LimpaDct WORK MORE WITH SQUAD
STEVE CLARKE built his reputation at Kilmarnock on being difficult to beat.
Organised and solid but packing a punch when they ventured forward.
So when his Scotland side ships 10 goals in his first four games at the helm, he’s going to feel the pain.
The fact that guys such as Alan Power and Gary Dicker are far closer in terms of ability to their rivals in the Premiership than the likes of Kenny McLean and Matt Phillips are to Kevin De Bruyne and Romelu Lukaku on the international stage isn’t much of a consolation.
Not when your pride has been battered in the manner Clarke’s has over the last 180 minutes.
But as the national boss sifted through the wreckage of Belgium and Russia, he refused to accept that rebuilding our national football pride is an impossible task.
In fact, he just wishes he could get his players back on the training ground this morning, rather than having to wait another month before the next double-header against Russia and San Marino.
He said: “This is the bit I have to get my head around. I have to get used to international management.
“The players will go back to their clubs, they will all be playing at the weekend, they will all be thinking about other things.
“My job is to stew on this, analyse the two performances and try to improve us for the next game.”
Asked if it will be much more difficult to replicate his success at Kilmarnock, given the quality of BY DAVID McCARTHY opposition at international level, Clarke said: “You have to find the balance. It is a different level of football. With a club team you get to work with them day in, day out.
“You have training sessions where you can really drill them into this mentality. You have players here who want to be attacking players.
“You have to get the balance right, you have to get the mixture right.
“Yeah, we want to be difficult to beat but that doesn’t mean to say that we go to every game and sit in and defend.
“When you play a team ranked No.1 you know if you go out and press them you might get some joy but you also risk a little bit.
“You have to remember that the games coming up, with the exception of Russia who were also in the last eight of the last World Cup, will not be as difficult.
“These are the games we have to target and if we find a level of consistency and a level of performance then we have to get the points that get us to third position in the group.”
Clarke is determined to finish third in Group I, which means leapfrogging Cyprus and Kazakhstan and providing much-needed momentum going into the Nations League play-offs in March.
He believes he has the players to do that.
Clarke said: “This is why we said in the dressing room that we have to target finishing third because it will mean we have gone from fifth to third and have won matches, have found a way of playing that suits us and it gives us that belief.”