GORDON Strachan is a wise old owl.

The Scotland manager has been careful to play down the magnitude of every fixture throughout his side’s Euro 2016 qualifying campaign to a media whose natural inclination is to do the exact opposite.

“We will know what the important games were when it is all over,” has been his stock response to questions about the significance of matches during the build-up to every one of our Group D outings to date.

It is a shrewd ploy which has clearly had the desired effect. The national team is in third place after six games and has a very real chance of progressing to the finals in France next year. Indeed, going through automatically is still not inconceivable.

It will, though, be interesting to see if Strachan is capable of defusing the escalating hype surrounding the forthcoming double header against Georgia and Germany when he meets up with his players this week.

The game against the World Cup holders at Hampden a week today will be a magnificent occasion. If Scotland can, as they did the last time Germany visited Glasgow back in 2003, secure a point in front of a sell-out crowd it will be a huge and unexpected bonus. Victory will result in a national holiday being declared by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.

But the meeting with Georgia in Tbilisi this Friday evening is more important to the national team’s prospects. It is, regardless of how the manager may attempt to spin it, a massive fixture. Winning away from home against the second-bottom side in the group for the first time in this campaign would put them in a very strong position with three games, including one against minnows Gibraltar, remaining.

Yet, overcoming Kakhaber Tskhadadze’s side on their own turf will, despite their lowly standing, be difficult. Remember, Strachan’s team only edged them out by a solitary goal in their previous encounter at Ibrox back in October. They endured a few anxious moments towards the end of that tense 90 minutes too.

The manager has, as ever, several key decisions to make. He admitted he had over-thought his selection in the Republic of Ireland game in Dublin in July. But he can be forgiven for allowing himself to become discombobulated by that match in the Aviva Stadium. It came nearly six weeks after several members of his squad, including regular starter Ikechi Anya, had last made a competitive outing. What a triumph of scheduling by UEFA.

It is unlikely Strachan will get himself tied in knots again. But who to play alongside Russell Martin at centre half – Gordon Greer, the fit-again Grant Hanley or Charlie Mulgrew – is one quandry. Who to play at left back – Andrew Robertson or Steven Whittaker – is another.

Up front, Strachan has a huge call to make. Steven Fletcher has not enjoyed the best start to the 2015/16 campaign. He has scored just once – in a 4-2 defeat against Leicester City - for a Sunderland side which is rooted to the bottom of the Barclays Premier League after failing to win any of their opening four games.

The opposite is true of Leigh Griffiths. The striker took his tally for the season to eight with the opening goal in Celtic’s 3-1 win over St. Johnstone at Parkhead on Saturday to help propel the Scottish champions to the top of the Ladbrokes Premiership.

True, Griffiths is not playing his club football at the same level as his compatriot Fletcher. But three of his strikes have come in the Champions League qualifying rounds, against Stjarnan of Iceland and Malmo of Sweden. He is clearly a man in blistering form.

Strachan is rather fond of an individual who has often attracted headlines more for his exploits off the park than on it in the past and has handed him four of his five international caps. But naming the forward in his starting line-up for the first time since the World Cup qualifier against Belgium two years ago would be something of a gamble.

He may, then, prefer to persist with Fletcher, a vastly experienced player who is perhaps more capable of leading the line by himself in a demanding away tie, against Georgia despite his struggles this term.

AND ANOTHER THING . . .

Scottish football is littered with examples of talented young players, of whom great things were predicted when they broke through, who failed to fulfil their potential after sealing moves to large clubs.

It took Scott Allan, for example, two years to resurrect his career after an ill-advised switch to West Brom from Dundee United after just a handful of games in senior football. Many more before him who made similar choices weren't so fortunate.

So it is to be hoped that if, as looks likely, Ryan Christie joins Celtic it won't have a detrimental impact on his progression. The attacking midfielder was named SFWA Young Player of the Year last season after helping Inverness Caledonian Thistle finish third in the Premiership and win the Scottish Cup.

You have to wonder, though, how much Christie will feature in Ronny Deila’s first team with Allan, Kris Commons, Stefan Johansen and Tom Rogic all pushing for selection. Sitting on the bench and making only occasional substitute’s appearances could cause him to stagnate and stunt his development.