When the ball is wide he'll be running into the box for headers because he's very good in the air. Where Gudjohnsen is a very clever player, more ball to feet, Iversen will be very much a goal threat when the ball is wide. Riise bombs forward from full-back and has a tremendous left foot. He'll be looking to supply crosses all day. We have to cut that supply."

Fundamental to cutting the supply is an ability to hold possession, to avoid giving it away cheaply as Scotland have done in three of the four halves of competitive football under Burley. For the first 45 minutes in Macedonia and for pretty much the entire game in Iceland, Scotland's ball retention was substandard. There's no shortage of energy and desire, it's accuracy that's required now. Burley will be looking for an awful lot more from Gary Naysmith, a serial culprit in giving away easy possession, and from Darren Fletcher, who'll make the starting line-up more out of reputation than form. Fletcher needs an authoritative performance on Saturday more than most.

There's a case for dropping Fletcher and sticking Barry Robson and Scott Brown in the middle of the park flanked by two of Kris Commons, James Morrison and Shaun Maloney (all three with powerful engines to block off those crosses from wide), with Kenny Miller (who'll surely return) playing in his customary role behind James McFadden. Going back in time, no Burley team was ever afraid to attack but you'd fancy he will find a spot for Fletcher and the defensive ballast he brings on his better days. The Manchester United player needs to remind us of his qualities on Saturday, though.

"Norway will be looking to come here for three points," says Burley. "Dropping two points at home to Iceland, they'll not be sitting in and defending. They've conceded more goals than they would have liked so that's an area for us. I'm sure we'll give them problems."

So nobody panic.