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Daily Record
Daily Record
Sport
Gavin Berry

Scotland left field line up vs Austria as Steve Clarke gets creative with new look starting XI

Steve Clarke will be afforded the rare luxury of being able to rotate his Scotland team for the friendly against Austria in Vienna.

It’s not often the national team boss has gone into any fixture with the pressure completely off during his time in charge.

But that will be the case when Scotland take on Austria in a near-empty stadium for their friendly against a side low in confidence.

With rival boss Franco Foda stepping down after the game and Austria out of contention in the World Cup they have little to play for.

Scotland are building up to their own Qatar 2022 play off semi final against Ukraine, likely to take place in June

Clarke admitted he’s conscious of the hugely importance club games coming up that many of his squad will be involved in.

Scotland's Jacob Brown during a FIFA World Cup Qualifier between Moldova and Scotland at the Zimbru Stadium (SNS Group)

That, of course, includes an Old Firm showdown at Ibrox that could have a huge bearing on this season’s Scottish Premiership title race.

Clarke has promised to be fair to clubs and, while declaring him fit, Lyndon Dykes could come into that category with the QPR striker having been out injured for a month with his club.

Here, Record Sport has picked a line-up if Clarke opted to make wholesale changes from the Poland friendly draw.

The likes of Motherwell keeper Liam Kelly, Sunderland striker Ross Stewart and Hearts stopper Craig Halkett could be handed international debuts.

Left field line up?

Clarke might be tempted to give them a runout from the bench but here we look at a starting XI he could go with.

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