Michael Stewart: Capable Scotland can overcome Ukraine quality in Nations League

In terms of magnitude and importance, the upcoming Nations League games are colossal for Scotland.

All we need to do is just look at reaching the Euros last year. That was down to the Nations League, and we looked good in this campaign until a really poor result away to the Republic of Ireland.

But despite the disappointment of the game in Dublin, we've managed to get ourselves into a fairly good position with the wins against Armenia. A strong finish is still in our hands.

Coming up against Ukraine, Scotland can try to rectify what was a sobering and frustrating result against them in the play-offs for the World Cup back in June.

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Don't let Ukraine run the show

The one thing we have to realise is we can't afford to let Ukraine dictate the play like they did at Hampden.

Ukraine have got quality players. Taras Stepanenko in the middle of the park just dropping in and picking the ball up, Andriy Yarmolenko stepping off the right-hand side and into pockets of space. The depth they had to their midfield just pulled us apart.

They dominated the ball. We couldn't get tight to them, so we've got to make sure, as a unit we're compact, because there were far too many gaps between the defence and the midfield, and between the midfield and the front line.

If we're able to get a positive result, what a wonderful position we'll then be in.

Thinking of a few really disappointing performances in the last couple of years with Steve Clarke as head coach, I look back to the Croatia game at Hampden in the Euros and the Ukraine game in the play-off.

Going into the latter, we were on the back of a wonderful run of results. Great form, great position. We just never really got going at all.

We were getting overrun in the midfield, but it's not down to the midfield in isolation because it's probably one of the strongest parts of the team.

It was a case of being pinned back into a back five effectively, the midfield then having too much space to have to cover. They've got to drop back in to cover their defence while also supporting the strikers.

The two strikers never really recognised how to press, the midfield was too deep. The whole team became disjointed. That can't happen again.

Patterson & Gordon key for Scotland

Andy Robertson's absence could be significant. But left wing-back is an area of the park where we're really quite strong.

Yes, Robertson's a big player, he's the captain, but equally in terms of replacements, we've got options, so it's not as big a concern as elsewhere on the park, perhaps, where we might not have as much cover.

Nathan Patterson - the fact that the right-back's getting a regular game at Everton can only be beneficial for Scotland because he's an important player to the set-up of the team. He brings that balance to the side, rather than being lopsided and everything going down the left.

Whenever he's been missing from the team, it's had a noticeable impact on the side. He's playing at Everton now, and he'll certainly have a lot more confidence.

In goals, Craig Gordon is still showing no real signs of letting up. Despite pushing 40, he is hugely important as well. In these big games, the goalkeeper's always going to have to play his part and Craig's certainly done that over the years.

Of course there's going to be guys that play well for their club who then come to the fore a little bit more, but generally there's a very settled system and side there now. You don't ever really see or envisage wholesale changes.

My concern is that, in these big games so far in the last wee spell, we've not really been able to dominate or implement the strategy and the tactics.

We're capable, of that there is no doubt - we've shown it before.

Michael Stewart was speaking to BBC Scotland's Andy Campbell.