The Scotland boss does not want to be caught out against UEFA’s newest member – even though they have shipped 21 goals without reply in four Euro 2016 qualifiers.
Strachan has tweaked his attack in an attempt to rip Gibraltar’s part-timers to shreds with pace and width in tomorrow’s Hampden clash.
And that has meant more hours on the training field and in analysing videos than he put in on Thomas Muller and Co for the opening Group D qualifier in September.
Strachan – who will tell his players his line-up today after training – said: “We’ve put in as many hours on Gibraltar as we did on the Germany game – maybe even more.
“We started doing this on Monday, downed tools on Tuesday and Wednesday for Northern Ireland and then started again on Thursday night.
“I’d imagine we’ll have more of the ball and that’s why we are working harder.”
Scotland’s record score in an international is an 11-0 win against Ireland back in 1901.
No Scot has scored five goals in an official international and Steven Fletcher and Co are short odds with bookies at 10-1 to beat that mark.
Strachan knows the Tartan Army will turn up at the national stadium tomorrow expecting a goal avalanche against a side who do not yet have an official FIFA ranking.
Poland and Ireland hit Gibraltar for seven in earlier qualifiers, while Georgia secured a 3-0 victory before world champions Germany took the foot off the gas to settle for a 4-0 success.
On the Tartan Army’s high expectation levels for the home clash, Strachan added: “I understand that and I don’t have a problem with it.
“I can only ask the players to do certain things. If they do it, I don’t have a problem.
“It’s like the other night. If I said to them, ‘Look, make sure Northern Ireland don’t get a shot on target and we’re going to get nine on target’ then I think that is decent for an international game.
“You can’t change it after the game and say you should have done better.
“And that is what we’ll ask them on Sunday; we’ll set out a way of playing but you have a freedom to go and create within that structure.”
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