THE TIME FOR TINKERING IS OVER
FOR any new manager, whether it’s at club or international level, there is always going to be an element of tinkering as they assess their players and the options at their disposal.
But there comes a point when things go too far. When it’s constant chopping and changing, the team selection feels like it’s been more of a tombola than a tweak.
Fair play to Lawrence Shankland. I wrote in this column in August that he was deserving of a call-up to the Scotland squad. He’s a natural finisher and, bluntly, we don’t have many of those.
It was the correct decision by Steve Clarke to give him a game last night. He played well, his movement looked sharp and befitting of a real centre-forward and he deserved his goal.
I was chuffed for him given some of the snide comments that have been aimed at him as a Championship player but there is a bigger picture in all of this.
Shankland became the fifth different player to have started up front in Clarke’s six games in charge so far. Let’s have a look at the runners and riders.
Kilmarnock’s Eamonn Brophy got the nod against Cyprus in June. In his first match at the helm, Clarke was sticking to what he knew from his time at Rugby Park.
Oliver Burke then got the call against Belgium in Brussels — as he did in the crushing defeat away in Moscow last Thursday.
He’s playing out of position and, in the long run, he’s obviously not going to be the answer to our problems up front.
But, in fairness, he tried his best in what were the two most difficult games of the whole group. A lone-striker role in those two games is a tough gig for a proper targetman, let alone a makeshift one.
In the home games against Russia and Belgium last month, it was Oli McBurnie and then Matt Phillips whom Clarke chose to deploy as the central striker.
And then there was Shankland last night. It feels like a lottery and, at this rate, we’re a lucky dip away from Kenny Miller being called up.
Miller will turn 40 in December and it feels like a lifetime ago that we could rely on him and James McFadden to put a shift in for us up front, as well as providing a little bit of magic and nicking us the odd goal along the way.
Clarke is faced with the same problem at the opposite end of the pitch. The pairing of Stuart Findlay and Mikey Devlin last night was the fourth different partnership he has used at centre-back in six games.
Charlie Mulgrew and Scott McKenna started the first couple of games. Then it was Mulgrew and Liam Cooper for the doubleheader last month, before Mulgrew partnered Devlin in Moscow last week.
In fairness to Clarke, it’s not all his fault. He’s been hamstrung by some injuries and by players having to pull out of the squad at various times.
Look at some of the guys who have been missing recently. Kieran Tierney, Leigh Griffiths, Steven Fletcher, Matt Ritchie, as well as McKenna.
There’s no doubt in my mind that, on his day, Leigh Griffiths is still the best striker we have by a million miles. The sooner he can get himself fit and firing and back in the squad, the better for all concerned.
The key issue in all of this is that Clarke is now half-a-dozen games down the line and he’s no closer to knowing his best XI than he was at the start.
We’re supposed to be building towards the Nations League play-offs next March, but the team selection still feels like a case of eeny, meeny, miny, moe.
It’s the polar opposite of the environment Clarke was working in at Kilmarnock. He built them into a team who were a model of consistency all across the park.
In guiding them to a thirdplaced finish in the Premiership last season, there was a core of six key players whom he could hang his hat on.
Findlay started 31 of their 38 league games. More often than not, he was partnered at centreback by Kirk Broadfoot, who started 25 games.
Ahead of them in central midfield was the combative duo of Alan Power and Gary Dicker, who started a combined total of 65 games between them (Power 35, Dicker 30).
These guys were the spine of the team and they were flanked by full-backs Stephen O’Donnell and Greg Taylor, who each started 36 of the 38 league games.
Quite simply, if these guys were fit, they played. But it’s all a far cry from where Clarke now finds himself with just two games left to try and find some kind of settled starting XI.
The pool of players is, admittedly, fairly thin. It’s not like Belgium, who can rotate at their leisure. Replacing an Eden Hazard with a Kevin De Bruyne, a Dries Mertens with a Romelu Lukaku; it’s like trading a Ferrari for a Lamborghini.
We don’t have that luxury. None of this will be a surprise to Clarke. He’ll have been well aware of this when he took the job.
But he has to find a solution and some form of stability. For all that last night’s victory over San Marino will have given the players a confidence boost, he’ll know there are still some big questions to answer.