Clarke outsmarted by the one who got away
ON Monday, Steve Clarke was at pains to pay tribute to the job Michael O’Neill has done with Northern Ireland over two spells stretching back to 2011.
The Scotland manager has good reason to be thankful for that success. Had the IFA not moved heaven and earth to ensure it continued six years ago, Clarke may never have fulfilled his ambition of managing his country.
We shall never know, of course, if O’Neill would have sprinkled his magic dust on Scotland like he has done with his own country. On this evidence, however, that would have seemed highly likely.
These respective small nations may be at different stages of a cycle, but you just wouldn’t have known it.
Despite fielding a teenager in Brodie Spencer and a string of 20-somethings, O’Neill’s inexperienced side looked like the one that had recently come of age.
Just three months away from the jamboree in Germany, Scotland’s more experienced heads looked short on ideas and devoid of confidence. A friendly or not, it made for a worrying watch.
Clarke offered nine of the players who began in Amsterdam the chance to make amends. It was not taken. Lyndon Dykes did what he could to ruffle the feathers of the visitors’ back-line but was left feeding off scraps.
Tasked with breaking down a superbly drilled defence, Clarke’s players didn’t come up with the passing combinations to unlock the door. Long diagonals became the order of the day. Passes were undercooked or overhit. The half time whistle sounded without a gilt-edged chance being created.
O’Neill, unashamedly, set his side up to defend and hit on the break. His players carried out his orders to the letter, putting their bodies on the line and awaiting their chance.
It arrived when Nathan Patterson rounded off a forgettable night by losing the ball, retrieving it and losing it again. Conor Bradley beat Angus Gunn with the help of a deflection.
Andy Robertson’s early withdrawal saw Lewis Ferguson arrive with instructions to change the shape, but Scotland remained passive and predictable.
You had to commend O’Neill’s side. Squeezing the game with a high line when it suited them, they moved left and right in unison, denying their opponents space, opportunities and eventually hope.
They were up for a scrap too — almost literally in some instances as the aggression of their young guns threatened to go over the score. If the intention was to rattle the Scots, it certainly succeeded.
While a blizzard of substitutions contributed to Scotland’s collapse in Amsterdam, you felt Clarke had no choice but to do the same here.
It was perplexing then that first non-enforced changes came in 69 minutes with Che Adams and Kenny McLean replacing Dykes and Billy Gilmour. By the time Lawrence Shankland and Stuart Armstrong were introduced, there was scant evidence of any improvement.
When John McGinn curled a corner-kick straight out of play, the Tartan Army buried their heads in their hands. A caricature of the Aston Villa skipper had adorned the match programme, depicting him with a superhero’s cape. But this was not his night. The same could have been said of anyone in Dark Blue, though.
None of Clarke’s go-to guys — Robertson, Tierney and McTominay — had any appreciable impact on the game for as long as they were on the field. None of the supporting cast inspired either.
Ferguson’s flashing header from Armstrong’s cross, expertly tipped over by Bailey PeacockFarrell, arrived in the 90th minute and was by far the best chance of the night.
With a second successive Euro finals on the horizon, Clarke has plenty of credit in the bank.
Yet he is not beyond criticism either as a winless run extends to seven matches.
Almost a year to the day since Spain were sent packing, the blunt fact is that the man who could well have had his job outsmarted him here.