Scotland might have to suffer in short-term for future success, admits Carver

Scotland have only tasted victory once in their previous 14 outings, in a 2-0 win over Gibraltar, and now travel to Croatia in Nations League duty without a host of key players including Angus Gunn, vice-captain John McGinn and Scott McKenna.

Such are the selection concerns that Clarke and Carver managed to field a full-strength injured XI when considering their options this month.

Carver explained: “It’s quite funny, we sat in the office on Monday morning, we looked on the board at the squad, maybe there’s 30, 40 players, and we actually put out a full-strength team on the injured board.

“But this is what happens in international football, sometimes you’re not in control of your own destiny so we’ve obviously called up guys who are going to get an opportunity, and I see it that way.

“We can’t worry about the guys who are not here, we have to concentrate on the guys who are here. And the guys who are here have deserved to be called up. 

“It’s a chance for them, they need to step up. They’ll find it difficult because it’s a good group of players, but it’s up to them.”

Andy Robertson and Scott McTominay were not involved in training for Scotland on Tuesday having been given an extra day of recovery before joining up with their international team-mates.

Similarly, Lawrence Shankland was among a group of players present but not participating as they recovered from the weekend’s efforts while being assessed upon joining Clarke’s squad.

Carver is cognisant of the need to return to winning ways for Scotland but has insisted any short term bruising from mixing it with Pot 1 teams will only help further develop the players within the international set-up and position the country for success.

“Of course, and we accept that,” said Carver when pushed on the dismal run of form for Scotland. “We accept that, don’t worry about that. But let’s not forget who we are and where we are, and how we got there.

“There’s been a lot of good things, and you get credit when you are doing well, and you’ve got to take a little bit of criticism when you’re not getting the results.

“It’s a result business, I get that. But we are looking at it longer term, and we’re looking to the future and we see what we’re trying to do to get to where we want to get to.

“We might have to take a little bit of pain and a little bit of hurt now, but hopefully, like I say, it might put us in good stead.

“Obviously, you want to win games, but I think if your performances are right and you’re trying to do the right things, and I think you see what we’re trying to do and there’s a clear identity there of how we’re going to play in and out of possession.

“I think we continue with that. And you’d like to think that your results will come.

“Let’s not forget we are in a difficult group, we understand that, but that’s because of the success we’ve had getting promoted and coming up against these teams.

“We will be better, I guarantee you we will be better in the long term for this. We might have to suffer now, but for the future.

“We know what’s around the corner, yes the Nations League is very important, but we’ve got that World Cup coming up in the draw in December, so all our planning and preparation is towards that.

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“If you think back to when, I remember when I first came here, and we talked about the more caps we get, the more experience the squad will get. Now I feel the same way now.

“These players who are coming into us now, and again, I’ll touch on Ben Doak for example. Ben coming into this group playing against Portugal, playing against Croatia, playing against the top-seeded teams. They will get better from that.

“A young player, when he goes into a Premier League football club, and he’s trained with the top quality players, like at Man City for example, he gets better.

“So every individual that’s coming in now, because we’re playing against Pot A all of the time, these players will improve and get better. Because if they don’t, then they obviously fall by the wayside.

“But you like to think you’ve got enough about them, and I’m using Ben as an example because he will definitely get better playing against better players. 

“That’s what I’m talking about. Getting the chance to play against the better players. It’s called accelerated learning in my eyes. And you develop quicker and better.”

Despite major disappointment over the showing at the Euros and subsequent losses in the Nations League, Carver is confident the Tartan Army have seen the positives and remain optimistic about the national team.

“I think you’ll find the nation is more positive than you’re actually coming across to me at the moment,” he said in response to the chances of a good performance against Croatia lifting the nation. “I genuinely believe, we went into that game against Portugal in particular, and everybody was thinking we’re going to come up at the end of a drubbing here. But we didn’t. 

“We were in the game. We didn’t sit back, we had a go at them because we did get criticised in the Euros for sitting back and not having a go at teams. So we changed the mindset there.

“But I think you’ll be surprised, there’s always going to be people out there who are going to be critical, and that’s the nature of the beast. But I think there has been more positivity because of how we’ve tried to approach the first two games in the Nations League, and hopefully that will continue.”