Clarke is ready to hail his players
Clarke intends to put a smile back on the nation’s face by cracking qualification hex
STEVE CLARKE insists he will pass full credit onto his players if Scotland end their 22-year wait for tournament qualification in Serbia this week.
The national coach is gearing up for a winner-takes-all clash in Belgrade on Thursday, the prize a place at next summer’s delayed Euro 2020 finals.
Not since Craig Brown guided the national team to the 1998 World Cup in France has a Scotland manager had cause to celebrate qualification.
Despite the magnitude of the occasion, Clarke insists he will stick to his usual thorough preparation work in the build-up.
And if the players carry out his plan to a successful conclusion, he insists they — and not he — will deserve their moment of glory.
He said: ‘People speak a lot about managers and coaches but don’t forget that football is about players.
‘They are the guys who cross the white line and have to turn into reality everything you talk about on the
IN May of 2018, Steve Clarke settled into a chair at Kilmarnock’s Park Hotel and spoke at length of his satisfaction at having given something back to the people of Ayrshire. Arranged to mark receipt of the first of his two manager of the year awards from the Scottish Football Writers’ Association, the interview was a chance for the Kilmarnock boss to explain the motivations behind abandoning a quiet and comfortable family life south of the border to take charge of a football club that had been flirting with relegation from Scottish football’s top tier.
As the conversation unspooled, it transpired that during his time assisting Kenny Dalglish at Liverpool some years earlier, Clarke had been irked by the BBC reality series The Scheme and how it shone an unflattering light on the Onthank neighbourhood and by extension the wider community.
Set against the hardships endured by Ayrshire’s working class, marching Kilmarnock up the Premiership table and ultimately into third place might have seemed a triviality but to the Saltcoats-born coach it represented a moment where he could help his ain folk reclaim some pride and feel a little better about themselves.
This week he has a chance to do
something similar for the
It is a bit of a myth that there is apathy surrounding the national team
whole country. Exhausted by the restrictions and stress of a pandemic and preparing for the bite of another economic recession, Scotland is bedded in for a long winter.
In the wider circumstances, would the national team’s qualification for Euro 2020 really change the lives of the average citizen?
Not materially, perhaps, but emotionally there is much to be said for the lift a tilt at the Euros next summer would give to the populace.
Something tangible to cling onto in the cold, dark months ahead.
Clarke has heard all the talk about an indifference surrounding the national team but he has never bought it.
Even as his team inches closer to glory in empty stadiums, he feels that weight of responsibility.
Thursday’s play-off final against Serbia in Belgrade is no normal football match.
‘Fans enjoy supporting their clubs but when the national team plays, everyone wants us to do well,’ says the 57-year-old. ‘It’s a bit of a myth that there’s apathy around the Scotland team. Because when it comes to the big games, the Tartan Army are there.
‘They want to be part of it and want the team to be successful.
‘This group of players are no different to the Tartan Army or the people of Scotland. We want to give the country a lift.
‘But it’s a football match and in this particular one, you can only win or lose.
‘So it’s a massive game. Hopefully after it we’ll have given people a reason to smile again.’
Given his two years of sustained improvement at Rugby Park, it’s no insult to suggest that Clarke has turned Scotland into an international version of Kilmarnock.
The three hard-earned clean sheets in the last set of fixtures were achieved on the same principles that made Clarke’s last club team so difficult to beat.
Yet there was a twist.
Clarke’s foundations, honed working alongside the likes of Dalglish, Jose Mourinho and even Ruud Gullit, always came from the solidity provided by a back four.
His decision to switch to a three was instigated by a desire to fit both Andy Robertson and Kieran Tierney into the team. Even in Tierney’s absence he stuck with the three and not only kept Israel at bay in the play-off semi-final, but managed to repel the forwards of Slovakia and the Czech Republic with a backline comprised of a midfielder (Scott McTominay) and journeyman SPFL pros Declan Gallagher and Andy Considine.
With Tierney, Scott McKenna, Liam Cooper and Grant Hanley all back for this next triple header, it’s not unfeasible that he will send out an entirely different defence in Belgrade.
While Israel had the potent threat of Eran Zahavi in attack, Serbia possess a greater all-round threat. They’ll be bigger, faster and technically superior — and that will require Scotland to show big hearts and strong minds.
‘Serbia is a quality team,’ noted Clarke. ‘People will say they were surprised to see them beat Norway but I wasn’t one of them.
‘I felt that the way they play, the Norway game would suit them.