Gordon Strachan says he hopes to recruit a young coach to his Scotland coaching team following the departure of Stuart McCall.

The 59-year-old is on the hunt for a replacement following the former Motherwell and Rangers boss' exit to Bradford City.

Strachan praised McCall's influence on the national team and told STV: "Stuart was big in our squad. Players liked him, coaches liked him. I liked the balance he brought to the arguments we used to have.

"We had a couple of games without him, when he was at Rangers, and we found it harder.

"So now we have to decide how we go forward, to bring someone else in. Preferably it would be someone a bit younger, who has time to go and see games as well."

McCall was part of the coaching staff that oversaw Scotland's failure to qualify for Euro 2016.

While accepting there were elements his side needed to work on, the former Celtic coach denied his team lacked passion or commitment .

"We played ten games in the European Championships, and if you look at them we ran Germany close - at one point we thought we were going to beat them over there.

"Poland couldn't beat us, the Republic of Ireland couldn't beat us, so we did a lot right. The only problem was the game at Georgia.

"You'll hear people say it's a lack of passion, it's not. It has nothing to do with that.

"That's just cliché talk from people who don't really know what's going on."

"I'm happy with the squad" he added, "I'm happy with what they did. One or two things could have gone our way which would have helped us."

"Watching Northern Ireland, when balls hit the crossbar, we never really got that. Anything that hit the bar or the post against Germany went in, so you can get a bit lucky."