Clarke ready to make ‘tough calls’ in Serbia
Steve Clarke admits he is being forced into some tough decisions ahead of Scotland’s biggest game in over a decade and following three successful outings last month.
The Scotland manager is “90 per cent sure” of his starting XI ahead of the Euro 2020 play-off final against Serbia. He said he was “mulling over one or two decisions” to make sure he gets the balance of the team right.
The squad landed in Belgrade on the eve of the tie with Clarke set to “sleep on” those positions not yet settled in his mind. Kieran Tierney, Ryan Christie and Stuart Armstrong all missed the recent wins against Slovakia and Czech Republic as well as the shoot- out victor y over Israel that booked the eagerly awaited appointment in Belgrade. A win ensures Scotland qualify for their first major finals since the World Cup in 1998.
“We lost six of the original squad last month but the boys who came into the team didn’t let themselves down,” Clarke said. “They did very well which is why they are all in the squad again and why they are making my job difficult to pick a team.”
The returning Tierney and Christie would normally be considered automatic starts while Armstrong is starring in a Southampton side riding high in the English Premier League.
On the face of it, Clarke’s biggest dilemma is who to play at left centre-back on the assumption he will stick with his now tried and tested formula of three-at-the-back.
Tierney missed the last three Scotland games because, like Christie, he was self-isolating after coming into close contact with Armstrong, who returned a positive Covid-19 test at the star t of the camp. “That’s just the job ,” Clarke said, when asked if it would be hard to leave out the likes of Tierney.
“The players are all professional enough to realise that.
If I have to make the tough calls then I will be judged on the result of the game and not the team that I pick, that’s normal.”
Unusually, and reflecting the significance of the match, Clarke has been hit by only two call-offs from the original 27-man squad named earlier this month.
Defender Grant Hanley and wing er Ryan Fraser pulled out due to injury with the latter representing the bigger blow having scored the winner in Scotland’ s last outing, against Czech Republic. “Losing Ryan Fraser caused me to rethink a little, but I’ve got really good options in the squad,” said Clarke.
The loss of Fraser and James Forrest, who is undergoing ankle surgery, has rob bed Clarke of pace as well as invention. “There are lots of solutions,” he said. “I’m still an Oli Mcburnie fan because I think he’s still got a lot to offer us.
“When you look at the last two games he’s hit the frame of the goal twice and you’ re always thinking in the back of your mind: ‘He’s a due a goal - there’s a goal going to come from him’.
“I’ve also got Oli Burke who can give you that pace up front that Ryan gave us. Ryan Christie was in the team and doing well for me before when he played up beside Lyndon (Dykes).”
Only two call-offs from a 27-strong squad. Rangers manager Steven Gerrard happily replacing one of his players at half-time in order to aid the Scotland effort and Sky Sports electing to show the game on a free-to-air channel after a campaign by supporters.
It must be a big match. It must be a moment Scotland have been waiting for since the last dream died amid the gutters and alcohol fumes at Hampden Park against Italy 13 years ago.
On the eve of a latest appointment with destiny, tonight' s Euro 2020 play-off final against Serbia, Steve Clarke seems unflappable. “Honestly, as we approach the game now, I’m perfectly calm,” said the manager. “I think we have prepared as well as we can prepare.”
Ensuring they reached this stage was the priority. Last month’s shootout win over Israel meant mission accomplished. The next aim was to maintain the momentum, which was achieved with subsequent victories over Slovakia and Czech Republic.
“We spoke about getting to this match in the best shape possible, with a good bit of positivity around us, and we’ve managed to do that,” said Clarke. “You can see that with the public and the media - everyone’s really positive about it. Hopefully we can do ourselves justice on the night.”
Mercifully, Scotland appear to have avoided the ever-present danger that is Covid-19 in the run-up to this set of fixtures, with Nations League fixtures against Israel and Slovakia falling in quick succession after Serbia. Whatever happens in Belgrade, life very quickly has to move on.
Clarke emphasised this require - ment yesterday. Still, there' s no escaping the opportunity tonight repre - sents. Those who feature will inherit a responsibility some have responded to magnificently in the past and others have struggled to bear.
Don Masson is one who handled the pressure when he slotted home a penalty with 11 minutes left of a must-win World Cup qualifier against Wales in 1977. The former midfielder’s autobiography, published last month, recently dropped through the letter box.
In it he recounts that unbearably tense Anfield spot-kick. A chapter headed Staying Cool To Clinch Our World Cup Ticket includes an exhilarating depiction of the sort of sce - nario that may well await a current Scotland player this evening at Red Star Belgrade’s Rajko Mitic stadium – minus around 40,000 S cots, the number estimated to have made it into Anfield for what was, ostensibly, a Wales home game.
“It was a feeling I could never have expected to experience ,” Mass on write sin Still Saying Sorry, the title referencing a later penalty against Peru that wasn’t executed quite so adeptly.
“Let’s be honest, how could I seriously allow myself to think that at one point in my life – however briefly – I would be the most popular Scotsman in the world? At the precise moment when I scored a crucial goal in our World Cup qualifier against Wales, I reckon that’s where I figured in the rankings.
“Over the years, people by the thousands have regularly painted a picture for me ,” Mass on continues. “They remember very clearly where they were and what they were doing at that moment of high drama. Huddled together in the pubs and bars, factories and front rooms, most have said they were struggling to cope…”
Of course, there will be little huddling together this evening except among those from the same household and such scenes certainly won’t be occurring in pubs and bars. The hope is that any hugging inspired by events in Belgrade is due to an eruption of joy and not from a need to provide one another with comfort.
S omeone may well follow in the footsteps of Masson. Someone may well be left with Scotland’s destiny in their hands. It could be Ryan Christie who assumes the Masson role from 12 yards out.
There could be as many as five Scots charged with scoring from the spot in the event of the scores being level after extra-time, perhaps more if sudden death comes into play.
It might be goalkeeper David Marshall who excels, as he did against Israel last month when blocking Eran Zahavi’s effort at an empty Hampden Park.
The extraordinar y circumstances must be acknowledged. The Tartan Army remain at base. The players truly are representing their country a long way from home and in a country where Scotland were comprehensively beaten under Gordon Strachan four years ago.
It’s strange the way it might work out. Bona fi de gr eats such as Strachan and Alex Mcleish have failed to get Scotland to a major finals although the latter will have played a part should long-awaited glory come against Serbia, having completed the first part of the job by steering the side to the play-offs.
He was helped by former interna--
tional midfielder Peter Grant and Tartan Army talisman James Mcfadden. Clarke’s backroom team is composed of a passionate Geordie in John Carver and an amiable Irishman in Steven Reid. It’s an unlikely mix.
Clarke’s six caps spread across seven years is a long way from Roll of Honour territory and yet it's he who now has the chance to provide S cotland fans with what they’ve craved for so long.
Although it is easy to believe Clarke when he stresses it is not some - thing he wastes any time thinking about, there will be no argument about legendar y status then.
“I’ve never been one to covet that,” he said. “Even as a player I liked to be a wee bit under the radar. I like to be appreciated by the people around about me.
"They are the people that I work with. If I get that respect and that appreciation then that is good enough for me.”