The little lies that make life a bit easier
THOSE were the words used by Steve Clarke last year when revealing why he had publicly dismissed reports of Rangers having an interest in him ahead of Steven Gerrard’s arrival as manager despite holding talks behind the scenes.
Here’s hoping that rather flexible arrangement with the truth explains his remarks after Friday night’s Nations League non-event against Israel at Hampden. Because if the Scotland boss really believes his side had control of the second half of the 1-1 draw and that the good outweighed the bad, we’re in even worse shape than we thought.
Clarke was always the outstanding choice to replace Alex McLeish as national team coach. He had worked wonders in taking Kilmarnock from the bottom of the league into Europe. His CV reeks of high-level experience.
Yet, it has to be said that, almost 16 months into his tenure, he still doesn’t appear to have any kind of solid grip on the job. The team certainly hasn’t moved forward to any appreciable degree.
Indeed, considering McLeish actually managed to beat Israel during his time in charge, you can form a strong argument that it is going nowhere other than sinking into a sea of public apathy.
Of course, that isn’t exclusively Clarke’s fault. The players have to take their share of the blame too. Many of the would-be influential ones.
Andy Robertson has been a shadow of his Liverpool self in dark blue, Callum McGregor has been nothing like the guy who regularly shines for Celtic, while the likes of Scott McTominay and John McGinn have generally failed to impress. It is both disappointing and perplexing.
If it wasn’t for the fact he went through knee surgery in July, you would be pushing for young Billy Gilmour to be given a chance in that midfield right now. Someone who looks like he really wants to grab games by the scruff of the neck and impose himself.
In his absence, Stuart Armstrong, providing he is still in the Southampton team, must be a contender for a starting slot next time out.
Kieran Tierney’s continued absence through injury has been another problem. Even with the Arsenal defender back in the fold for the first time in his reign against Israel, though, Clarke still seems nowhere close to knowing what his strongest line-up is.
Indeed, there are now questions over whether he even knows what formation he wants to play.
Look, trying out three at the back at Hampden was worth a shot. Tierney and Robertson must play together. Somehow. They are the best players we have got and we do have to try to find a way to get them both into the XI.
McLeish’s attempts to squeeze them into a 3-5-2 failed, though. And Clarke’s experiment with a 3-4-2-1 was a bit of a disaster, too.
Tierney, along with debutant Lyndon Dykes, was one of the few to come out of the Israel match with pass marks. However, using him on the left of a three-man defence and converting Robertson into a wing-back isn’t working.
Robertson is a left-back. He clearly needs to play as a left-back, working off a winger in front of him and overlapping. Inconvenient as it may be, the Israel match confirmed that Scotland need to use him in a back four from now on.
That leaves the thorny issue of what to do with Tierney. It is hard to watch him play a constrained central role in defence when galloping forward is such a strength.
We are short at right-back and the 23-year-old has shown he can play there in the past, but the problem seems to be that he doesn’t fancy it. If that is true, left centre-back in a four is the only remaining option.
He has also played there in the past for club and country and done well. It is really just a case of who plays beside him and, although it is unfortunate oth Scott McKenna and Liam Cooper are left-sided too, we can’t go with McTominay again.
Playing there didn’t work for him under Jose Mourinho at Manchester United and it is not going to work with Scotland.
Clarke finally seems to have overcome his urge to keep throwing Kilmarnock and Motherwell players into international football, but curveballs such as a midfielder starting in defence against Israel need to stop.
For such a pragmatic manager, Clarke’s tenure has involved a number of odd calls. Like playing Eamonn Brophy up front against Cyprus. Or going with Matt Phillips and Oli Burke in that position when it has long been established that neither is any good at it.
There was also the business of playing Mikey Devlin when he wasn’t even getting a regular game at Aberdeen.
Clarke did inherit a bit of a mess. There was always going to have to be a bit of experimentation. However, the dress rehearsals are over and there remains no clear path forward, really.
Israel in the European Championship play-off is just one fixture away and that is no game in which to keep trying to fit round pegs into square holes.
Likewise, we cannot finish up as ridiculously deep as we were against them in the second half on Friday. We need to get far more service from wide and get the likes of James Forrest or maybe Ryan Fraser into attacking positions. We cannot allow our centre-forward to become as isolated as Dykes was.
Clarke was happy to let teams knock the ball around in front of his side as Killie boss and hit on the counter. At home against the team ranked 93rd in the world, though, that doesn’t cut it.
Yet, it is still possible to look through this squad and conclude we have enough players performing at a good level with their clubs to really click one day soon and obliterate lesser-ranked foes.
You can argue that Clarke possesses too much in his background to fail this meekly. You cling on to the belief that we
can still make it to a first finals in 23 years even though there has been nothing since the manager took over to suggest that is remotely likely to happen.
These are, indeed, all the little lies we just have to tell ourselves to make life a bit easier. Particularly when it looks as bleak as this.
‘Sorry, but, sometimes, we just have to tell little lies to make life a bit easier.’