Innovate or Die

SCOTLAND led the world when it came to football innovation. We invented the passing game, but, in the past half century or so, all the innovation - from cattenaccio, via Hungary pulling Nandor Hideghuti back into the "hole" via 4-2-4, 4-3-3, "total football" to holding midfielders, pine tree formations, 4-5-1 to today's telephone number formations - has come from overseas.

England may have invented dribblers, but the likes of Wee Jinky, Willie Henderson, Davie Cooper, Eddie Gray and Scots-born and coached Aiden McGeady can stand comparison with anyone when it comes to that art. Likewise we've had sitting midfielders, play-makers, wing backs, boix-to-box midfielders and enforcers as good as any.

One area however, where we seem to be lacking is in set-piece originality. OK, Willie Carr came up with the donkey kick, which was immediately outlawed and Aberdeen, under Alex Ferguson, came up with the fall-out free kick (Gordon Strachan arguing with a team mate, then, when the opposition were distracted, floating one in for Mark McGhee to score from) - but, these apart, nothing.

We have not, since Coop departed the game, produced a rival to Beckham, Van Hoojdonk or Nakamura, when it comes to close-range free kicks - although I'd like to think, given encouragement and practice, Faddy or Riordan could be up there with the best.

Not that Scottish players don't think about set pieces. I recall, shortly after lifting first became legal in rugby lines out, the young Chris Iwelumo telling me: he believed IF, he could get two big central defenders as lifter and blocker and (even bigger IF) he could get a set-piece taker to put the ball in the right place, he could get above everyone and head home.

I put the scenario to referee Willie Young, who said immediately: they'd ban the move. So much for innovation in the 21st century.

But, it's not dead. In recent weeks I've seen You Tube clips of two highly-innovative set pieces. Firstly there was the penalty in the Japanese J League; one player placed the ball on the spot, turned and walked back to the edge of the D, he turned to face the keeper, who was so-busy watching him, he didn't notice the player running from the opposite side of the D to clip the ball past him and score.

Then there was the recent clip of the Spanish Under-19 player, who ran up as if to hit the penalty right-footed, then virutally toe-poked a left-foot shot past the wrong-footed keeper.

I don't think there has been an innovative penalty-taker in Scotland since wee Johnny Hubbard of Rangers, the South African who had umpteen different ways of scoring from the spot. Of course, as Rangers' regular penalty expert, Hubbard got more practice than most.

And maybe that's where we are going wrong, our players don't practice enough. But that has been a hardy annual moan for many years now and I don't see the men who run our game rushing to make the players change.

In other sports: basketball, hockey, Rugby Union and League, players practice set-pieces, simply because it's perhaps their best chance of scoring. You control the ball and when it's hit, you're holding all the aces. Why cannot football do this.

In pre-season training in American Football, the coaches come up with a series of set plays, which the players then practice until they can perform them perfectly, to order. They run these drills in every practice session and this practice pays off.

Every player has a play book, outlining the drill and their particular part in its execution. This has been standard procedure in the game since the days of leather helmets and minimal padding.

The play book is standard issue too in American basketball and in baseball. American sport is truly professional; in comparison we're still playing at sport.

Let's see a bit of professionalism and a dollop of innovation coming back into Scottish football. Who knows, it might pay off and we get back into the front line of the game.