The manager of the national team need not be concerned about his popularity rating, which has increased once again after his squad achieved the goal of the most recent international break by qualifying for Euro 2024.
After Spain’s victory in Norway on Sunday night, Clarke became the first Scotland manager to lead his team to consecutive European Championship finals. The most recent accomplishment was gained without kicking a ball. On the pitch, though, the squad has dropped its previous three matches, which is the worst streak since they dropped four straight matches shortly after Clarke took charge in 2019.
That turned out to be the darkest hour before the dawn, and the manager sees the current run of defeats, even though they are coming against elite opposition, as further temporary suffering necessary to boost the team’s prospects of making it to the second round of a major event for the first time.
Given that it was a mandatory qualifying match, Scotland had no choice but to play Spain last week. However, Clarke was willing to add friendlies against England and France, the latter of which marked 150 years since their first meeting, to the international schedule to make up for the 2-0 loss in Seville.
Although he acknowledged that France was a superior team to his team in Lille, the manager doesn’t want his players to feel at ease losing to anyone, let alone top-notch opponents. Now Scotland has to prevent the possibility of a rot developing when they finish their Group A obligations next month.
Following a much-changed Scotland’s 4-1 loss to a Kylian Mbappe-inspired France, Clarke said, “It is a losing streak.” “However, we must acknowledge the calibre of the opponent. I may choose friendly that are easier if I want to protect my numbers and win percentage, but I believe that if I do that, we won’t learn anything.
“Learning is the goal. It hurts to go and lose 4-1. It hurts. The lads are a little bit in pain. Hopefully, when they return the following month, they will recall their suffering and use it to their advantage against Georgia and Norway.
When asked if he had thought about potential opponents for the four friendlies Scotland would play in the spring and then just before the tournament itself, he said that he hadn’t looked that far ahead.
“That’s beyond next month,” he remarked. When it comes to who we can play in March, we won’t know until other teams are either in or out of the playoffs. The teams we’ll be looking at in June are the ones who haven’t qualified for the tournament. I won’t choose games that are ridiculously simple since I still believe that you have to work hard to win even in friendly competition.
Before the finals, Clarke must choose whether to utilise Scotland’s new headquarters at Lesser Hampden or go somewhere else, like they did before the prior finals in 2021 that were impacted by Covid.
“It might be a good idea to stay at home and maybe get a feel for the mood of the nation, which hopefully will still be very positive at the time, and then decide from there and work the friendlies around that,” he added. We will have to wait and see about the March games, but we’ll attempt to acquire some decent ones.
For the games in the next month, Clarke is prepared to be without Kieran Tierney once more, and the news regarding Andy Robertson is not encouraging given that the Liverpool left-back was recently spotted with his arm in a sling after dislocating his shoulder against Spain. Next month, there won’t be a Kieran at all, according to Clarke. “Andy, I have no idea; he’s back at his club.
