John Carver thinks Scotland are possibly suffering the effects of raised expectations as he discussed what went wrong at Euro 2024.
The Scotland assistant manager quickly pointed to the country's small population while highlighting what the Tartan Army members that he's encountered since the tournament have told him.
Scotland welcome Poland to Hampden Park on Thursday night in their first match for almost 11 weeks.
Carver isn't denying there's some who are of the opinion that Steve Clarke's time in the national team hot seat should have come to an end following that heartbreaking loss against Hungary but reckons the majority he's heard come from a realistic perspective.
"If you raise expectations that's what happens," Carver said on the negativity surrounding Scotland's European Championship exit.
"It's quite incredible because the amount of people that I have met since the Euros, who have come up to me, not one person has come up to me and said he was disappointed or she was disappointed. They've actually said how much of a great time they had, it's been a great journey and hopefully we can continue that journey.
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"So, that gives you a little bit of a lift, the fact people are saying that. I know you are going to have people who are going to criticise and they've got the right to say that.
"But I listen to the ones who come face to face with me and tell me what they thought, and they thought that the journey that we have been on, the experience, they never had it for so many years - even when they qualified the previous time.
"I think everybody, yeah there's disappointment there, but I think people are realistic as well.
"I mean let's not forget how big our nation is. It's a wonderful place up here, but we aren't a huge country when it comes to football. We are in the eyes of the fans and the players, but what's the population? 5.5million, so it's not a population. I know obviously there's other sports but we are thriving to try and improve it and give more success if we can to the people."
Continuing by addressing the criticism that has been predominately aimed at manager Clarke, Carver called for some “realism” as he looked ahead to a tough UEFA Nations League group, which includes Croatia, Poland and Portugal.
He said: “I think we all took criticism, let’s be honest. Because if it’s geared at Steve, it’s geared at all of us, because we’re all one big squad, one party, one team, so we’ll all have to take it.
“And there was a huge amount of disappointment, yes – from the fans, certainly from the players and the staff.
“But nobody was more disappointed than myself. But we have to move on. We’ve took it on the chin. We’ve had the summer. It’s a new start today, because there’s a new competition starting.
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“Let’s not forget, we’re now in Group A of the Nations League, so that’s going to be a huge incentive for all these players now, all the new players coming in to be ready for it and face this challenge, because it’s going to be daunting.
“It’s a daunting challenge and our aim is to survive in the group. That’s what we have to do.
“Yeah, you want to win it. You want to come second, but our priority will be, can we stay in the group?
“Our recent games have been against top sides. Top sides in the world, not just in Europe.
“So you know, let’s have a bit of realism here and it’s going to be tough. The next six games are going to be exactly the same, coming against top nations.
“But would you not rather have that, because I certainly would. I would certainly want to play against Poland, Portugal, and Croatia in the next six games, because that’s challenging.
“It’s going to be tough. We know that, but I’m sure if you’re a part of the Tartan Army or the fanbase, you want to play games like that and that’s being respectful to the smaller countries.”
