Mark McGhee: Post-season friendlies can be beneficial for Scotland

Scotland assistant coach Mark McGhee stressed the benefits of their post-season schedule following an uninspiring defeat by Italy.

Scotland failed to build on the momentum of consecutive friendly victories over Czech Republic and Denmark as they went down 1-0 to Antonio Conte's side.

Although there was no disgrace whatsoever in the result, the Malta friendly was a dispiriting experience for watching Scotland fans, who waited almost 78 minutes to see Matt Ritchie produce their only shot at goal.

Italy had several clear chances before Graziano Pelle's 57th-minute opener before appearing to take their foot off the pedal.

Scotland manager Gordon Strachan bemoaned the quality of his team's passing and the display could have done little to boost morale ahead of their World Cup qualifying campaign, which begins in Malta in September.

But McGhee, whose team face France on Saturday, feels valuable lessons were learned.

"This was a friendly game where the outcome was less important than the things we might see within the game," he said.

"So of course there are things that have come out the game, both positive and negative, which Gordon will take away and digest and dissect, and find some progress from.

"Regardless of the outcome and the result, it was still a worthwhile exercise.

"Defensively, the goalkeeper was terrific and the centre-halves were fine.

"We also saw negative things: we know we must keep the ball better. We have done that at times during the previous campaign and we know that's the way it has got to be, that possession is such an important factor of performance at this level.

"There were positive things but you can still learn from negatives. We got loads out of the game. People got opportunities and we learn a bit about them."

In the build-up to the game, McGhee had warned Scotland needed to be on top of their game to avoid an embarrassing defeat. And he felt the players responded.

"I think as best they could be given the circumstances of the game," he added.

"It was a friendly at the end of a long season, there is a disappointment of not making the Euros and the prospect of having to sit and watch that. So we're all living with those sort of things so therefore the level of performance was probably about what we expected.

"The possession wasn't. The possession could and should have been better, but there was still effort. We weren't as joined up as we had been in previous games but I think the nature of the game dictated that."

Strachan made several mentions of wider lessons for Scottish football in his post-match assessment after describing his players' passing as "badly off the pace" but McGhee feels the game is addressing the technical gulf.

"There are a lot of good young coaches in Scotland and they are preaching that type of football," the Motherwell manager said. "There's not a lot of long-ball game getting played in the Premiership in Scotland.

"People are trying to play football, teams are setting their stall out to keep the ball. So I think that is something that will improve.

"I have a young Motherwell team that won the Youth Cup and they did it by playing football."

Scotland's most pressing concern is making sure they give a good account of themselves in Metz on Saturday night.

"Italy will be a decent team in the Euros but I don't think they will win it," McGhee said. "But I think France could.

"I think it will be a much more difficult game, however there will be a big crowd and it will be a better pitch and all those things will help us as well.

"The difficulty of the game and the importance of their last game before the Euros will tune us in as well.

"So I have no fears for the game. Why should we have any fear? We have a group of players capable of a good performance.

"We were difficult to beat defensively. The goalkeeper and the centre-halves were terrific, the rest of us just have to be better going in the other direction."