12 OUT OF 12
Burke to start as Clarke asks troops to deliver four wins out of four
STEVE CLARKE will send Oli Burke out to gun down Russia – after ordering his players to launch a four-game winning streak ahead of the Euro 2020 play-offs.
Burke will lead Scotland’s attack with Dundee United’s Lawrence Shankland having to settle for a place on the bench.
Clarke also plans to fast-track Aberdeen’s Mikey Devlin into the
FROM BACK PAGE centre of his defence after a raft of call-offs that saw Kenny McLean miss out after being sent home to Norwich yesterday.
But even though his squad is severely depleted, Clarke arrived in Moscow last night adamant his players will not be excused for suffering any more embarrassments as they stumble on to the final stretch of a wretched Group I campaign.
He said: “There are no free hits – I’d like 12 points from the remaining four games of this group.
“We know it’s going to be really tough here in Russia but we owe it to the 1000 or so Tartan Army who have travelled here to watch us.
“We’re looking to put on a good performance and hopefully take all three points back to Scotland. I want a good performance level in the next four matches. My belief is always if the performance level is good enough then the points will follow.”
Clarke has written off his chances of resuscitating this campaign and insists his focus is on turning the national mood ahead of a play-off shot in March.
But he does admit to finding the job even harder than he imagined. He said: “It probably has been harder than I thought. The 10 days together is really short. We play Russia and have one training session in Moscow then fly back overnight. One more training session and then we play San Marino.
“This particular Thursday-Sunday schedule is one I’m looking at and thinking I’m not going to get a lot of space to change things too much.
“Players like to be shown on the pitch as well as in a presentation or a video meeting. So this week has been a little bit of an eye-opener.
“You take over a club side and you have six or maybe eight weeks to get them ready. That’s quite a lot of coaching hours you don’t get here.
“I’m not sitting here pleading for time in terms of my job. But over a period of time it might need 10 training camps, This is only my third camp with the players.
“There has to be a sense of realism. If everybody is looking at me and saying, ‘He did a great job at Kilmarnock getting them coached and well drilled’, then I’d say to them it didn’t happen just like that. It was over a period of time that the team at Kilmarnock forged its own identity.
“Hopefully I get the time here to do the same but that might take what seems like a hell of a long time.”
Clarke has revealed he has spent not much more than one hour on the training pitch with his full squad preparing for tonight’s rematch with the Russians.
He added: “I have to say the one thing – I was going to say ‘struggle’ but you guys would make it a big headline, ‘Clarke’s struggling with Scotland’ – the one thing I’m not getting my head around is the fact I have such limited coaching time on the pitch with the players.
“I’m a good manager but I think I’m a really good coach and I don’t get the time on the coaching pitch to work.
“It was probably 15 minutes pure coaching on Monday, 15-20 minutes pure coaching on Tuesday and before we jumped on the plane to go to Moscow yesterday it was a 30-minute walk through of set-plays and organisation.
“For me as a coach it’s not a helluva long time to prepare a team.” LAND... COME ON SCOTLAND... COME ON SCOTLAND... COME ON SCOTLAND... COME ON SCOTLAND... COME ON SCOTLAND... COME ON SCOTLAND... COME ON SCOTLAND... COME ON SCOTLAND... COME ON SCOTLAND... COME ON