CLARKE HITS OUT AT FIFA’S BAN RULE
...as EIGHT of Scotland squad walk a suspension tightrope
available, the national coach is comfortable with that particular situation.
However, he is less enamoured with having captain Andy Robertson, John McGinn, Billy Gilmour, Che Adams, Scott McTominay, Jack Hendry, Kevin Nisbet and O’Donnell all one mistimed tackle away from missing the play-off.
And having secured runners-up in a six-team qualifying section, Clarke is irked that potential opponents, who have had a less arduous approach to the play-offs, may gain an advantage.
He said: ‘The play-offs are classed by FIFA as part of the UEFA qualifying and probably the most unfair part of it from our point of view is that we have played ten games across qualifying while some other teams have played only eight.
‘So some teams accumulate over fewer games and yet the yellow cards count as the same. I’m not sure how that is fair.
‘We are not the only country in this situation. Almost every country has numerous yellow cards hanging over them.’
With so much riding on tomorrow night’s Hampden sell-out, Clarke (above) is unlikely to change too many players even if that carries risk for the play-offs.
UEFA have appointed Spaniard Alejandro Fernandez to officiate and Clarke hopes the referee is not liberal with his cards.
‘You deal with this as you would any normal situation,’ added Clarke. ‘There are too many players to say you could all get booked or miss a game, too many to leave out. ‘Looking at it now after a long night travelling back and not having had much sleep my view is that we need something from the Denmark game to secure the seeding.
‘I think the seeding is important, so you have to trust that we don’t get an over-officious referee who wants to book everybody for every little indiscretion. ‘Common sense from the officials and we should be fine.
‘The lads who have picked up one yellow card over the course of a nine-game campaign, hopefully they can get through without picking up anything else.
‘But you then go into the play-off and they pick up a booking in the semi and they would miss the final which is extra unfair.’
On the plus side of the suspension issue, Clarke will have both Lyndon Dykes and Ryan Christie available for tomorrow’s game after each missed the trip to Moldova.
A scorer in the four previous qualifiers, Dykes would almost certainly have started in Chisinau and could come in for Adams tomorrow night, thus removing one potential disciplinary pitfall.
Alternatively, Clarke may keep Adams — a scorer in Chisinau — in situ and revert to the partnership that has grown in effectiveness throughout the qualifying campaign.
On Friday, McGinn and Stuart Armstrong operated behind the striker and the coach is happy to have found success with a different set-up.
‘It’s nice to keep evolving the squad and find different ways,’ he continued. ‘The way we played on Friday is something I have actually tried before and had to change in-game because it wasn’t quite working for us.
‘It’s another string to our bow, another slight change to the system that we can maybe utilise from the start or in-game to give us a different attacking threat.
‘It’s positive that we have different systems that can work. The boys who played on Friday enjoyed it.’
On a purely physical level, Clarke’s main selection issue will concern Manchester United’s McTominay, who was sent home from the Scots’ warm weather training camp in Spain because of a throat infection.
‘We’re still assessing them,’ said Clarke. ‘Immediately after the game, there was nothing reported that would make me nervous about Monday night.
‘Dykesy was due to join us for training and we will call up Tony Ralston to the squad to cover for Nathan’s suspension.’
One of the first teams to qualify for Qatar 2022, Denmark come to Glasgow with an opportunity to complete a perfect sequence of ten wins in Group F.
The form of Kasper Hjulmand’s team has been unparalleled across the ten groups and Clarke believes the Hampden atmosphere will bring out the best in both sides tomorrow night.
‘Denmark will want to finish their campaign on a good note, same as we do,’ said Clarke. ‘I think the fact it’s a full house at Hampden will ensure they are fully at it. We will be fully at it, too and I will be expecting a great game.’
Scotland are also mining a rich seam of form, having chalked up five consecutive wins since losing to the Danes in Copenhagen in