This is about Scotland and Steve Clarke, but let us briefly set the scene.
When youth coaching, a lot of time is spent on individual technique and patterns of play. We’re developing players. ‘Letting them play’, a mantra the Scottish FA is rightly pushing.
We, as a team, lost our first game at the weekend, but we lost to a team of 13yos whose pattern of play had been coached to defend for their lives (good), before then kicking it over the heads of our defenders, as far as they could (bad?), for two exceptionally talented players to run onto it. There wasn’t a lot of development going on for the other players, but it was effective, and they won.
The two girls were faster than our players, more skilful, both scored, we missed a penalty, and the lesson of a high-line and the risks of our possession through-the-lines philosophy was learned.
Play to your strengths.
It’s hard to lose to a kids team when you’ve spent 3 years of difficult results learning to play out from the back. Playing the ‘right’ way. When your philosophy doesn’t yet match your ability but you persevere anyway, only to be undone by long-balls and someone, yet again, playing to their strengths.
It’s easy done, and maps accurately across age groups, even to the heights of international football. Winning is, after all, preferable to developing players in the professional game, and unfortunately, in youth football too.
But can you get both? Can you develop players and win games? Essentially, can you find new strengths?
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Steve Clarke took over when Scotland had just been soundly beaten by Kazakhstan. That was the lowest I’ve felt following the dark blue.
There wasn’t so much an expectation as a desperate wish for change, mingled with shame... a national longed for pride, for betterment. Few could have worked out how to navigate us towards pride, let alone qualification.
He had to find a 'way of playing', and quickly. He had his philosophy, and his way of playing, but we wouldn’t get to see this rear its head for quite a while, achieving its (current) zenith and shining most brightly against Denmark and Spain on two glorious nights at Hampden.
Having first diagnosed the problems, he would have to stay committed, resolute, firm in the face of skeptics, of which there were many; there always are.
Simply put, we had to find a way to compete, and maybe win. The way of playing would follow.
And, well, he did, and we did.
But no one, no one, could have honestly predicted the situation in which we now find ourselves. On the brink of history, again.
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Initially, Clarke set us up as hard to beat.
We lost 2-1 to Russia at home but 4-0 away. He used this defeat as a way of saying ‘never again’, and, three years on, it hasn’t happened again, with the exception of a bizarre defeat in Dublin.
Other than tournament losses to Czech Republic and Croatia, a playoff final defeat to Ukraine, and a 2-0 loss in Denmark, that’s been it. That's been the only times we've lost to more than 1-0 (Away vs Slovakia and Israel, which came in the NL after the highs of Qualification).
The mere fact I can list those defeats from memory serves to outline the astonishing; this Scotland squad increasingly win the majority of their competitive games.
That’s mad.
courtesy of @TheTartanScarf
Four years on from Kazakhstan, we now have a squad with a togetherness and appetite the likes of which we haven’t seen since Walter Smith/Alex McLeish’s team. The difference now, with the greatest of respect to those players, is that the majority of our First XI are now playing top-level football. The quality has risen.
To illustrate this, let us observe a few personal situations in the squad.
We have a goalscoring midfielder from Serie A, linked with Milan in the Summer, and unable to break into the starting lineup.
We have another starter in Serie A, whose side have begun the new season superbly, not even in the squad.
We have a player in the MLS, breaking goal involvement records and Captain of his club, who hasn’t even been called up.
We have a teenager playing for one of the best teams in the world, who has made every match-day squad in the Premier League this season, unable to find a place, yet.
From a position of right-back and centre-half guesswork, we now have two PL starters at right-back and an emergence of ball-playing central defenders at the top end of the Championship.
We boast one of the best ball-playing ‘pivots’ in the Premier League, with the captain of Celtic, who has found another level, playing next to him.
We discovered the attributes of another PL midfielder, who definitely isn’t a ball-playing pivot, but certainly is an athletic colossus, now sitting atop the European Qualifying goalscoring charts. Crediting the manager with the change in his game.
Our leaders have led, and our captain and vice-captain have found not just new heights personally, with some incredible performances showing in goals and assists, but they have done so with humility; settling the squad and making the Scotland camp a place you want to be.
We have eligible players choosing to play for Scotland. Not in desperation, but in thoughtfulness, in pride. They love the Tartan Army, as the song goes.
The positive zeitgeist of this squad is palpable.
The style of play? Now observable.
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Scotland play football.
As a casual observer, but one whose professionalism is in observation and fine-detail note-taking, I started writing down what each game looked like. What our players played like when they weren’t with Scotland.
What was “professionally noticed” (this is a thing btw, with research and everything), was something really simple; we had to become a ball-playing team.
No more percentages. Or rather, alongside percentages, when needed.
If Steve Clarke was going to win games for Scotland, then he’d have to utilise the strengths of the footballers in front of him, he’d have to play football.
So, he changed, and we did.
All of a sudden, against similarly-ranked or higher sides, we were outplaying them. Maybe not for the whole game, but for long periods of time.
We first glimpsed it in Belgrade, where Jack and McGregor held onto the ball for fun.
Then Wembley, where we fashioned the best open play chances through intricate play, not dead-ball percentages.
The next campaign meant a win in Vienna, before then beating the top seed convincingly at home. The ball was on the deck. Our strengths, now evident.
Scotland were not just a hard side to beat.
We were good to watch.
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So what now?
Is this all bluster? Optimism based in mindless positivity?
Well, believe it or not - I don’t believe in that.
I am, genuinely, paid to observe and make decisions based upon truthful observations.
With A\M, and on Twitter, I’ve been guilty of hyperbole, hands up; guilty. But today, today, I’ll wear my professional hat and let that trump any mindless emotion.
So here we go:
Scotland are a very good footballing side, with very good players.
I have never been as quietly confident in a Scotland side because I have never seen a Scotland squad this settled, with this much quality, not just on the pitch, but waiting to come in from the wings.
A hope. A future.
Steve Clarke has done more than give us our pride back. He has, of course. But he has done much more than that; he has changed a national psyche which has been hamstrung for years. He has changed us from the percentage-playing, passionate, physical 'Philistines' of the international footballing world, to quality-laden, ball-playing technicians. And it's catching the other nations out, it's living ' rent-free'.
We are good to watch because we are good.
I don’t know if we’ll beat Cyprus on Friday, because it hasn’t happened yet. What I do know, is that we haven’t been as well-equipped for years, possibly ever.
Even if the unthinkable happens, and we drop points, does that negate all of the above? It is football after all, upsets happen.
The difference now is, I don’t fear them.
This squad has earned that. They’ve earned our trust.
What I believe you will see on Friday is few surprises, because there aren’t any. Low-key consistency is the key.
The last time we played England, Steve Clarke said, “fire in the belly and ice on the brain”, we seem to have been listening to that teamtalk now for 3 years, on repeat.
So how about our earlier query; can you develop players and win games? Can you play to a new strength?
They play football now.
Let them play.
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