...but boss warns of high expectations on Robertson
Clarke insists expectations on Champions League winner Robertson remain too high when it comes to Scotland duty
BEFORE setting off on one of his trademarks sprints down Anfield’s left flank, Andy Robertson barely needs to glance over his shoulder to know Virgil van Dijk will be there ready to snuff out the vacated space. As he advances, he knows Roberto Firmino or Sadio Mane will inevitably show to give him the option of a pass inside.
Often, Robertson will pursue the dash all the way to the byeline and whip the ball across goal for Mohamed Salah to apply a finish.
It may be stating the bleeding obvious to point out that the Scotland captain has none of those options when he pulls on a dark-blue shirt, yet that didn’t moderate the flak flying in his direction after defeats to Russia and Belgium last month.
The argument goes that, as the team’s sole world-class player, Robertson should be capable of elevating this Scotland team on his own. Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has already leapt to the 25-year-old’s defence and now his national coach wishes to do the same.
Steve Clarke remains confident that Robertson and Bournemouth’s Ryan Fraser can develop a left-wing bond that evolves into a deadly weapon for his team but knows his full-back can’t do it all.
‘Andy took criticism last time but it was unfair criticism,’ said Clarke. ‘You have to balance all 11 players on the pitch and all three subs I use. All 14 players have a responsibility. I have a responsibility, too.
‘People say he doesn’t bring his Liverpool form to the Scotland team but the Scotland team isn’t the Liverpool team. One is club football — and I know this well — where you work with players day in and day out and they find a rhythm, a connection and a confidence with the people round about them.
‘With the international group, it’s not like that. This camp is seven days long. They’ll play Saturday with their club, a lot of them will play Sunday, we meet up on Monday and there’s not much we can do before we travel to Russia on the Wednesday.
‘You just don’t have that time where you can get those little connections with your teammates that you have at your club.
‘That’s why continuity of selection is so important. Hopefully over a period of time the guys will turn up and say: “You know what, I remember the last time I played with Ryan Fraser and we did this…”. Suddenly you find those little things you need to be a successful team.’
Robertson proved his confidence remains robust and intact with the rampaging run that yielded his first Champions League goal against Salzburg in midweek.
He is not the first Liverpool player to suffer the burden of impracticable expectation. A former assistant manager to Kenny Dalglish, Clarke can recall the nation’s most-capped player and one of his most decorated team-mates facing similar. ‘There is always going to be certain criticism — Alan Hansen wasn’t good enough to play for Scotland either,’ reflected Clarke. ‘The best way to avoid it is to get points, win matches and draw matches you are expected to lose. ‘It’s the same in club football. Winning covers a multitude of sins. Listen, when you don’t win you are going to be crucified. Andy is experienced enough to realise that. He is the captain and the one who gets it. ‘But it is unfair. It’s unfair to single out Andy Robertson and say that he should take the criticism. ‘It’s a collective thing. But I have spoken to Andy since, we had a good chat and he is fine.’ With no fewer than nine English Premier League players named in Clarke’s 26-man squad for the next Euro 2020 doubleheader (and Kieran Tierney to be added when he beds in at Arsenal) Clarke hopes there is enough quality to lessen the burden on Robertson. Three consecutive defeats have effectively killed the already distant prospect of qualifying automatically for next summer’s finals and therefore the coach must now attempt to build confidence and momentum across the next two double-headers ahead of the Nations League play-off matches at the end of March.
If Thursday’s game in Moscow will require structure and discipline, the follow-up assignment against San Marino next Sunday will require invention, imagination and quite possibly the penalty-box instincts of Dundee United’s uncapped Lawrence Shankland, the one curve-ball selection in the squad.
‘Short-term, I’m looking at four games to find a winning way and get a little bit more positivity around the national team,’ said Clarke. I can have a look at different things, but I won’t be pulling up trees and throwing everything out and trying to start again, because we don’t have that luxury, we don’t have that time.
‘I believe in this squad of players, I believe they’re good enough to qualify via the play-offs if that’s the option we have to take.
‘I don’t think it is the time for experiments. I see the talent we have and we haven’t quite managed to transfer that ability onto the international stage, so we have to keep working at it.’
The campaign proper will conclude with next month’s final one-two against Cyprus and Kazakhstan, by which time Clarke
Andy took criticism but it was unfair... all of us have a responsibility Short-term, I’m looking at four games to find a winning way and create some positivity
will be fine-tuning his group towards the ultimate goal of taking Scotland to a major finals for the first time in over 20 years.
Robertson is the crown jewel in an uneven squad that has plenty of talent concentrated into specific departments of the team.
Transferred from Celtic to north London for £25million, Tierney would perhaps sit second in the list yet it’s Clarke’s misfortune that he, too, operates as a left-back. When fully fit and match tuned, Tierney will surely play but it’s more likely he will slot in as a right-back or central defender, where the options remain thin.
The same applies in attack, where Steven Fletcher continues to make himself unavailable for selection. Oli McBurnie and Oli Burke are the two main contenders to start in attack this Thursday, ahead of the unproven yet prolific Shankland.
Fraser and James Forrest have solid back-up for the wide roles in Robert Snodgrass but while there is an abundance of talent in central midfield, international experience has been an issue since the retirement of Scott Brown and the waning of Darren Fletcher and James Morrison, neither of whom presently has a club. For these matches, a combination of three will be chosen from John McGinn, Ryan Christie, Callum McGregor, Kenny McLean, Ryan Jack, John Fleck and Scott McTominay, who is suspended for Moscow but will meet up with the squad when it returns on Friday. Each is talented but all remain short of the 20-cap mark. ‘It’s a learning process for a lot of them,’ admitted Clarke. ‘The team is a little bit younger, a little bit inexperienced in international terms, so the more they play the better they should get. ‘Sometimes in a game you just need to do that to get through the sticky patch. The funny thing about the Russia game was I actually felt we’d got through the sticky patch at the start of the second half and bang, suddenly we conceded a real soft goal.’
A last-minute goal from Burke earned Clarke a win in his first match against Cyprus and that contribution has helped gain the itinerant 22-year-old a recall.
A loan move to Spain has added La Liga side Alaves to a CV already including Nottingham Forest, RB Leipzig, West Brom and Celtic. No coach has yet managed to harness the blistering combination of pace and power that has seen him transferred for a total of £28m. Such challenges excite Clarke. ‘Oli gets in because of what he did for us in the summer camp,’ added the coach. ‘I thought he was good. The last time I picked the squad, Oli was not playing at West Brom. He wasn’t doing anything and he was a little bit confused as to what the future was going to be.
‘I spoke to him then and he assured me he was going to get a move and go out and play. He is out in Spain now and hopefully he gets plenty of minutes. He didn’t start the last game but came off the bench and had an assist.
‘He has good qualities and attributes and we have to find the key to Oli.’
Crack that one and the naysayers will lay off the left-back.