Scotland need their set pieces to fire at Euro 2024 – and they have the coach to make it happen

Indeed, these specialists have become so commonplace that managers are now grilled about not having one on their staff, as was the case with Ange Postecoglou at Tottenham Hotspur last season, rather than about the need to employ one.

Of course, no one in football will claim that set pieces are the most attractive part of the game. Most players dread the section of training which is devoted to corners and free-kicks. Ollie Watkins, the Villa striker, admitted earlier this year that MacPhee’s set-piece sessions are “not the most exciting” and “a little bit boring”.

They are absolutely necessary, though, and for Scotland they will present an opportunity in the tournament opener against Germany, as well as in the subsequent matches against Switzerland and Hungary. The ambition is to progress beyond the group stages of a major tournament for the first time, and such a goal will only be achieved if they can excel in all areas of the game.

MacPhee, in contrast to the Scotland players, has personal experience of the knockout stages of a European Championship: he was part of Northern Ireland’s coaching team in 2016, when they reached the round of 16. MacPhee is a proud Scot (born in Kirkcaldy, he attended the 1998 World Cup in France as a teenage fan) and is hoping to repeat that feat in the coming weeks.

The worrying question for him and Clarke is whether Scotland will be able to perform at their best — on set pieces and in open play — without so many important players. Their list of injuries is brutally long, and has perhaps done even more damage to national optimism than their run of concerning results since they lost 3-1 to England in September.

Among those missing are right-backs Aaron Hickey and Nathan Patterson, key forward Lyndon Dykes, young talent Ben Doak and midfielder Lewis Ferguson, who was named the best midfielder in Serie A for his excellent performances at Bologna (Robertson also picked up a knock earlier this week, although Scotland played down fears he could miss the opener).

That is the bad news, then. The good news is that Scotland still have the mighty McGinn, who has so far embraced this tournament with the same gusto he shows on the pitch: when Scotland arrived at their Bavarian base this week, McGinn took part in a traditional folk dance at the local town hall.