IT has maybe been just as well that Steve Clarke is not one of the “Negative Normans” who he is always so determined to keep out of his Scotland squads as his problems have piled up ahead of the Euro 2024 finals in recent weeks.
A lesser manager would perhaps have been overcome with a sense of dread and foreboding ahead of the Group A matches against hosts Germany, Switzerland and Hungary next month if no fewer than four players had been ruled out by injury.
Clarke, though, is made of sterner stuff. He was decidedly chipper as he spoke to the media about his 28 man provisional squad for the tournament in a hospitality box at Hampden yesterday and looked ahead to the warm-up friendlies against Gibraltar and Finland.
The loss of Jacob Brown, Lewis Ferguson, Aaron Hickey and Nathan Patterson, a quartet who were all involved in Scotland’s successful qualifying campaign, is certainly bitterly disappointing, not to mention more than a little concerning, for him.
He is, however, still upbeat about the ability and experience of the players who he has been able to call upon and quietly confident that his charges will be able to challenge strongly for a place in the knockout rounds.
With Angus Gunn, Craig Gordon, Grant Hanley, Jack Hendry, Scott McKenna, Kieran Tierney, Andy Robertson, Billy Gilmour, Callum McGregor, Ryan Jack, Scott McTominay, John McGinn, Stuart Armstrong, James Forrest, Ryan Christie, Che Adams, Lyndon Dykes and Lawrence Shankland all involved, he is entitled to remain optimistic.
“I think we should be fantastically positive,” said Clarke. “Look at the number of caps we have now. Somebody asked me about the difference between this squad and the last squad going to a major tournament and the biggest difference is the number of caps.
“The core group we have tried to build and take forward are there. The number of caps is much healthier and hopefully we can go this time and make a little bit of history for Scottish football.
“We all have a better understanding this time going into the tournament of what we need to do and how we need to do it to hopefully get the points we need to come out the group stages. This group of players, the vast majority of them, deserve to be going to a major tournament.”
Right wing back is, with Hickey of Brentford and Patterson of Everton both sidelined with long-term hamstring problems, a headache for Clarke without doubt.
The Scotland manager, though, preferred to look at what Ross McCrorie of Bristol City and Anthony Ralston of Celtic, the duo who have been drafted in to replace their celebrated compatriots, will bring to the table despite their lack of game time and inexperience respectively.
“When you lose your two first choice right-backs, right wing-backs, there is going to be a lot of people who look and think, ‘What’s next?’,” he said. “What’s next is Tony Ralston, who doesn’t play every week at his club.
“But it was nice to see him get minutes on the pitch against St Mirren last week and put in a fantastic ball for the winning goal. He has been in the squads before, he has got a number of caps, he is reliable and now he has got a fantastic chance to nail down that position.
“Ross comes in on the back of a really difficult start to his Bristol City career. He had a really bad injury situation. It took him a long time to get over it. But in the second half of the season he has got into a good Bristol City team that finished reasonably well in the Championship and has got a lot of games under his belt.
“He has been in a couple of squads before so I have got a little feel for Ross and what his qualities are. Hopefully he can grab his chances as well. I have watched him live. The day I did his team lost 4-0 at Stoke, but he showed some good qualities. I still saw enough to put him in the squad.”
Clarke knows all about the attributes which Forrest, the evergreen Celtic winger who has been one of the form players in Scotland since returning to the first team at Parkhead in March, possesses in abundance.
He is, then, delighted the 32-year-old, who last donned a dark blue jersey against the Czech Republic in the opening game of Euro 2020 back in 2021, has forced his way back into the set-up.
“James is one of those players who went out of the national team through no real fault of his own,” he said. “He picked up injuries, he lost his place in the team, Celtic changed their manager, the manager played a different style and James didn’t get in.
“What I would say to everybody is that James Forrest is a great example to anyone who loses his position in a team. Keep your professionalism, keep working hard, keep your head down, don’t upset anybody and when you get your chance, take your chance.
“That is what has happened to James this year. He has been given a chance at Celtic and he’s got back in the team. And his performances, as well as the goals, grab your attention. That’s what players have to do, they have to grab your attention. When you watch James Forrest play at the moment he grabs your attention.”
Callum McGregor, who has put his own injury issue firmly behind him and been recalled to the Scotland squad as a result, suggested last week that his Celtic team mate could slot in at right wing back and Clarke refused to rule that out.
“He could do that,” he said. “But he would play in a completely different way. You’d have to work a little bit on rejigging the balance of your back three and maybe you’d have to sacrifice a Kieran Tierney going forward and overlapping on the left hand side.”
Clarke will have to trim his squad to 26 by 11pm on Friday, June 7. He will study Armstrong, Liam Cooper, Ben Doak, Hanley and Ryan Jack closely after they meet up next week to see if they have overcome their injuries and work out if they will be able to contribute in Germany. He has a lot of ponder.
“We will see how the mix goes,” he said. “It’s not always about on the pitch. The guys off the pitch are also very important. There might be some players who go with us to the pre-camp, to the group stages, hopefully into the knockout stages, and not get any minutes on the pitch.
“These have to be good people. They have to understand what they bring to the squad. You can’t have people who after four weeks suddenly become Negative Normans and start draining the energy out of the group. You need these people to stay constant. There are lots of things to think about.”
Steve Clarke is clearly still thinking about Scotland making it through to the knockout rounds of a major tournament for the first time ever.
