Fighting talk from Scots boss

Job more difficult than Clarke thought but he vows to ‘tough it out’

Scotland head coach Steve Clarke insists he is up for the fight despite finding international management more difficult than he imagined.

The misery continued in Moscow as Scotland slumped to a 4-0 defeat following what can only be described as a second-half capitulation.

Russia followed Belgium in inflicting a four-goal thrashing of Clarke’s side as Scotland crumbled after conceding the opening goal of the game from a 57th-minute corner.

The former Chelsea defender arrived in the job having achieved immediate, stark and sustained improvement with Kilmarnock.

However, after a last-gasp victory over Cyprus in his first match in charge of the national side, Clarke has now presided over four defeats with the loss of 13 goals.

“On the back of a 4-0 defeat, and back-to-back 4-0 defeats, yeah, it feels difficult,” said Clarke, when asked if it was a more difficult job than he first thought.

“But I was brought up the hard way so I’m in for the fight and I think the players are in for the fight too.”

Clarke defended his team selection after leaving out in-form Celtic pair Ryan Christie and James Forrest.

John Fleck made his Dark Blue debut in a deep midfield role, with Callum McGregor and John McGinn accompanying him.

Clarke said: “I wanted to have three solid midfield players in the middle, and I thought for 57 minutes that was working fine for us.

“I don’t think we went out of the game because of the personnel or the team shape or the way we set up the tactics.

“We went out the game because we switched off for a corner, and the fragile confidence after that.

“We just allowed the game to run away from us.”

Scotland had next to no chance of a top-two finish before the defeat confirmed that fact, but they are now four points adrift of third-placed Cyprus in fifth and in serious need of a confidence boost before they take part in the play-offs in March.

They now host San Marino tomorrow before facing Cyprus and Kazakhstan next month to round off the group.

Clarke knows there will be no quick fix as he prepares his side to face the world’s worst team, according to Fifa rankings, at Hampden.

He said: “It’s turning into something that is a lot harder than I thought it was going to be but I’ll tough it out.

“I’ll need to look at freshening it up as, at the moment, this current group can’t get the result or the positivity we need to give.

“We need to dust ourselves down, get a result against San Marino and then get ourselves ready for two massive games in November.

“At the moment we are mentally fragile and as soon as we concede the first goal we struggle.

“We can take something from the first half but you can’t take positives from a 4-0 defeat.

Clarke meanwhile looks set to cast his net beyond his current squad after failing to stem the tide of goals against his team.

Thursday’s defeat made it four consecutive defeats with the loss of 13 goals since Clarke began his reign with a last-gasp win over Cyprus in June.

Clarke is running out of time to rebuild confidence ahead of the Euro 2020 play-offs next year and will need to make noticeable improvements for next month’s double-header against Cyprus and Kazakhstan to ensure Scotland approach their Hampden semi-final in March with confidence.

That could mean bringing in new players.

Clarke said: “It’s definitely harder than I thought it was going to be but you have to tough it out.

“I maybe have to look at the selections and maybe have to look at trying to bring one or two new faces into the squad.”

Centre-backs Declan Gallagher and Stuart Findlay will be hoping to make their debuts against San Marino, while Clarke could have the likes of Kieran Tierney, Scott McKenna and Grant Hanley available to bolster his defensive options next month.

Arsenal defender Tierney, Rangers midfielder Ryan Jack, Hearts forward Steven Naismith and Celtic striker Leigh Griffiths have all been unavailable throughout his reign.

But Clarke’s comments hint that he will look beyond the obvious options.

Former England cap Steven Caulker has made it known he is keen to play for Scotland, the native land of one of his grandmothers.

The former Liverpool and QPR defender, whose career has been hampered by mental health and personal problems, is now playing in Turkey after a spell at Dundee ended prematurely last year.

Clarke has also been linked with moves to cap right-backs Todd Kane, of QPR, and Ryan Fredericks, of West Ham.

Reports that the Scottish Football Association again failed to persuade Huddersfield striker Karlan Grant to commit to Scotland also suggest Clarke is exploring all avenues.

Livingston’s Australian-born striker Lyndon Dykes, who has Scottish parents, has also emerged as a possibility after impressing against both Rangers and Celtic in recent weeks.