Steve Clarke is perfectly justified in feeling vindicated by Scotland’s qualification for the World Cup.
What the national coach cannot do now, though, is go about trying to rewrite history. And that’s the way it started to feel a few days ago in an interview broadcast by Sky Sports, when he stated that he felt criticism of him in the wake of the last major finals he took the country to — Euro 2024 — was ‘a little bit over the top’.
It wasn’t. Far from it. Clarke deserved everything he got after that absolute calamity. The reality is that he was lucky, very lucky, to emerge from it still in a job.
As a million self-help websites and books on ‘How To Make A Go Of It In Management’ will tell you, the key to making progress in the future is by learning from your mistakes of the past.
Clarke didn’t do that when going to the Euros in Germany. Euro 2020 had been a massive disappointment with a team that, in two of the three games, really hadn’t done itself justice. Euro 2024 descended into a national embarrassment.
It was far, far worse and there is absolutely no way Clarke can go into another high-profile tournament in North America this summer and make the same errors again. He can’t approach games the same way. He can’t behave the same way. He can’t use weak deflection tactics to mask grim failure.
Steve Clarke says criticism of him was ‘over the top’ but not every Scotland fan would agree
Scotland went into Euro ’24 hoping to shine but were humbled 5-1 by Germany in their opener
With a place in the knockouts on the line, Scotland succumbed to Csoboth’s goal for Hungary
He needs to accept how heartbreakingly awful it all was and find a way to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
UEFA’s official statistics alone offered a useful insight into how bad Euro 2024 had been. Scotland managed just three shots on target from a grand total of 16 efforts over the course of three games. They won seven corners. It was pitiful stuff.
Even though the team bottled it against the Czech Republic and Croatia at the previous Euros, they at least put in 42 shots at goal, with nine on target, and won 18 corners over the course of their three group games.
A lot of the reality lies there in cold, hard facts. The number-crunching was the least of it, though. Indeed, it’s probably better for Clarke not to dwell too much on Euro 2024 in case it starts to make people remember all the strong emotions, the disappointment and the anger, they felt after looking on helplessly as he and his players made a proper mess of things.
The very way the former Kilmarnock manager conducted himself throughout that competition deserves reflection. There was the poor attempt to try to humiliate a Scottish journalist in the wake of the 5-1 opening-night hammering at the hands of Germany for asking a simple question about what appeared to be friction on the touchline with his set-piece coach Austin MacPhee.
Clarke consoles captain Robertson after the Hungary loss before going AWOL for a few months
From media who spent time around the camp, the word came back that there wasn’t a huge amount of camaraderie and co-operation.
In the wake of the defeat to a mediocre Hungary select that sealed our fate, a four-minute post-match press conference was largely eaten up by a penalty that wasn’t given and the fact the referee was Argentinian.
Angered by a the refusal to award a spot-kick for a Willie Orban challenge on Stuart Armstrong, Clarke’s view that Facundo Tello shouldn’t have been appointed on grounds of nationality and ‘probably doesn’t speak the language’ did not play well.
Nor did disappearing into the ether for 65 days after that short post-match address and only reappearing at the end of August to name a squad for a double-header with Poland and Portugal with no real desire to offer any answers for the disaster that had unfolded over summer.
If only he’d been so keen to deliver a meaningful post-mortem to those who had spent fortunes travelling around Germany as he was to carry on with the Smart Alec remarks.
Asked by a reporter about unhappiness among fans, he replied: ‘How many people did you speak to? Twenty? Ten?’. When asked where he’d been since the finals, he quipped: ‘I’m here’. Let’s just say folks weren’t exactly rolling in the aisles.
Of course, it is wonderful that Clarke has rallied to take the team to a first World Cup in 28 years. He has, over the piece, been a good Scotland manager.
In terms of getting us back onto the biggest stages, he has more than fulfilled the brief. It’s just what happens when we arrive there that remains the problem.
The actual standard of the performances during the qualifiers does create mild anxiety too, of course. In four games against Denmark and Greece, Scotland suffered sizeable periods of being second-best no matter the end results.
Clarke was proudly in place for the World Cup draw after leading his side through qualifying
The Hampden win over Denmark ensured Clarke will go down as an all-time great Scots boss
However, rather than looking back, it’s more important to look forward. To focus on how the side capitalises on a new-look set-up that carries the hugely advantageous structure of guaranteeing that 32 of the 48 qualified nations will make it through to the knockout stages.
In an interview with American TV channel CBS Sports at the end of last year, Scott McTominay gave an interesting insight into what he sees as one of the non-negotiables.
‘I expect us to go with somewhat of a different mentality — that we can go and beat these teams,’ said the Napoli midfielder. ‘We need to get it out of our head — I’m not saying it is already in our head — but we need to remove the thoughts in our head that this team is superior to us or that nation is superior to us.
‘They might be. They might not be. But we have to go there with almost a little bit of arrogance where we can play against anyone, do as well as we can and take results from these teams. I feel like it has to be a bit of mentality switch to get the best performance that we can have.’
Now, McTominay didn’t say Scotland have lacked that in the past, but it was hard to listen to him talk about the need for ‘a mentality switch’ and not feel that’s what he was thinking.
Clarke made all the right noises about going into Euro 2024 with ‘swagger’, but it didn’t work out. Scotland looked scared of their own shadows. He seemed suffocated by fear. The opening-night debacle against Germany was nothing short of lamentable in terms of attitude and ambition.
We resorted to hoofball from the off. Just over a minute in, Scotland get a free-kick midway inside their own half and goalie Angus Gunn just launches it to no one.
Two minutes later, same again. Kieran Tierney wins a goal kick. Gunn launches it and it just bounces through to his opposite number Manuel Neuer.
Emre Can scores Germany’s fifth goal and boss Nagelsmann later said the Scots were ‘afraid’
It set the tone for a nightmare on legs and hearing Germany head coach Julian Nagelsmann state afterwards that we looked ‘afraid’ was an extra dagger through the chest.
Sure, we scraped a draw in a messy game with Switzerland and then didn’t know what to do against a Hungary team that sat off. It still beggars belief that Clarke stuck with a back five when Tierney was out.
It remains a mystery that he didn’t switch things up until 76 minutes in. Let’s not discuss why he even took James Forrest.
Clarke went to Germany moaning about ‘Negative Normans’. He turned out to be the biggest of all and looked like a guy drowning in the deep end for most of it.
What is good about the 62-year-old, however, is that he has shown real ability in the past to adapt, learn and make necessary alterations. Doing that to real effect in the arena of a World Cup and not being overawed would undoubtedly cement his reputation.
Giving the impression you don’t understand why the public went into a state of apoplexy after the failure of the Euros, though, is not a good place to start. Grasping that is absolutely essential.
