Confident Steve Clarke reckons Scotland won’t even need their Euro 2024 playoff as he admitted playing mind games to create a siege mentality to bank the point against Ukraine that saw them promoted to Nations League Group A and a Germany 2024 back up.
The national team boss admitted he used a bit of psychology to make more of the virus in the camp and it helped as his super stand-ins battled to a goalless draw in Krakow that saw his side top Group B1 and earn a place among the elite when the tournament resumes in two years.
Scotland are also in Pot 2 for the Euro 2024 qualifying draw in Frankfurt next month while they have guaranteed themselves a playoff if they fail to make it through the conventional qualifying route which they did to reach Euro 2020.
But Clarke doesn’t think they’ll need it and revealed how a summer summit with coaches and players saw them produce two wins in a draw in this international break after slumping to defeat to Ukraine in the World Cup playoff and a Dublin thumping by Ireland in the Nations League.
The 59-year-old was more relaxed than usual as he savoured the result and said: “What happened in the summer was not us. We wanted to better this week. We pressed a big button to reset and go again and three fantastic performances - all different but all vital.
“I sat down with all my staff in the summer and said we had to set a different environment and be more demanding of the players. We had to push that agenda. I sat with the players and went through what we thought we did well in the summer and what we didn’t do so well.
“We gave them a lot of information to change the system and play a slightly different way and they’ve taken it on board and are desperate to do well for their country and we’ve had a really good week.
“We went to Serbia and got the result in the playoff to take us to our first major final in such a long time and we came up just short in the last game of the European Championships. We then had a really good World Cup group campaign and came up just short in the playoff.
“I said to the players we’d taken the campaign to the last game again. I asked the players to take the next step to show everyone we are improving and know how to get to the last step. I didn’t use the words glorious failure but said to make sure we take the next step because we’ll feel good about ourselves.
“The fans were magnificent and go away feeling great. The connection is fantastic between fans and players. Now we’ve reached Group A in the Nations League and Pot 2 for the draw but we don’t want to stop. We want to keep getting better and better. We’ve got a playoff but I don’t think with this group of players we’ll even need it.”
And on being down to the bare bones with his squad, Clarke smiled: “Sometimes it can galvanise you. Maybe I over-egged the illness bit a little bit just to galvanise us going into the game. The only thing I was mindful of was that if someone woke up and had the same bug then they probably wouldn’t have played.
“Aaron Hickey, Ryan Porteous outstanding for a debut and I’m so pleased for the boy. It shows he listens and learns but I’m also really pleased for Jack Hendry. It’s a big ask for him. Everyone expects Callum McGregor and John McGinn to play three games in a short space of time at that intensity but I had to ask Jack Hendry to do that again.
“He’s struggling a bit with a cold but his performances were outstanding in three games and it was nice to get a clean sheet again - it makes me happy as a coach.
“Ukraine are a very good team. We knew they would have moments in the game where would as Craig to make saves and he does that as he always does.”
READ NEXT
