He may have left established players such as Joe Cole and David Beckham on the bench here with Wednesday's game in Croatia match in mind but it will worry him that their replacements struggled against such unheralded opposition.
And for a manager who expects players to come off the bench and make an impact - Ole Gunnar Solskjaer immediately springs to mind - his decision was perhaps understandable.
Both Annabel Goldie and Willie Rennie felt that Justice Secretary Kenny Macaskill might care to mind his tongue when criticising the noble judges on the UK bench.