John Herdman has defended his bizarre decision to leave out Scott Arfield for the CONCACAF Gold Cup fixture against Mexico, as quoted by the Scottish Sun.
He brought his captain off the bench after 61 minutes, but Canada lost the match 3-1.
The move came just days after Herdman had praised Arfield and his teammates for their opening day 4-0 win over Martinique [Daily Record].
“I decided to mix things up and made six changes for the game. It means important players like Scott Arfield will be fresh for the last game against Cuba,” said the 43-year-old manager, as
“We need to beat Cuba to qualify for the next round and these changes were necessary to ensure we have the best chance of doing that.
“We created a lot of chances in the last 15 minutes or so and we take a lot of positives from that. Overall we will learn our lessons from this game and look forward to our next opportunity.”
Verdict
The Canada coach has clearly tried to look at these group fixtures in a strategic way.
Not only did he leave out Arfield, but the other two goalscorers from the win over Martinique, Junior Hoilett and Jonathan David both also found themselves on the bench.
There’s no doubt they will be fresh going into the final group match against Cuba. However, given that the island nation lost 3-0 to Martinique overnight, the move seems like major overkill.
The loss to Mexico effectively ruined Canada’s chances of winning the group. Therefore, when they inevitably beat Cuba and qualify, they will face a stronger quarter-final opponent.
If they fall at that hurdle, Herdman’s strategy may suddenly look extremely silly.
