Naisy: We’ve hit bottom... and it stinks
Russia had row before rampage CRAIG SWAN
RUSSIA hero Artem Dzyuba insists harsh words at half-time helped his side slaughter Scotland.
The skipper helped himself to a double as the Scots slumped to another depressing 4-0 defeat.
But Dzyuba revealed Russia had to give themselves a shake at the interval, having drawn a blank in a frustrating first half.
He said: “At half-time there were plenty of raised voices and we had to make changes.
“We cannot afford to not play at maximum speed. It just wasn’t working out for us in the first half.
“It was obvious Scotland came to defend and try to break on the counter-attack. But as soon as we scored I felt we had broken them. And that’s what happened.” SCOTLAND striker Steven Naismith hopes the mauling in Moscow is a low as the squad can go.
The Hearts attacker, who missed out on the squad due to an ongoing hamstring complaint, watched as Steve Clarke’s charges crashed to a 4-0 rout against Russia – their fourth competitive defeat on the spin.
Naismith said: “Hopefully Thursday was rock bottom.
“The manager touched on the quality of opposition we’ve played against in recent matches and for 50-odd minutes on Thursday we did defend well as a unit – that’s one positive.
“The three games coming up (San Marino, Cyprus and Kazakhstan) should be a chance to show what we can do in an attacking sense.” SUFFERING Scotland skipper Andy Robertson insists the squad and not Steve Clarke must take full responsibility for their Euro qualifying nightmares.
And the captain has revealed he’s prepared to change his natural swashbuckling style to help his country out of their brutal spell.
Robertson struggles to comprehend some of the problems which have gripped the national team.
In particular, the missing mental strength which is turning setbacks into full-on disasters.
As a nation, Scots pride themselves on dealing with problems head on. Overcoming bad situations and fighting through them.
However, at this moment in time, it seems the polar opposite is the case on the football pitch.
Russia gave us another painful example. Clarke’s men were building into the contest. Approaching the hour mark, they had started to get a proper foothold before the loss of an opening goal led to the roof caving in.
Robertson insists that in those c.swan@dailyrecord.co.uk situations a manager can only do so much. When the problems begin to arise, the troops need to sort it out and be stronger in times of adversity,
He said: “Whether that’s life or football, setbacks happen every week to everyone.
“You go 1-0 down in any walk of life and you bounce back. We need to do that with Scotland as well.
“The trouble is that we don’t. We concede one goal and don’t look like getting back into the game.
“We need to change that and fast because if you’re just 1-0 down you’re still in the game.
“Until then our gameplan was spot on. It’s frustrating just now but it’s something we have to change.
“Look at the goals we conceded. It wasn’t the way we set up that was the issue. It was down to how many set-pieces we conceded.
“How many goals we conceded where we gave the ball away. The goals we conceded could all be avoided and that’s what needs to stop.
“When you cross the white line the manager’s work is done. Players need to take responsibility.
“For 60 minutes in Russia we did that and once we got a setback, we didn’t bounce back.”
Asked if Clarke was having a positive impact on the squad, Robertson said: “Yes, 100 per cent. Look, he is getting used to it.
“It’s his first international job and he has come from club football where he has had week to week to develop players.
“He is trying to cram everything in and so are we but, yeah, he has come in with an idea of what he wants to do and I think you saw that in the first half in Russia.
“He can’t control how or when we concede a goal from a corner. Or the fact we go into our shell a bit and end up three or 4-0 down. No one on the sidelines or the stands can fix that. It’s entirely down to the men on the pitch and, unfortunately, we didn’t do it.”
Scotland’s Moscow mauling hit the squad hard and Robertson said: “We concede a goal from a set-piece again and that needs to stop. We need to be so much better at set-pieces.
“Russia don’t do anything special at set-pieces. It’s not as if they played through us. They put the ball in, try to find the big man and that should be the easiest thing to defend.
“We’ve all got men and we need to keep them. After that goal we then need to stay in the game, keep it to 1-0, get to the last 10 or 15 minutes and have a go from there.
“But three minutes later it’s 2-0 and we just lost our head a wee bit.
“Suddenly we’re 4-0 down and that scoreline is becoming far too familiar. It needs to stop.”
Robertson’s Scotland experiences are at the opposite end of the scale from his club.
At Liverpool, he’s with the top dogs. At the summit of the Premier League 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 SCOTL