FRIENDLIES? WHAT A LOAD OF SH**E!
TUESDAY’S dismal defeat to Northern Ireland left Scotland manager Steve Clarke in a no-win position.
Unlike the Tartan Army at Hampden who booed the players at half-time and full-time, Clarke still couldn’t berate his players – not with the Euro 2024 finals just over 11 weeks away.
The national team has now gone seven games without a win – a defeat to Spain and draws with Norway and Georgia at the end of the successful Euro qualifiying campaign plus friendly losses to England, France, the Netherlands and
Northern Ireland.
One thing is clear: Scotland don’t do friendlies!
Years
That’s two wins from 19 of them now spanning back eight years to 2016 – with 36 goals conceded and only 12 scored.
By contrast, over Clarke’s last 19 competitive games, Scotland have got 13 wins and three draws while suffering only three defeats – scoring 37 and conceding 18.
And when the manager was asked if Scotland’s recent record in friendly games stands up to scrutiny he said: “Obviously not! Look at our record. It is sh*te!
“Not just my friendly record, everybody’s friendly record. It is not very good.
“I can’t comment on the ones before, but in some of the friendlies we have played all right, some of the friendlies we haven’t played well or been just a little bit off it.”
Reverting quickly to the party line, he continued: “But I don’t think that was the case against Northern Ireland. I thought we were at it, I thought we tried and we pushed and pushed.
“You can’t say the lads were not keeping trying right until the 93rd minute or whatever it was. They kept going.
“They just could not find that little spark in the final third that was going to create us a clean chance. We had a couple of half chances right near the end when we went two up top. But nothing clean.
“Sometimes you have to give the opposition a bit of credit. They reminded me of us a few years ago when we played with that deep block against the teams seeded above us and made it difficult for them and looked to counter.
“They were good and we were not quite good enough to get back into the game.”
None of that really washes, though. Not when Clarke has so much talent in his ranks compared to the odds and ends at Northern
Ireland’s disposal.
But Clarke does have a valid point when he says his side is unlikely to come against such stuffy, unambitious opponents from here on in either at the Euros or in the top flight of next season’s Nations League.
Which is a major reason why he’s set them up with such a testing schedule over these last few friendly matches.
Phase
They may have suffered some bumps and bruises along the way but this is part of the next phase of Clarke’s plan for Scotland’s evolution into a team which belongs among the elite.
And he has no fears that Tuesday’s loss will leave some serious doubt in the mind of his players.
He said: “They are disappointed. They don’t like losing. They also understand that what is ahead of them is something they should be excited about and ready for and I am sure they will be.
“I know the nature of the group. They are determined to do what no Scottish team has done before in the summer.”