STEVE Clarke has launched a robust defence of his team selection, tactics and formation in the Qatar 2022 play-off semi-final against Ukraine at Hampden on Wednesday night as he looked ahead to the Nations League matches against Armenia and the Republic of Ireland this week.
Clarke has been criticised by many members of the Tartan Army for persevering with a three man defence in the Path A match despite Kieran Tierney – who normally plays as a left-sided centre half inside Andy Robertson – being unavailable.
Elsewhere, his decision to start Che Adams and Lyndon Dykes up front together has also been questioned by supporters in the wake of the 3-1 home defeat that ended the national team’s hopes of playing in the finals in November.
However, the 58-year-old, who replaced Dykes with attacking midfielder Ryan Christie at half-time in midweek, argued that his 3-4-1-2 formation had worked well in the past and was not to blame for the painful reverse.
“I obviously have some ideas of where it went wrong on the night,” he said. “People will throw different things around, tactical, mental, preparation-wise. All those things are out there. But it’s probably a combination of things.
“On the tactical side, people will say: ‘Why did you play two up front?’ But 12 games ago you were all asking me why I didn’t play two up front. That’s the reality.
“No one questioned the two up front against Austria away (in the 1-0 win in Vienna in Qatar 2022 qualifying in September) or England at Wembley (in the 0-0 draw during Euro 2020 in June).”
Asked about his three man defence, Clarke said: “I think it has served us well with or without Kieran in it. We have played other games without Kieran in it. Rather than throwing the baby out with the bath water, why not analyse and look at it and say: ‘Can we find a better way to play that system? Can we make that system better?’
“We have had 17 games between two campaigns unbeaten. Not consecutively, but nine and then eight. It has worked well for us.
“If we needed to go to a four it is not difficult to do, but one of the reasons we went to a three was to make us more solid, more dependable and more consistent. And I think that system has done that for us.
“It was more about we just didn’t play to our capacity on Wednesday night. That might be hard for people to accept, but that is the fact of the matter. We did not play as well as we could play.”
Asked if his team had issues against eastern European opposition following the home defeats to the Czech Republic and Croatia in the Euro 2020 group stages and Ukraine in the Qatar 2022 play-off semi-final, Clarke said: “Nah, I don’t think so. All different games, different teams, different build-ups.”
Clarke will go over the Ukraine game with his players in detail today and pinpoint specific areas where they need to improve going forward. However, he is now focusing on the matches which Scotland have coming up against Armenia at Hampden on Wednesday night and the Republic of Ireland in the Aviva Stadium in Dublin on Saturday.
“Football is a game where you learn to live with the highs and the lows,” he said. “Unfortunately, the lows are more prevalent than the highs. That’s what happens. It’s a big disappointment. We had a great campaign to get there and we lost in the 11th match of our qualification process.
“It’s tough to take. But you have to move on and get out of it. We have to analyse between the coaching staff and the players, and we’ll do that when the time is right. We have already started that process.
“Then you build to the next game and the next tournament. The most important thing is to remember what we’ve done, where we got to and what we’re going to do in the future.
“We did it well. It was a good campaign. We were nine unbeaten into the Euro play-offs and eight unbeaten into this one. It didn’t work because we lost the 11th game of the qualifying campaign.
“We’ve got to suffer that. We have to take that massive disappointment. Nobody is hiding away from that. We didn’t perform on the night and we have to live with that, but move on. We need to be ready for the next one.”
Clarke added: “When I see the boys train, it makes me feel a little bit happier. I almost had a smile on my face – almost, but not quite – because you can tell they’re at it. They are disappointed, but they are already working to get over that disappointment.
“We need to be ready to go against Armenia in the Nations League. It’s not quite as exciting as playing against Ukraine in a World Cup play-off, but it’s a very important game for us now.
“I am going to pick teams to win the matches. We want to come out of this with a good feeling. It is never going to be a great feeling because the main objective of the group of games is already lost, but we can still come out with a good feeling and build into the next campaign, which is what we have to do.”
Clarke’s side bounced back from their 2-0 defeat to Denmark in Copenhagen in September in impressive fashion; they went on a six game winning run and secured the runners-up spot in Group F and a play-off semi-final spot. He is confident they can respond to the Ukraine reverse in exactly the same way and go into their opening Euro 2024 qualifiers with momentum behind them.
“They have shown that if they lose they are looking to come back,” he said. “The last time they lost before Wednesday was the Denmark away game. Everybody thought we had thrown the World Cup campaign out of the window. We went six games unbeaten. We had shown a resilience before.
“I keep telling you, this is a good group of players who want to be successful for their country. When you have got that, you are looking for the bounce back, you are looking to do well and you are looking to start the next unbeaten run. If we can go on a long unbeaten run again it will mean we have done well in the Nations League and we are ready for the qualifying campaign for Euro 2024.”
