World Cup qualification failure

       

   Those statistics betray a fallibility that goes way beyond a dip in form and instead suggest a trough that may not yet have reached its deepest point.And for all the criticism of Craig Levein towards the end of his tenure, a change of manager has not been enough to bring about an immediate upturn in fortunes.There has been little over the course of this campaign or, indeed, the last one to give cause to believe better and happier days are just around the corner.The obvious conclusion, then, is that the players at the national coach's disposal simply aren't good enough to be remotely competitive on the international stage. And Scotland are the first country in the European groups for whom qualification is arithmetically impossible.The matches facing the national team over the remainder of 2013 are two meetings with Croatia, one at home to the abundantly talented Belgians and a trip to Macedonia.Certainly, in each of the qualifiers for the 2014 World Cup, they have been outplayed and outpassed by each of their opponents, who have all possessed players of greater technical proficiency.Also this summer, there is the small matter of a friendly against England at Wembley. Few fair-minded observers would look at that set of fixtures and pick out an obvious Scotland win.